McGettrick 1
Aleina McGettrick
Major Paper: First Version
ENGL 4610-102
4-1-2014
The Intertwinement of the Past and the Present
The intertwinement of the past and present is a technique that Louise Erdrich
uses in many of her narratives including: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No
Horse, Tracks, and Love Medicine. With the narrative that Erdrich chooses to use in
Last Report, she is able to, “like the trickster,” create this world that is, “unfixed and
remolded by her own multi-novel fictional world (Barton, 118).” Her different characters
and stories in this book allow her to weave in and out of the past and present to show
not only the history of the reservation, its future, and the transformation of the people
that live on the reservation.
In Last Report, Erdrich uses the character of Agnes/Father Damien to travel back
and forth from the past to the present throughout the novel. The timeline that is used to
describe the transformation of Agnes to Father Damien includes the importance of the
past as the reasons that Agnes has chosen to become Father Damien and embark on
this new journey, “all of this occurs by way of a new set of intrigues and adventures—
not least the transvestism of Damien himself—introducing new questions and
explorations into the theme of transformation and mutable identity, and engaging more
directly with issues of Anishinaabe cultural sovereignty (Stirrup, 122).” The history of
Agnes is important in the progression of the novel as a parallel to the transformation
that happens among the Ojibwe people with the arrival of Agnes as Father Damien.
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The novel starts out with an excerpt from the future in 1996 as Father Damien
and there is a quick transition that goes back to the introduction of Agnes in 1910.
Where at the end of the prologue Father Damien “unwound from his chest an Ace
bandage (Erdrich Last Report, 8),” in 1996, then the quick pace rewind into the past with
the title of the opening chapter, “Naked Woman Playing Chopin: 1910-1912.”
Aside from this back and forth pace of the novel, Erdrich also takes stories from
many other characters in the novel creating an, “emphasis on the instability of
perspective … scenes that tend to be read as manifestations of cultural erasure and
self-abnegation: a wholly alterNative possibility (Stirrup, 131).”
Through this specific
way of movement in time, especially in Last Report, the reader can see the changes
that the reservation is going through. The different life stories from the characters of this
novel come together to describe this transitioning phase on the reservation. The use of
Agnes as Father Damien introduces an outsider to the reservation along with the
introduction of Christianity on the reservation the novel transitions, “from ‘EuroAmerican secular,’ through Christian and Catholic, to Ojibwe stories, language and
forms of knowledge (Stirrup, 121).” This gives the reader a chance to experience and
explore the reservation as an outsider for the first time.
Throughout the novel there is an underlying transition from the original culture of
the Ojibwe people to one that is changed from the ideas and morals of this cultural
reconstruction, both physically and mentally, on the reservation. This, “emphasis falls on
the mutually constituting/corrupting force of contact, Erdrich herself notes, ‘We are all
mixed up together. There’s been so much finger-pointing and blame … I’m a mixed
background; so many people are, of this country.
We all have mixtures in our
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backgrounds, now (Baenan 2008)’ (Stirrup, 154).” The comparing and contrasting of
ideas between Father Damien and the other Ojibwe characters in the novel, like
Nanapush and Mary Kashpaw, exhibits this point that Erdrich has noted. Anywhere in
the world, on and off reservations there will always be a difference in opinions among
the people that live there.
This opposition many times originates from a person’s
background and the beliefs that they formed throughout their lives.
With that the
concept of who’s right and who’s wrong becomes an issue. Here, Erdrich gives a
solution in this comment and through her work as a writer that offers a way to accept
people for their diversity. This mixture that she describes contributes to the idea of the
transitioning state of the reservation. With these characters, another aspect of bringing
the past into the present is the use of the actions of the characters.
Throughout the book, there are countless amounts of stories of the past told from
the lives of the Ojibwe people. Along with those stories there are multiple letters from
Father Damien’s perspective about what is happening in the present from his
perspective. “Last Report sets this retelling of older stories in a contemporary frame—
the 1996 ruminations of the letters of the now ancient Father Damien Modeste, who has
ministered to his Ojibwe flock for more than eight decades (Barton, 118).”
One place in the novel where this idea is really captured happens when Father
Damien writes about how much he has become a leading figure to the people in the
community through the church services that he leads. It’s a part in the novel where
Father Damien has begun to feel weary however it’s at this moment where he realizes
and writes that, “Many of the Indians (they call themselves the Anishinaabeg, the
Spontaneous or Original People) have come to depend on me. There is really no one
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else I feel can take my place, no one so committed to their well-being or engrossed in
their faith – I am becoming one with them so as to better lead them into the great
Corpus Christi. And the closer I draw, the more of their pain do I feel (Erdrich Last
Report, 209).” The transformation that Father Damien makes is not only a physical one
in which Agnes chooses to be Father Damien but also one in which Father Damien has
become a part of the Ojibwe people. This is an important passage because here the
reader sees the interconnectedness that has already formed and that is still forming
between these two worlds of Father Damien and the traditional ways of Ojibwe people.
It’s a recreation of the Ojibwe people by Erdrich that can then again relate to the
trickster’s recreation of the world.
This cunning way that Erdrich has woven the past and the present into the ever
changing life on the reservation can also be seen in her novel Tracks. In this novel the
narration switches between the narratives of Nanapush and Pauline recreating the story
of Fleur and how Lulu came to be in the world. Not only does this novel switch from
each perspective from chapter to chapter but it starts out in the beginning of the book in
1912 and ends in 1924. “’Erdrich’s chronologies begin in Tracks in the post-reservation
moment at the close of the nineteenth century, thrusting us into the consumption
epidemic of 1912 … it coincides precisely with the end of the initial twenty-five-year
allotment period and its varied legacy’ (Stirrup, 6).”
While this book does not jump back and forth from the past to the present like
Last Report does, it starts in the past to show that without the history of her family Lulu
would not be where she is now at the end of the novel. Between the two narratives of
Nanapush and Pauline it offers two different perspectives, one from an “old-time
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Ojibwe” and the other from “the abandoned, mixed blood descendant of a forgotten clan
of skinners … Nanapush represents an Ojibwe perspective.
Pauline invests ever
deeper into the Catholic doctrine, seeking first sanctuary and then novitiate status at the
local convent (Stirrup, 67).”
With these two different outlooks on the retelling of Fleur’s life this again
highlights the developing and transforming life on the reservation.
With Pauline’s
character the reader sees the, “Adaptation of cultural practices included the influence of
Christianity (Stirrup, 6)”… “The conventional readings of the dialect at play in Tracks in
particular suggest that Erdrich stages a contest between Christianity (Pauline/Leopolda)
and ‘old time’ Ojibwe spiritual practice (Nanapush and Fleur) (Stirrup, 85).” With the
narratives of these contrasting characters Erdrich is able to implement elements of the
traditional Ojibwe culture while at the same time implementing aspects of Christianity
and how that is affecting these characters.
Not only is the idea of Christianity and Catholicism introduced in this novel
through the character of Pauline but the start of the allotment period is also introduced
towards the end of the novel. “Erdrich’s narrative strategy of providing dual narrators is
one of the most noticeable features of a surface story which leads us to believe that as
narrators Nanapush and Pauline are playing upon the dichotomous relationships
inherent in colonialism by providing the reader with an insider/outsider perspective into
the communal landscape of Tracks (Bird, 44).”
Although Nanapush is this “old-time Ojibwe” character as mentioned before, with
the start of the allotment the reader even see’s changes in his character when he
became a “bureaucrat” to bring his family back together at the end of the novel, “To
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become a bureaucrat myself was the only way that I could wade through the letters, the
reports, the only place where I could find a ledge to kneel on, to reach through the
loophole and draw you home (Erdrich Tracks, 225).”
The reasoning behind Lulu’s
‘abandonment’ by Fleur is also important especially because Fleur is also noted as an
‘old time’ Ojibwe character.
Throughout the book Fleur’s character is given the characteristics of an
independent Native-American woman who sticks to her beliefs, even at the end of the
novel when she is forced to leave her home. Even in this final moment Fleur refuses to
be defeated and leaves her land on her own accord, “The earth jumped and the
shudder plucked nerves in the bodies of the men who milled about, whining softly to
each other like nervous cattle. They bit their lips, glanced over their shoulders at Fleur,
who bared her teeth in a wide smile that frightened even those who did not understand
the smiles of the Pillagers (Erdrich Tracks, 223).” This moment of empowerment that
Fleur chooses to exhibit in her present moment creates the reason for the recalling of
this past story to Lulu because after this moment, Fleur then chooses to leave Lulu.
Here we now have Lulu’s present moment, “Lulu Lamartine, abandoned by Fleur
as a young child, is nurtured to a sense of her familial identity by Nanapush in Tracks
(Stirrup, 71).”
The intertwining development of these three characters: Nanapush,
Fleur, and even Lulu, in this narrative show Erdrich’s ability to once again highlight the
importance of the Ojibwe culture. From starting in the past and figuring out that both
these narratives are being relayed to the present Lulu shows the reader the emphasis
on the past. “Nanapush’s negotiation between the old ways and the exigencies of the
present is the significant legacy he leaves Lulu. He recognizes that it is no longer
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possible to rely solely on the oral tradition to pass down narratives of the past. To do so
would be to end up like Fleur, the funnel of oral history silenced by white encroachment
and by the writing itself (Peterson, 990).” This recognition that Nanapush makes at the
end of the novel continues on to be a point that is made in Erdrich’s next novel, Love
Medicine.
Oral tradition is an aspect of culture that many people, beyond Native-Americans,
have relied on to narrate the past. With the timeline that Erdrich uses in this novel she
takes the reader though narrations of the older and younger Ojibwe generations. At the
beginning of Love Medicine, Erdrich once again starts the novel in the present in 1981
with the disappearance of June Kashpaw. In this chapter after the beginning section of
June, the reader is then introduced to the rest of June’s family. “The narratives that
follow offer alternative perspectives, insights, and snapshots relating to June’s life and
death, communal and individual struggles, and searches for emplacement in a changing
world (Stirrup, 68).” The whole family has come together to mourn their loss and the
reader can tell that being all together is not something that this family is used to. Unlike
the two previous novels discussed, in this one the past is not talked about amongst the
family.
While the novel does not initially focus on the character Lipsha, it becomes clear
that through the narration of the past and present the story comes to focus on the
development of Lipsha and the person he becomes at the end of the novel. When the
reader is first introduced to Lipsha he seems very shy and the only person he seems to
talk to is Albertine. It also becomes clear that Lipsha does not know who his parents
really are.
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Moving on from that Erdrich then takes the reader to the past and the reader is
able to discover more about the older generation of Ojibwe in this novel.
On the
structure of the novel, Erdrich comments that, “It also reflects a traditional Chippewa
storytelling motif (Stirrup, 93).” Due to this Erdrich weaves in and out of stories from
many different characters and here the reader is taken back into the past. From this
older generation the reader learns about what happened between Nector, Marie and
Lulu.
When the reader first meets Nector it seems that he definitely has his eyes set on
Lulu until he then runs into Marie. The encounter they have does not seem like it will
end up as a marriage—like the way it truly does—but somehow Nector is now set on
spending his life with Marie. The way that Erdrich sets this up creates a sort of domino
effect for the rest of Lulu’s life. Though it’s not clear that if even she had ended up with
Nector, her life may not have been any different. Regardless, the way she chooses to
spend the rest of her life is one filled with many men and children. However this is not
something that she is ashamed of. There is an example of this when she is about the
lose the land her house on and she has to appeal this. Although the people think that
they can use her promiscuousness against her, she is able to use it to her advantage
and turn the tables to shame their husbands.
As the novel continues, Erdrich writes more of the marriage between Nector and
Marie. Although Marie is who Nector has ended up with, their marriage is seemingly far
from happy. In the present time he is senile and does not appear to be mentally present
and in others the reader sees his continued lustfulness for Lulu. While Nector is absent,
Marie finds her own way to cope with the negativity of her marriage and this is mostly
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through the way she adopts and cares for various children that end up at her house—
two of them being June and Lipsha. Marie becomes a “’super mother,’ responding to
her own losses by taking in children, being ‘rebuilt’ as she invests in them (Stirrup, 96).”
This then adds more to the backstory of Lipsha as he and June seem to have an even
greater connection made possible by Marie.
Interestingly enough, June seemed to have a life that could be compared to that
of Lulu’s. Although she does not have as many children as Lulu she does take the path
in life that leads her to be involved with quite a few men. While staying with Marie, her
main focus was Geordie, Marie’s son—they even got married.
Later in the novel,
Erdrich takes us back to the past and writes more about Albertine and her relationship
with Dot and Gerry Nanapush. From this, Gerry’s character is further developed and his
personality is more clearly seen. He’s a man that cannot stay out of trouble for the life
of him and although he’s in a close relationship with Dot, he too does not seem to be a
one-lady man.
Throughout the novel Erdrich added many other twists and turns that were so
unexpected but that turned out to be very relevant to the meaning of the story. At the
end of the novel, Lipsha makes the connection between Gerry and June when he
decides at the end of the novel that he is going to meet his father. He tests out his
theory by making a visit to King Kashpaw (his supposed brother who has kept this
secret from him his whole life). It’s clear the King is on edge whether it’s the fact that he
realizes what Lipsha must know now or it’s the fact that he knows Gerry has again
escaped prison and on the way to his house. The latter turns out to be true though
because Gerry does show up. The situation escalates with the involvement of police
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and Erdrich ends the novel with Gerry and Lipsha. Gerry confirms Lipsha’s theory
saying, “You’re a Nanapush man (Erdrich Love Medicine, 332).”
Finally the novel ends making a full circle with the remembrance of June.
“’Declaring June’s dissolution at the opening of Love Medicine to echo this ‘necessary
annihilation’, Owens bids for an understanding of the text as a quest for a return to
centres. Reading it in this fashion might, for the wary postmodern reader, also serve to
emphasize the novel’s essential modernism; a core against which, Eliot-like, to shore
the fragments. Under this reading, June’s death becomes a mutually invertible
metaphor for community reconstruction, as she is ‘brought home’ by Lipsha on the final
page of Love Medicine (Stirrup, 92).” Much like the way that Tracks is narrated there is
a character in Love Medicine—Lipsha—whose life is told through the stories from both
the past and present.
The importance of the of the past generations playing an important role in future
generations can be further exemplified in Erdrich’s poetry—specifically her poem
‘Asiniig.’ In this poem, Erdrich is able to incorporate the past and present through these
two generations. She uses the Ojibwe word asiniig for stone to describe its existence
that it continues to have with the present descendants. From section to section of the
poem Erdrich’s juxtaposition of the traditional Ojibwe and the present generation
resonates throughout the poem.
A main theme throughout the poem is that without these ancestors there would
be no future and because of this the future generations have to remember where they
came from essential to who they are. This idea can also be seen in the three novels
just discussed.
The narration that that Erdrich uses in all of her works shows the
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diversity that is not only found on these reservations but is also something that she
explores personally herself as a person coming from such a diverse background. Her
work is, “central to the treatment of religions and communities, individual identities and
cultures which Erdrich engages (Stirrup, 63).” This personal commitment that Erdrich
has with her work allows the readers to explore their own backgrounds and beliefs
through the stories of Father Damien, Lulu, and Lipsha.
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Works Cited
Barton, Gay. "Review: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse." Studies in
American Indian Literatures 13.2/3 (2001): 118-22. JSTOR. Web. Mar.-Apr.
2014.
Bird, Gloria. "Searching for Evidence of Colonialism at Work: A Reading of Louise
Erdrich's "Tracks"" Wicazo Sa Review 8.2 (1992): 40-47. JSTOR. Web. 01 Apr.
2014.
Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine: A Novel. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984.
Print.
Erdrich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. New York:
HarperCollins, 2001. Print.
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel. New York: Henry Holt, 1988. Print.
Peterson, Nancy J. "History, Postmodernism, and Louise Erdrich's Tracks." PMLA 109.5
(1994): 982-94. JSTOR. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
Stirrup, David. Louise Erdrich. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2010. Print.