Love Medicine Essay

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Shonaya Murray English 1101-04 Professor Campbell 9 April 2012 The Touch of Love in Love Medicine In Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, Lipsha is the source of making sure that his Grandma Kashpaw gets exactly what she has been yearning for the past years; her husband, Grandpa Kashpaw, back. Grandpa Kashpaw past is revealed and the love that Grandma Kashpaw has for him is unconditional. She never gives up on her husband, despite his infidelity; she knows that one day she will have him exclusively. In the article Love Medicine Voices and Margins, the author Kathleen Sands clarifies the meaning of love: “Love is so powerful that it creates in dissoluble ties that even outlast life, and ultimately it allows forgiveness…Love is tenuous; love is dangerous, and love potions risky.” In “Love Medicine” Grandma Kashpaw is blind by love and does not understand Grandpa Kashpaw’s true intentions. Lipsha decides to put his touch to the test to rekindle the covered flame. With one touch of love medicine, Lipsha can mend broken hearts, unfaithful past and the hurt occurring through it all. Lipsha uses his talent to full advantage by stating, “The medicine flows out of me. The touch. I run my fingers up the map of those rivers of veins or I knock very gentle above their hearts or I make a circling motion on their stomachs, and it helps them” (227). Lipsha’s kind-hearted ways leads him to help Grandma Kashpaw to keep Grandpa from stepping out on her again and to make their relationship how it used to be. Knowing the pain that Grandpa has put Grandma through with his infidelity, Lipsha understands that Grandma wants this more than life itself and willing to take a risk. Lipsha tries his touch on Grandpa when he began to step outside of their marriage, “I couldn’t do the touch for Grandpa, though. He was a hard nut” (227). As Grandpa began to grow senile, the love he has for his

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