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  • Essay / Marie Lazarre Kashpaw and Lulu Lamartine: the matriarchs...

    As Mother's Day approaches, writer Penny Rudge salutes "the matriarchs [who] come in different forms but are immediately recognizable: energetic women, some well-meaning, others less so. , but all exercising unstoppable authority over their clan” (Penny Rudge), thus revealing the immense presence of women in the American family unit. A striking example of a mother's influence is illustrated in Native American society where women are called upon to confront the daily problems associated with life on reservations. The survival instinct appears almost from birth, resulting in the development of women who transcend a culture based on gender bias. In Love Medicine, a 20th-century novel about two families residing on an Indian reservation, Louise Erdrich tells the story of Marie Lazarre and Lulu Lamartine, two female characters of very different natures, linked by their love and lust for Nector Kashpaw, chief of the Chippewa tribe. Marie is part of a family shunned by the inhabitants of the reservation and faces the problems that arise following a "childhood, / the antithesis of an Anglo-American idyll à la Norman Rockwell" (Susan Castillo) , which prompts her to seek stability and adopt a life of piety. Marie marries Nector Kashpaw, a former love interest of Lulu Lamartine, who relies on her sexual prowess to persevere, resulting in numerous affairs with tribal council members that lead to the birth of her sons. Although each female character hates and resents the other, Erdrich avoids the inevitable storyline by focusing on the different attributes of these characters, who come together and form a force that speaks to the importance of survival and the power of female bond in Native Americ. ..... middle of paper ...... Louise. Love medicine. New York: Harper, 2009. Moreau, Nichole E. “Erdrich’s Love Medicine.” The Explanator 61.4 (2003): 248+. Literary Resource Center. Internet. April 13, 2010, http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA108550994&v=2.1&u=sain62671&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=wRudge, Penny. “Great literary matriarchs.” Online timetables. March 12, 2010. Accessed April 11, 2010. ment/books/article7059659.ece>. Stokes, Karah. “What about darling?” : The “different form” of the stories of two Anishinabe sisters in Love Medicine and Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich. MELUS 24.2 (summer 1999): 89-105. Rep. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Information Resource Center. Internet. April 13, 2010.http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1100051243&v=2.1&u=sain62671&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w