Tuesday, 28 October: begin Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine (expanded version 1993) through “A Bridge” (ends on p. 180)

Minority Culture Reader: Lindsay Kelley

Objective 1: Minority Definitions

1c. To observe alternative identities and literary strategies developed by minority cultures and writers to gain voice and choice:

·         “double language” (same words, different meanings to different audiences)

·         conscience to dominant culture (which otherwise forgets the

past.

The first passage is from the first chapter of Erdrich’s Love Medicine.

Even when it started to snow she did lose her sense of direction. Her feet grew numb, but she did not worry about distance. The heavy winds couldn’t blow her off course. She continued. Even when her heart clenched and her skin turned crackling cold it didn’t matter, because the pure and the naked part of her went on.

          The snow fell deeper that Easter than it had in forty years, but June walked over it like water and came home (7). 

This passage shows the use of double meaning because the word home can be use in spiritual or literal contexts. 

QUESTIONS
 

1.)  Does the word “home” in this passage have a spiritual meaning to you?
 

2.) Summer months usually represents “life”, “freshness”, and freedom. Aunt June's character represents loss and death. What is the reason Erdrich name Aunt June this? 

The second passage is also from the first chapter of Erdrich’s novel.

       
“Can you give me a cigarette, Eli? King asked.

         
“When you ask for a cigarette around here,” said Gordie, “you don’t say can I have a cigarette. You say ciga swa?”

“Them Michifs ask like that,” Eli said. “You got to ask a real old-time Indian like me for the right words.”
 

“Tell’em, Uncle Eli,” Lynette said with a quick burst of drunken enthusiasm. “They got to learn their own heritage! When you go it will all be gone!”
 

“What are you saying there, woman. Hey!” King shouted, filling the kitchen with the jagged tear of his voice. “When you talk to my relatives have a little respect.” He put his arms up and shoved at her breasts (32).       

This passage shows how the younger Indians are not taking an interest in their own culture.

QUESTIONS

1.) Do you agree with Lynette when she tells King that he has to learn his heritage? Is the statement more meaningful by having someone from a different culture saying this?
 

2.) Do you think King would have gotten offended if Eli or Gordie would have said the same comment Lynette had?
 

3.) Why did King get upset over the comment his wife is saying?
 

4.) As a white woman, does Lynette gain power from her ethnicity but lose it from her gender? 

Objective 3: minority dilemma--assimilate or resist?

• Does the minority fight or join the dominant culture that exploited it?
• What balance do minorities strike between the economic benefits of assimilation and its personal or cultural sacrifices?
• In general, immigrants assimilate, while minorities remain separate (though connected in many ways).

Assimilation to the dominant culture takes place primarily by language and intermarriage.

Questions:

Is King assimilating by marrying Lynette?

Is Lynette reverse-assimilating by marrying King and wishing to preserve Indian "heritage?"