Marie Lazzare Kashpaw - Love Medicine Essay

Marie Lazzare Kashpaw

Marie is lucid, caring, and ignorant/indignant. She's a lucid person by understanding why Henry died. She said he died for Lulu because he loved her. (158) Marie's a caring person by taking in a lot of babies to take care of. (130) This shows that she's caring by taking in kids to take care of even when she already has her own kids to take care of. She's an ignorant person by pretending she never knew the letter that Nector left her existed after she read it. She read the letter and placed it back where she got it from right before Nector came back. (157-161)

Marie tries to deny her Native American blood and goes to a convent near the reservation to try to become a nun in 1934. When Marie was at the convent, Sister Leopolda told her/gave her a place to sleep in which was in the stove. Also, Sister Leopolda says that the devil is with Marie. As a result, she did several things to Marie to try to get rid of the devil. In addition, Marie kicked Sister Leopolda and Marie got stabbed with a fork by Sister Leopolda.

Then in 1948, Marie kept June and took care of her. Also, she fed her, gave her clothes to wear, and even saved her from being hanged. As a result, June called Marie a bad name and Marie washed June's mouth with soap flakes. Eli went to Marie's house in the summer and he met June and June wanted to go live with him. As a result, Marie letted June go live with Eli. Also, Marie's baby boy was born in this year too.

In 1957, Marie kept taking in babies to take care of since two of her babies died. Also, Nector cheated on Marie and left her for Lulu. Marie read the letter that Nector left her and placed it back where she got it from and acted like she never knew that letter existed right before Nector came back. Then, in 1983 Marie was at the Senior citizens and she organized pinochle nights there.

Marie is in the story to show that women are caring. Women are especially caring people toward children/babies and they usually never forget things that have happened to their children. This can mean that if their baby died, they will never forget this fact, and will find a way to replace it and take care of it. This relates to Marie because 2 of her babies died and she hasn't forgot that and as a result, she kept on taking in babies to take care of (as a replacement of her 2 dead babies) even when she still had some of her own kids take care of too. Therefore, this is why this character is in the story.

Also, she's in the story to show that women can be ignorant at times when they want to. Women are mostly ignorant at times when they find out that their husband/ boyfriend cheated on them or left them for someone else. This ignorant behavior occurs because the women just love their lovers too much that they don't want to accept that their husband/boyfriend cheated on them/left them. Marie