Love Medicine: Analysis of Major Characters
"Love Medicine" is a multi-generational novel that intricately explores the lives and relationships of a Chippewa family on a North Dakota reservation. Central to the narrative are characters such as Marie Lazarre Kashpaw, the devoted wife and mother whose resilience is tested by her husband's infidelity and her own hopes for love. Nector Kashpaw, a man torn between his loyalty to Marie and his long-standing affection for Lulu Nanapush Lamartine, exemplifies the struggle between personal desire and familial duty. Lulu, a strong-willed woman with a tumultuous life, remains a pivotal figure, influencing many around her, including her son Gerry, who becomes a hero of the American Indian Movement. The novel also follows Lipsha Morrissey, who, raised by Marie and Nector, embodies a blend of innocence and wisdom, exploring the complexities of love through his own experiences and actions. Other notable characters, like the troubled Henry Lamartine Jr. and the compassionate nurse Albertine Johnson, add depth to the themes of love, trauma, and identity. Through these interconnected lives, "Love Medicine" presents a rich tapestry of love's multifaceted nature within the context of Indigenous experience.
Love Medicine: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Louise Erdrich
First published: 1984
Genre: Novel
Locale: A North Dakota Indian reservation and nearby towns
Plot: Social
Time: 1934–1984
Marie Lazarre Kashpaw, the wife of Nector Kashpaw. A loving and long-suffering woman, biological mother of five children and mother substitute to numerous others not her own, she is a kind of maternal ideal. She rears June and Lipsha Morrissey. Nector, when he meets her in 1934, calls her “a skinnywhitegirl… pale as birch.”In her youth, she enters the Sacred Heart Convent as a means of escaping the reservation, but she later leaves. She marries and tolerates her husband's infidelity, never giving up hope that she can have him exclusively. To that end, as an old woman she resorts to love medicine.
Nector Kashpaw, formerly a film actor and later tribal chairman on a Chippewa reservation in North Dakota. A man of divided impulses and loyalties, he loves his wife, Marie, but also has a passion for his first love, Lulu Nanapush Lamartine. His vacillations are both serious and comic. His wife claims credit for his political success, having nominated him as tribal chairman and kept him sober enough to do the job, and he cannot control his attraction to Lulu. As an old man, he chokes to death on Lipsha Morrissey's love medicine.
Lulu Nanapush Lamartine, a strong and willful woman, the object of many men's desire, and the mother of eight children, including Gerry Nanapush. Her many sexual affairs and her political clashes with the tribal council make her something of an outcast. She has a lifelong love for Nector Kashpaw that is less a secret than she thinks. Her narrative in the penultimate chapter pulls together many of the novel's threads.
June Morrissey Kashpaw, the wife of Marie Kashpaw's son Gordie. She dies in a blizzard on Easter morning, 1981, and becomes a focus in the memories of many characters by the strength of her influence on the Kashpaw, Morrissey, and Nanapush families.
Gerry Nanapush, a leader in the American Indian Movement. His fugitive status with the federal authorities makes him a heroic figure, and his connection with June Morrissey Kashpaw produces Lipsha. He reveals his paternity to Lipsha on the way to the Canadian border for his final escape.
Lipsha Morrissey, a latter-day medicine man, June's unacknowledged son, brought up by Marie and Nector Kashpaw. A gentle, naïve man, Lipsha plays the wise fool: “God's been going deaf,” he says, “Gods will do a favor if you ask them right.” His actions and observations bring to light many themes of love. He concocts a love potion for Nector at the request of Marie.
Albertine Johnson, a nurse and later a medical school student. An intelligent and sensitive young woman, she sees the poverty of reservation life and the self-destructiveness of both men and women there. Her career ambitions do not end her love for them; her life is hope.
Henry Lamartine, Jr., a Vietnam veteran, the son of Lulu but not of Henry. His sexual encounter with his then-fifteen-year-old cousin Albertine shows how ravaged he is by his life as a soldier and a Native American. He drowns himself in front of his brother Lyman Lamartine.
Lyman Lamartine, another of Lulu's sons, the half brother of Henry. He tries hard but unsuccessfully to help his brother out of his post-Vietnam trauma. They share a red convertible and long summer drives, including a trip to Alaska.
Sister Leopolda, a nun in the Sacred Heart Convent. Her possessiveness and cruelty toward the young Marie constitute a unique variation on the theme of love.
Gordie Kashpaw, the son of Marie and Nector. After the death of his wife, June, he is consumed by grief and guilt and turns to alcohol. He identifies a road-killed deer as June herself, confesses to her murder, and then wanders through an apple orchard, weeping, in another improvisation in the theme of love.