Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert F. Gish

Critical Essay by Robert F. Gish

SOURCE: Gish, Robert F. “Life into Death, Death into Life: Hunting as Metaphor and Motive in Love Medicine.” In The Chippewa Landscape of Louise Erdrich, edited by Allan Chavkin, pp. 67-83. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Gish identifies how hunting functions as a central motif in Love Medicine.

Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

—Genesis 27:3-4

Now, watch me, ungilisi, grandson, as I prepare this deer which the Great Spirit has given to us.

—Geary Hobson, “Deer Hunting”

Contemporary American Indian fiction relies consistently on hunting and the role and character of the hunter. Such a preponderance of...
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