Love Medicine

Lulu Lamartine is Marie’s parallel matriarchal figure in the novel, and like Marie, Lulu is portrayed from young girlhood to old age. Also born from struggle, Lulu is the rare character who finds joy in all parts of her life, and nature, men, her children, and her body are all sources of genuine pleasure for Lulu. Throughout the novel, Lulu represents strength, independence, and autonomy beyond societal expectations. Although Lulu and Marie are introduced as romantic rivals for Nector’s love, their shared experiences and ability to re-evaluate their history allows them to establish a meaningful friendship later in life.

Erdrich closely aligns Lulu with various kinds of love in the novel. She has both Catholic and Ojibwe marriages, to Henry Lamartine and Moses Nanapush, respectively. She also has several extramarital affairs and is unabashedly sexual. While other characters use sex to deepen martial intimacy, produce children, or seek emotional comfort, Lulu’s sexuality is without shame or obligation. The children produced through Lulu’s sexual encounters adore her, thought Erdrich complicates Lulu’s maternal nature when Marie comforts Lulu’s son Lyman after he learns Nector is his father.

Lulu’s sense of independence is closely aligned with her beloved home, and the loss of her home represents a shift in the dynamic between Lulu and the Little No Horse community. Although Lulu loses her home—the physical representation of her separate identity from the rest of the reservation—she gains respect from the community when she defends herself during the meeting to repossess her land. Lulu bears the loss with grace, and reintegrates more fully into community life, which serves her when she requires much support late in life. Throughout the book, Erdrich uses Lulu to explore the boundaries of self and community, and the obligations an individual has to each.

Nector Kashpaw is an important character because he is the source of many external conflicts in the story. Torn between his love for both Marie and Lulu, Nector creates a division between the Lamartines, Morrisseys, and Kashpaws that endures for many years. Notably, Nector doesn’t do this on purpose, and is not portrayed as an antagonist. Instead, Nector is his own worst enemy. Educated by American schools, Nector’s intellect is an implied product of American interference that fails to meet his expectations. When he goes out into the world, he gets jobs that dehumanize Native Americans, proving to him that no matter how smart he is, he will continue to be marginalized by the world outside the reservation. Nector is a character whose potential is never fully realized, and whose biggest flaw is that he loves too deeply and too selfishly.

Nector is easily intimidated by both women he loves, and he feels lonely even though he is surrounded by lovers and children; he has not found his passion or calling and is uncertain about the meaning of his life. Lulu and Marie are not lost, and their ability to anchor him means that Nector has both a protector and a guide in his life. Still, Erdrich suggests that Nector is capable of resenting this. He reflects that he cannot control Lulu the way he can control Marie, even though his control over Marie is mostly imagined. Nector’s desire to control these two women stems from this strength they carry that he wants–if he can control them, it means he is actually stronger than they are. In reality, the illusion of his control is yet another tactic both women use to ensure his safety and relative wellbeing. Nector ages poorly, and his mental and physical capacities decrease sharply. After he chokes to death on Lipsha’s love medicine, Nector’s spirit appears to Lulu and Marie. Through these apparitions, Nector proves more effective at facilitating community bonds in death than he was in life. 

The novel ends with a focus on Lipsha Morrissey, whose metaphorical conclusion represents a new beginning for his community. An inexperienced healer, Lipsha’s unawareness of the identity of his parents symbolizes his struggle for self-knowledge. He is lonely and self-conscious until he finally meets his father Gerry, whose presence teaches him to appreciate Marie and the life he was given when his mother, June Morrissey, gave him up.

Lipsha internalizes his shame in his early appearances, but his character develops through a brief but important bildungsroman, or coming of age story, in the final arc of the novel. After his love medicine fails to revive Nector and Marie’s marriage, Lipsha learns his parents’ identities. This inspires Lipsha to seek out his half-brother, King, who fatefully positions him to be present when Gerry arrives to confront King for testifying against him. While driving Gerry to the Canadian border, Lipsha is inspired by Gerry’s dedication to his new family to resolve to live in the future instead of his past.