Research Paper on:
Lipsha Character in Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Like them she presents the reader with a sort of free flowing narrative that is often fragmented, comes from various points of views (which is evident in  the diversity of the essays in "Love Medicine") and offers a subtle sense of magical realism. In her work "Love Medicine" Erdrich is able to offer all those things in  a manner that essentially creates something of a genealogy for the character of Lipsha. Love Medicine as Genealogy "In this powerful first novel, Louise Erdrich introduces several generations  in the interrelated families living in and around a Chippewa or Ojibwa reservation near the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota...Spanning fifty years, from 1934 through 1984, the novel is  told through the voices of a series of vivid characters, mostly Chippewa men and women who are caught up in the emotional tangle of their families histories, but who struggle  to gain some control over their lives" (Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich). In light of such a generalization of the novel, we begin to understand that family, and family relationships,  are incredibly important in the novel. And, with that understanding, no matter how fragmented the story, or stories, become, there is a foundation that seeks to help define the identity  of one individual, Lipsha. One critic notes that this novel "explores more or less three general areas which constitutes its plot: (1) The trauma that Lipsha Morrissey faced as a  young child (being that his natural mother disowned him). (2) The emotional anguish and deep sorrow that Lipsha encountered with death and (3) The bond that was formed with his  grandparents despite the various smoke screens" (Mayrant). In this categorized analysis we see that the elements within the story revolve around Lipsha and his need to find identity and place.