Love Medicine

Louise Erdrich

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Medicine

Medicine is an important symbol in the story, as demonstrated by its honored place in the title. Medicine appears in several different forms throughout the novel; most significantly, Albertine studies medicine at an American university, in direct opposition to Lipsha’s Ojibwe spiritual practices of healing. American hospitals are widely distrusted on the reservation, so people who can provide medical care within the community are greatly respected, such as Moses. Thus, medicine is tied to the fraught and violent history between the United States and Indigenous American tribes. Tribal medicine is also one of the last remaining indigenous traditions that can be practiced on the reservation, even though in Lipsha’s case the tradition gravely fails. Erdrich also uses medicine metaphorically in that love, relationships, and even inspiration from nature can be seen as kinds of medicine in this novel, intended to heal not only the body but the spirit. Similarly, if medicine is intended to make a person feel better, then the effect love has on the characters works just like medicine. Even though Lipsha’s literal love medicine, the blessed turkey hearts, fails to restore his grandparents’ marriage, it does facilitate a friendship between Lulu and Marie, healing one kind of old wound.

Land

Land functions as an important symbol in this novel. Land is a source of pride and inspiration, a motivating factor that unites characters. For example, Lulu is utterly devoted to Henry Lamartine’s land, on which she establishes a beautiful home for her children. When she loses the land and the house burns down, she still camps there for two months, unable to let it go. Lyman is similarly possessive of land. The factory is an immense piece of land that can be owned and used by the tribe to make a better economic situation for themselves. Land, therefore, is precious both emotionally and financially. What’s more, characters who leave the reservation are destined to roam in search of a new land they will never find. Bev is unfilled in the Twin Cities, Gerry runs from one town or prison to another, and Henry Junior similarly becomes unmoored after the trauma of war, unable to feel at home anywhere. In addition to alluding to the theft of Indigenous lands by European colonizers and the United States government, this displacement is a poignant reminder that the characters belong with their families, making land equivalent to family.

The Red Convertible

The red convertible is an important symbol in Chapter 10. First, it symbolizes freedom and status. Henry Junior and Lyman are the only people on the reservation who can afford such a car, and the flashiness of the car parallels their pride. It also lets them escape the reservation for road trips in which they bond more as brothers. Later, when Henry Junior comes back from the Vietnam War depressed, the car takes on the symbol of rebirth: Lyman destroys it to give Henry Junior a task to focus on, and potentially to literally rebuild his sense of self. After Henry fixes it, the car again becomes a symbol for freedom. But when Henry Junior dies by suicide, the convertible becomes a symbol of heartbreak for Lyman. Thus, the car is a prized possession that takes on a life of its own. It brings two brothers together, then serves as a reminder of all that tore them apart.