Pauline desires to be like Fleur and despises her at the same time: her jealousy and obsession make her narrative viewpoint unreliable. Nanapush wants to persuade Lulu (his granddaughter) that her mother, Fleur, did not abandon her to the harsh environment of an Indian boarding school lightly. The points of view and events depicted by both narrators reveal their agendas. Nanapush begins narrating the novel as the second epidemic wipes out whole families, leaving many orphaned children as well as single adults, like Nanapush, who have lost their wives and children. In two back-to-back epidemics-first smallpox and then tuberculosis-along with a treaty limiting their movement and assigning each clan an allotment of land, the Chippewa people were nearly wiped out by disease and starvation. Nanapush becomes a trusted and respected tribal elder, while Pauline becomes a Catholic nun whom many believe to be insane. Covering the years from 1912 to 1924, the events depicted through the two narrators’ visions both echo and contradict each other. These informative, accessible volumes will appeal to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, facilitating discussion and supporting close analysis of the most important contemporary American and Canadian fiction.Two narrators alternate to tell the story of twelve years in the history of the tribe: Nanapush, a tribal elder, and Pauline, a young orphan girl. Written by leading scholars in the field, each book presents a range of original interpretations of three key texts published since 1990, showing how the same novel may be interpreted in a number of different ways. This series offers up-to-date guides to the recent work of major contemporary North American authors. Focusing on such topics as humor, religion, ethnicity, gender, race, sexuality, trauma, history, and narrative form, the essays collected here offer fresh readings of Erdrich's explorations of Native American identities through her innovative fictions. This book illuminates Erdrich's multiperspectival representation of Native American culture and history. Louise Erdrich collects new essays by noted scholars of Native American Literature on three important novels that chart the trajectory of Erdrich's novelistic career, 'Tracks (1988),' 'The Last Report on the Miracles At Little No Horse (2001)' and 'The Plague of Doves (2007)'. Louise Erdrich has shaped the possibilities for Native American, women's and popular fiction in the United States during the late twentieth century. Leading scholars critically explore three leading novels by Louise Erdrich, one of the most important and popular Native American writers working today.

Tracks louise erdrich quotes