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Louise Sanders Love Medicine Summary

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In the article “A Healthy Balance: Religion, Identity, and Community in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine” by Karla Sanders, argues that the Native American people are having a hard time finding themselves through the community, religion, and identity because of other traditions are becoming more prominent than theirs. Sanders relies on the article “Reading between Worlds: Narrativity in the fiction of Louise Erdrich” by Catherine Rainwater. Rainwater helps construct Sanders article by providing examples in the story. The examples Rainwater pinpoints helps clarify how Native Americans are dealing with the interference of another religion. Also, another article that Sander used to establish her article was “Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine: Loving …show more content…

Each article provides enough knowledge about Native Americans and their problems. In order to understand the short story “Love Medicine” people would need to know what type of community it is. While I agree with Sanders that community, religion, and identity was a problem in the story Love Medicine. The story also points out a considerable amount about life, and it's unexplainable events. In the article “A Healthy Balance: Religion, Identity, and Community in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine” by Sanders, she explains the difficulties Native Americans are having with adapting to a new tradition. One problem that the Native American are having, is the western traditions brought by catholic missionaries. Sanders talks about the community for Native Americans because the community contributes a great deal of tradition and rank. Sanders writes “Just as her fiction displays individuality and community so does it celebrate both magic and reality of Ojibwa life and heritage” (Sander 131). Moreover, the Ojibwa community shows that everyone in the faction has rituals they honor. Also, another part that equally important beside rituals are social roles; Sanders …show more content…

Sanders talks about June, and how she had trouble finding her identity. Sanders uses June as example for identity issue when Flavin says “June’s attempts to make something of her life---as a beautician, a secretary, a waitress or salesclerk, a wife and mother---become the story of failure”(Flavin 63). This quote says that June was having identity problems, and didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. This could be corresponding to the transition of tradition, and June not being able to adjust. June was shadowed by the darkness, and couldn’t escape until it triumph over her. Flavin later explains “Her last affair with a drunken oil boomer outside a Williston, North Dakota, bar ends with her death as she attempts to walk home in a snowstorm. While her death was not defined as a suicide, anyone familiar with the intensity of a North Dakota snowstorm would know the risk” (Flavin 62). This quote correlates with Sanders description of June, and the burdensome with the interference of another religion her. Throughout the story June wasn’t pleased with what she accomplished in life, and decided to take her life because she didn’t feel it was worth living. June identity problem was severe, and it continues to another person in the community, Marie. Sanders uses Maire as another character in the story who also questioned their

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