What makes a person relate to a character? In the 1980’s authors began to utilize more imagery in their works to grasp audiences. With each character comes different languages and different viewpoints. When using imagery, the images the author wishes to convey come naturally. Louise Erdrich dug deep into her own ancestry which overtime inspired her short stories, poems, and novels (Louise). With background knowledge, she has been inspired to write about the relationships between Native and non-Native cultures. Erdrich was inspired by the family bonds and the ties of kinship, along with the inspiring storytellers she grew up with (Louise). All of these emotions are tied into her very first short story, “Love Medicine.” Lipsha, the protagonist …show more content…
of the story, lives with his Grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Kashpaw, who are becoming frail. He uses his “gift” of healing with his touch and comes up with a brilliant idea of how he can get his grandparents to fall back in love with each other.
In the short story “Love Medicine”, Louise Erdrich uses imagery to convey the idea of loving his or her surroundings through the human senses. There are many articles that support the sense of imagery that “Love Medicine” conveys. Barry, Nora, and Mary Prescott convey their understanding of the short story by there article “The Triumph of the Brave: Love Medicine’s Holistic Vision.” The Purpose of this article is to show the readers the different ways that the characters viewed the world. Louise Flavin wrote “Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine: Loving Over Time and Distance.” the figurative language and symbolic understanding of “Love Medicine” is the article’s general topic. Karen Janet McKinney wrote an article called “False Miracles and Failed Visions in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine.” The purpose of the article is to go through the story and explain the meaning behind the story. The last article that supports the senses of imagery is Lydia Schultz “Fragments and Objective Stories: Narrative Strategies in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine.” The article’s general topic shows how “Love Medicine” appears to the
world. First, Erdrich uses imagery to reveal the feelings that Lipsha engages in by receiving physical contact with others around him. During the beginning of the story, Lipsha uses his “magical” touch to rid tired veins not only from Grandma Kashpaw but other elderly women at the nursing home: “I take my fingers and I snap them on the knots. The medicine flows out of me. The touch. I run my fingers up the maps of those rivers of veins or I knock very gently above their hearts or I make a circling motion on their stomachs, and it helps them” (280-281). Lipsha’s description of healing through physical touch conveys that if one believes the touch is powerful, then the person’s positive energy will keep continuing to be vigorous. In addition, as the story concludes, Grandma Kashpaw hands Lipsha the untouchable beads off of the bedpost that were his Grandpa’s pride and joy. Never in a million years had Lipsha ever imagined his hand would lay on such high authority. As she hands him the beads, “her hand is so strong, squeezing mine” (298). Lipsha does not understand the meaning behind the beads on the bedpost until his grandma lightly squeezed his hand. The touch of her hand makes him realize that one should always love his or her surroundings because nobody knows the last time he or she will enjoy the other’s company. By going in depth with descriptions of physical touch, Erdrich shows that it can truly change a person’s perspective. In Karen Janet McKinney article she comments, “Confused or not, Lipsha has a special gift that he calls “the touch.” He can help physical suffering by laying his hands on people, he states that the medicine flows out of him” (McKinney). Next, Louise Erdrich uses imagery in the sense of sight to reveal that Lipsha’s Grandma is still passionately in love with Mr. Kashpaw. As the story progresses, Lipsha sees why Mr. Kashpaw has fallen out of love with his Grandma: “Lamartine’s was jacked up, latticed, shuttered, and vinyl sided, while Grandma sagged and bulged on her slipped foundations and let her hair go the silver gray of rain-dried lumber” (285). Mrs. Kashpaw let herself go physically to the point where her husband does not even remember why he fell in love with her. As Mrs. Kashpaw sits back and watches her husband look at another woman, she keeps her emotions to herself so nobody will know how she truly feels. Farther along in the story, Lipsha finally sees how fragile his Grandma is when Mr. Kashpaw suddenly dies: “You think a person you know has got through death and illness and being broke and living on commodity rice will get through anything” (294). Lipsha sees how, in a matter of seconds, built up emotions can break a person in an instant. No matter how strong a person is, when one truly loves another, that burning passion will never fade away. In this way, Erdrich uses the sense of sight to show the emotions of Mrs. Kashpaw. Barry, Nora, and Mary Prescott comments, “Erdrich’s novel acknowledges those who are dying in the waves or hiding beneath them, but ultimately draws its meaning from the characters learning how to live on dry land. In Lydia Schultz article she comments, “Erdrich directs into examining their own attitudes towards Native Americans by making them go through the heuristic task of unifying her text, a task becomes necessary precisely because of her choice of multiperspectivity as her narrative method” (Schultz). Finally, Louise Erdrich uses imagery in the sense of taste to get Mr. Kashpaw to fall back in love with Mrs. Kashpaw. During the story, Lipsha shoots a turkey and comes up with a brilliant idea to remove the heart and feed it to his grandpa to cure him of the lose love: “I saw Grandpa picking at the heart on his plate with a certain look. He did not look appetized at all, is what I’m saying” (292). Mr. Kashpaw is very hesitant to take his first bite of the heart and does not glue all the pieces together as to why he is being forced to chew. After awhile, Mr. Kashpaw finally gives in and takes his first bite, but keeps the piece in his mouth. Mrs. Kashpaw is so frustrated with him, that she slaps his shoulder blades to make him swallow the heart. As soon as she slaps his back, “He chokes real bad. A person can choke to death” (293). In a blink of an eye, death takes him without a shadow of a doubt. Lipsha and Mrs. Kashpaw watch as Mr. Kashpaw takes his last and final breath. Both of them are not ready for him to pass, but rather to knock some sense into him about how he has recently been acting towards his wife. The author shows the audience that God takes the weakest out of situations that they cannot control. In Karen Janet McKinney article she comments that “but he is helpless when his grandmother asks him for love medicine to make Grandpa love her again” (McKinney). Another example of using taste for imagery is in Louise Flavin’s article. Flavin comments, “Erdrichs naturalist prose descriptions provide a beautiful and necessary counterpoint to the intensity of the figurative language she reserves for her character and their emotions” (Flavin). In “Love Medicine,” Louise Erdrich uses imagery to illustrate different human senses to show how one should love all surroundings. Lipsha comes to the conclusion that not everyone he touches can automatically be healed. In order to be healed, time must be a factor in the situation. One cannot force a person to change an outlook on life in a blink of an eye. The authors Barry, Nora, and Mary Prescott, Louise Flavin, Karen Janet McKinney, Lydia Schultz show an inside look on the different senses of imagery. Along with that realization, Grandma Kashpaw sees how she truly loved her husband in the end, even after everything he put her through. Today, people do not realize that what they have around them is rare. God places people in one’s life for a reason, so treat every moment as if it was the last. Just like Mrs. Kashpaw learned, one can never take for granted the lives surrounding them. Works Cited Barry, Nora, and Mary Prescott. “The Triumph of the Brave: Love Medicine’s Holistic Vision.” Critique 30.2 (1989): 123. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. Erdrich, Louise. “Love Medicine.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: w.w. Norton and Company, 2014. 280-298. Print. Flavin, Louise. “Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine: Loving Over Time and Distance.” Critique 31.1 (1989) : 55. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Mar. 2016. “Louise Erdrich”. The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2010. Web. 25 January 2016. McKinney, Karen Janet. “False Miracles and Failed Visions in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine.” Critique 40.2 (1999): 152. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. Schultz, Lydia A. “Fragments and Objective Stories: Narrative Strategies in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine.” College Literature 18.3 (1991) : 80. Academic Search Complete. Web.
When looking out the window "she was drinking in a very elixir of life” (Chopin). The short story comes to an end with her husband walking through the door and Louise falls dead at the sight of her diminishing dreams. This well known short story is comprehended in many ways deciding the reason of Louise’s death and what “freedom” she experiences.
Imagery is used by many authors as a crucial element of character development. These authors draw parallels between the imagery in their stories and the main characters' thoughts and feelings. Through intense imagery, non-human elements such as the natural environment, animals, and inanimate objects are brought to life with characteristics that match those of the characters involved.
Readers can connect and identify with the story quickly through the verisimilitude that Joan MacLeod creates throughout the story. The descriptions that she uses to create images in the minds of the readers are probably very close to what most people had while growing up. It creates emotions in readers because the story relates so often to what is heard and seen in media everyday all over ...
Sisters Stories in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and Tales of Burning Love." MELUS 24.2 (Summer 1999): 89-105. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Apr. 2010.
There are many different themes in, “Love Medicine” a book written by Louise Erdrich. Some of which are poverty, family, racism, and religion. The one that I am going to write about, is love. Love is one of the most prominent themes in this book. It conveys a mother’s love for her children, a wife’s love for her husband, and a son’s love for the ones whom he perceives his parents to be. This is but to name a few examples of love found in the book by Ms. Erdrich. However, there is also the lack of love that this work of literature portrays. There is mistreatment and betrayal, which are examples that are opposite of love.
Many times when reading a novel, the reader connects with one of the characters and begins to sympathize with them. This could be because the reader understands what the character is going through or because we get to see things from the character’s perspective and their emotions and that in return allows a bond to form for the reader. The character that is the most intriguing for me and the one I found comparing to every book that I read during school was Stacey from the book “Ravensong” Lee Maracle. The character Stacey goes through a lot of internal battle with herself and it’s on her path to discovery that she begins to understand herself and what she’s capable of. Throughout the novel, Stacey has a few issues she tries to work through. This is emphasized through her village and in her school that is located across the bridge in white town. Stacey begins dealing with the loss of Nora, and elder in her town. And this in return begins the chain of events that Stacey begins on the path of self-discovery not only on herself but everyone around her. She begins to see things differently and clearly. Stacey is a very complex and confused character, and she begins to work through these complexities through her thoughts, statements and actions.
Point of view is one of the single greatest assets an author can use. It helps to move the plot along and show what is happening from a character’s perspective. An author can make the plot more complex by introducing several characters that the reader has to view events through. The events can then be seen through different eyes and mindsets forcing the reader to view the character in a different light. From one perspective a character can seem cruel, yet, from another, the same character can seem like a hero. These vastly contrasting views can be influenced based on the point of view, a character’s background, and the emotions towards them. The novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich showcases some examples of events seen from different points
Love is powerful and could change a person’s personality. In “The Book of Unknown Americans”, the author Christina Hernriquez tells us the definition of love. It is a book combined with different stories but each story is connected to others. It talks about the immigrants that moved to America with lots of hope, but didn’t end up with a happy ending. The story is about love, hope and guilt and different kinds of emotional feeling. In the book, Mayor has an internal change because of Maribel, and the power of love. He wants to be a strong man who can protect Maribel. He used to be someone who couldn’t defend himself and he changed because of Maribel.
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
The poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe is a beautiful story that outlines events that happened between the speaker and his love. The story paints a mental picture of a love that is so strong that angels become jealous and take Annabel Lee away from the speaker, but even though she is gone, his love for her never ended. The story is full of imagery that leads to the central message of the story, which is love.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a book that gave the word “love” many other meanings, such as impossible, meaningless and incomplete. There were many unbearable obstacles that Countess Ellen Olenska, one of the main characters, had to face because of love. She was treated badly by many people and always longed for love but never obtained it. With everyone cursing her, betraying her and hurting her, there was one person who was always there for her. Newland Archer wasn’t only sympathetic towards her; he also began to fall in love with her. The love she always wanted. He was the man who truly cared for her and always helped her make decisions. Out of all the selfish people in New York who degraded her, including her very close relatives, Newland Archer was one person who was there to listen to her problems and helped her solve them.
The characters in this novel are impacted by the conditions of the Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota on which they live. The issues of domestic violence and poverty continually plague the characters in this novel, as they do in real life. Along with conflict, traditional customs and beliefs unite the characters in the novel Love Medicine. For example, the death of June Morrissey, Albertine’s aunt, brings the Kashpaw and Lamartine families together, all back onto the Reservation. On the night of this gathering, King attempts to drown his wife Lynette, who’s white, in the kitchen sink (Erdrich 41). Albertine hurries form where she is outside to see what’s going on and she tries to pull King off of Lynette but isn’t strong enough ( 41). She eventually bites King’s ear and he releases his grip on Lynette (41). The fact that King was horribly drunk caused this incident, he’s usually quite drunk. As a result of this chaos, the pies that had been made for the next day had been destroyed and Albertine describes her attempt to put them back together, “I worked carefully for over an hour. But once they smash there is no way to put them right.” (Erdrich 42). This symbolism represents the hopelessness that many people feel when destruction occurs. They don’t feel that
Despite these works being written over centuries apart, the authors correlation of the concepts of love were notable. Plato’s Symposium was composed of different views regarding their definitions of love, while Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” focuses on what a group of friends talk about on the topic of love. Both pieces contain groups of people discussing their ideologies and relatable experiences, which in the end emphasize the complexity and variety of this emotion. Even though these literary pieces were written over two thousand years apart, similarities could be found within them regarding the concepts of dying for love as well as acknowledging the different forms of love that exist.
Although both sculptures, LOVE and The Kiss, are about love, they touch upon different aspects of love. The LOVE structure illustrates love in general, as a whole. The word love can be interpreted into the love a parent has for their child or even the love of an object. On the other hand, The Kiss can be interpreted as ecstasy or even lust. Although The Kiss seems to be viewed as the more romantic of the two, LOVE demonstrates love better because the...
Through the duration of this course there have been many themes influenced through the works of literature that have been read and analyzed. One major theme that has been discussed is that of love. Whether the love being romantic, fantasized, or familial as a class we have seen it all. The focus of this essay will be on the familial type of love. Familial love, an overwhelming theme in some of these stories, strikes a serious type of thought in the mind of any reader. The three main stories that will be focused on are “Fences,” Oedipus the King, and “My Papa”s Waltz.” These three stories are unique and each explains a completely different type of familial love. Familial love that will make the heart warm, the head strong, and the stomach churn.