Love Medicine

Love Medicine

The author of Love Medicine Louise Erdrich was born on July 6, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota. shes one of seven children, Erdrich and her family lived in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Her parents, Rita Joanne Gourneau Erdrich and Ralph Louis Erdrich, both taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. Erdrich's mother was born on the reservation, and Erdrich's grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman. Erdrich thinks highly of her grandfather, who keeps the old traditions alive while staying in the modern cultures. While Erdrich says that none of her fiction is autobiographical, she does admit to picturing her grandfather's best traits through Nector Kashpaw in Love Medicine.She attended Dartmouth College in 1972. Ironically the college adopted a Native American studies department the same year. She later married Michael Dorris who was the chairmen of the Native American studies department. During her life she worked many different types of jobs. For example, she was a construction worker. Also Erdrich weighed in trucks on the interstate.

In the story Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich you have Lipsha and his two grandparents who took him in since his mother didn't want him and wanted to tie him in a potato sack and throw him in a slough. Lipsha was with his grandfather one day and his grandfather told him that he was entering second childhood. The second childhood grandpa Kashpaw had continued to get worse over time as he would try to sneak out and started to act foolish. Lipsha had looked up to his grandpa most of his life since he was a smart person with so much knowledge that it surprised him at how his grandfather became as he went further and further into his second childhood. Lipsha had what he called the touch he would use this to help others heal but it didn't always work for everyone. He tried using it on grandpa to keep him more focused at times. Grandma Kashpaw was a strong woman and knew what she wanted and knew that they had to hide grandpa's second childhood as she didn't want him to have to go away. Grandma Kashpaw was still in love with grandpa Kashpaw that she was hopeing some Turkey hearts could change everything and bring grandpa back to normal although grandpa refused to eat the heart so grandma tried to get him to eat it but in the process of doing so he choked to death and Lipsha tried everything he could to save grandapa but could not. After all this has taken place it has given lipsha a new view on life and how he should look at it.

My favorite part about this story is the way you can see the symbols. For instance The Touch, The touch is what Lipsha called his gift of healing powers which didn't always work on everyone and says it is something that you must be born with and different things can affect how well it works. Another symbols in this story is what they call a second