The Beads

I am not sure that I do understand the family tree in the chapter about Marie Kashpaw.

On the f amily tree we can see that Nector Kashpaw and Marie Lazarre were married and had 4 children.

I am not understanding then the relation between Marie and June, as on page 84, Marie says that she did not want june Morrissey at first.

But the family tree shows June adopted by Eli, not Nector and Marie.

Am I misunderstanding something? I would appreciate anyone's insight and will check other blogs for possible explanation.

Family tree

I am getting lost at times in relation to the family tree. I do not know if someone else has this issue.

The chapter about Marie Lazare was an emotionally difficult one to read for me: it describes abuse of a young child and also I find that it has a "darkness" apparent in the chapter, maybe it would be better to use the word "weakedness"?

Marie Lazare is abused and Marie Lazare takes her revenge in a way against Leopolda.

Love Medicine

I am wondering if the title "Love Medicine" could have been chosen to point out that the medicine healing family rivalries, disagreements or other conflicts is love. I might see it in a too simple manner.

Some thoughts

Why do you think Erdrich chose to write her novel in the way she did, using time leaps and a series of different narrators to recount their own tales? What do you think is gained by this form of narrative? How might the form's emphasis on individual storytelling relate to the novel's larger themes?

I think that Erdrich uses different narrators to make the reader discover the "whole" story from each protagonist point of view. It could be a mosaic of stories and personas, each with their own sets of beliefs, feelings, stories and time frame. Their lives and stories are interrelated yet individual.

As to time leaps, it seems to give a different perspective, as in films with flash backs, for instance, thus the reader can be transported in various eras and also events.

It is also possibly a technique used to captivate the reader.

Introduction

Hello Everyone,

Just attempting to post an introduction message. I hope a blog will be a useful tool to use for this course.