Abstract: Louise Erdrich is one of the most important and most prolific Indian novelists in the history of United States, Love Medicine, as a masterpiece of American Indian literature, is her first well-known and most representative work, which contains a very deep Indian culture, and reflects the contemporary Indians’ difficult living conditions and their self-pursuit under the historical background of cultural adaptation. This paper studies the American Indians’ living condition in this work, analyzes the survival difficulties they faced and different characters’ different attitudes toward the survival difficulties, which decide their destiny. Finally, this paper discusses the way out of the survival difficulties.

Key words: Love Medicine; American Indians; survival; way

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2.The Survival Difficulties of American Indians in LOVE MEDICINE-3

  2.1 The Loss of Land and Culture-4

  2.2 Racial Discrimination-6

3.The American Indians’ Way to Survival in Love Medicine-7

  3.1 Different Attitudes of American Indians-8

    3.1.1 Fighting Against the Survival Difficulties-8

    3.1.2 Escaping from the Survival Difficulties-10

    3.1.3 Wavering between the Above Two-12

  3.2 Resolutions to the Survival Difficulties-13

    3.2.1 Love as the Cure-13

    3.2.2 Fighting for American Indians’ Rights-15

    3.2.3 Seeking Social Recognition-17

4.Conclusion-18

References.20