The Loss of Traditional Values in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks

Andrew Kerezsi (0762539)

Professor Bold

ENGL*3550

Feb 9 2017

University of Guelph

Passage: “I am a man. . . .” to “. . . ‘And her name is Lulu’” (60-61).

The Loss of Traditional Values in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks

In this passage of Louise Erdrich’s Tracks, the events of Lulu’s birth and baptism are subtle expressions of the political and spiritual anxieties of the Anishinabe people within the larger context of the story. Although these events can be seen as a unification between spirituality and Catholicism, they effectively expose the rising tensions between oral traditions and historical documentation in the novel. Fleur is presented as the embodiment of resistance of the Anishinabe people towards Catholicism, and also as the distrust in government documentation. Although Nanapush himself has vehemently opposed to complying with government documents in the past, he compromises in this section in order to aid in what he believes will be the survival of his people. Through the use of the symbolic representations of tradition and government, this passage reveals that in order for the lineage of the Anishinabe people to continue it must negotiate its values in orality with historical documentation.

Distrust is apparent early in the passage with Nanapush’s refusal to accept what Pauline claims to have happened as objectively true, and instead refers to those claims with a degree of skepticism. Rather than claiming definitively that Pauline shot the bear’s heart, he comments “she says so anyway” (60). As Nanapush desires the survival of oral tradition and of his people, and Pauline desires Catholicism and whiteness, this uncertainty can be seen as a reflection of the Anishinabe people’s distrust with Catholicism and the government. This distrust is echoed by Fleur when she calls for Lulu to be returned “before [she] could be named” (61) after the baptism. By refusing to allow Lulu to be named in the presence of the Priest, Pauline is attempting to reject not only Catholicism, but documentation as well. This notion of preserving orality and resisting documentation is something that was promulgated earlier in the novel by Nanapush as he claimed that his name “loses power every time that it is written and stored in a government file” (32). Therefore, by Nanapush inscribing his own name onto Lulu for the priest to record, he is accepting that he must forfeit some degree of authority to Catholicism in order for his people to survive through Lulu. Fleur herself is implied in this passage to be living through Lulu after the birth. Pauline and Margaret “were sure Fleur was dead” and it was only at the sound of Lulu’s crying that “Fleur opened her eyes and breathed” (60). This is symbolic of Lulu carrying on and surviving the lineage of the diminishing Anishinabe population.

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