Two Dimensions of Trauma Recovery between Chippewa and Native American People in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine: Healing through “Remembering” and “Affective Solidarity”

Abstract

This paper focuses on the recovery of the characters in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine through remembering and their own solidarity in the community. In this paper, I will argue that Louise Erdrich presents a positive vision to the characters in Love Medicine through remembering. Albertine and Lipsha change and heal with historical awareness through remembering June, and Lulu and Marie are healed through affective solidarity in the community. While remembering June, Albertine and Lipsha recall the history of the Chippewa tribe they had forgotten and understand their ancestors' historical trauma. The change of the two main characters presents a vision of hope that the second generation of Native Americans who have not suffered direct historical trauma, will not forget their painful history and continue to live with pride as Native Americans. Lulu and Marie have the trauma of not achieving complete love with Nector due to their love adversaries. However, Lulu and Marie do not give up their lives because of the wounds of love, but rather, they acknowledge and reconcile each other by converting the relationship between hatred and long-cherished desire into a relationship of empathy and love in Nector's death. The dynamic relationship between Lulu and Marie-Nector reveals that they become family to each other within the tribal community. Erdrich's story of the Chippewa tribe’s trauma and wounds in Love Medicine may not be apparent on the surface, but in the process of storytelling an individual's life, it makes the reader deeply empathize with their trauma and wounds.