Death as an inescapable part of daily life

Death is an inescapable part of daily life as Louise Erdrich argues in her novel “The Plague of Doves.” Death comes in many ways in the novel, including both literal and symbolic, and overshadows the lives of the town of Pluto and its residents. Death also forms a core, driving element of the plot, and establishes a mystery, a tragedy, and a cause for redemption - something the citizens of Pluto must constantly live with.

In 1896, the plague of doves which descends on Pluto and the surrounding area scours the land and destroys crops and livelihoods. The doves symbolically and literally represent death to the residents of the area as a result. The doves symbolically portend not only the ultimate demise of the town itself, but the Lochern murders and lynchings which follow seventeen years later. In 1911, an unknown...