Erdrich Tracks Essay

Tracks and Love Medicine, both by Louise Erdrich, are only fragments of a much larger collection of Erdrich’s Native American works. Both pieces of literature are set in the early to mid-twentieth century and revolve around difficulties the Native American people go through in their struggle of preserving their culture and ways of life. Native American literature invokes a taste of modern influence alongside traditional Indian mythology to truly thicken a plot. Ancestral values are evident throughout

Readers see characterization in Louise Erdrich’s novel Tracks, mostly, with the character Pauline. Throughout the Erdrich’s novel Tracks all the characters lose their families, grow up and change, the most notable change seen in the novel is the one seen with Pauline. Readers will watch Pauline struggle through difficult stages in her life that alters her mental health and her perspective of things. Pauline’s character develops throughout Tracks as she deals with jealousy, shuns her Indian heritage

Mentorship: From Childhood to the Man Louise Erdrich explores the inner conflicts of an Indian tribe in her novel Tracks. By the end of the novel, the tribes’ accord is broken by the lure of the white man’s money and land reform. The divisions among the tribe are epitomized by the physical separation of the Chippewa people into different colors that correspond to their different land allotments. However, one chapter in particular contrasts with the tribe’s tendency towards discord. Chapter 5, in

on Miracles at the Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich confronts individual and communal responses to that reality. Since tradition is symbolic, not material, one can not physically hold on to their tradition. In other words, an individual makes the conscious decision to allow or disallow tradition to shape their own identity. Pauline Puyat is the product of cultural conflict, which shapes her twisted, violent nature as a character, and through her Erdrich explores the "winning of the west" from a non-western

Characterization and Symbolism in “Yellow Woman” In the short story “Yellow Woman”, Leslie Marmon Silko uses characterization and symbolism to address personal and cultural identity. After reading “Yellow Woman”, a sense of mystery is imposed on the reader. Much of the story centers on the identity of the two main characters with issues of duty and desires, social obligations, and the human and spiritual worlds. Taking place in 1970’s New Mexico, the author reveals the aesthetic beauty of a Native

physically or emotionally, can change one’s life forever. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event, being either experienced or witnessed. In the short story, “The Red Convertible,” Louise Erdrich accurately demonstrates the degenerative changes the character Henry goes through after returning home. This is achieved through the descriptions of the change in Henry’s personality, actions, and the use of diction. Once Henry returned home his personality

In the short story “Yellow Woman” the author, Leslie Marmon Silko, tells the tale of an unnamed woman who runs off with a mysterious man in the mountains of New Mexico. The main character and protagonist is a young woman who is only referred to as Yellow Woman throughout the story. The antagonist, who is not necessarily the bad guy, is a man named Silva. Silva creates the conflict for Yellow Woman and constantly draws her back into a fantasy-like state and farther away from her own reality. The

Emotional connections between two people can be fortified with an object in which both people can care for and share with one another. In the story “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, Lyman and Henry have a special bond. This bond is emphasized in the red convertible because it symbolizes the connection that both brothers have with one another. After Henry goes off to war Lyman takes care of the car. Lyman cares for the car as if he were trying to preserve the bond that he and Henry had. Furthermore

themselves as American Indians. To begin with, before the war, both brothers drive “all one summer”, not hanging on to the details. However, Lyman recalls “one place with willows”…feeling comfortable covered by branches “like a tent or a stable” (Erdrich 26). The Herder Symbol Dictionary conveys that braches “are regarded as granting good fortune or protection”(28). Lyman feels comfortable even perhaps protected but realizing what tree he lying under, the reader finds that there is a completely different

death are illuminated through the experience of a child and her encounter with a dead man in post-slavery America. Louise Erdrich’s 1984 short story “The Red Convertible” is a story of loss in the face of death, set in Vietnam era America. Walker and Erdrich both use strong imagery and symbolism to effectively portray the impact of the common themes of loss and death in both short stories, albeit in different ways. It is important to note the progression of the plots of both stories, and how imagery