Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine

An average of 1,500 people in the United States die from exposure each year. It was this that killed June Morrissey in the dead of winter--in the first few pages. In Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, we learn the life story of June through other characters’ stories and memories. We learn about her as if we would learn from a family member over time. The effect of Love Medicine’s multiple narrative provides insight for the characters’ lives, especially June; who dies when the book begins. June Morrissey had a brief sexual encounter with a man named Andy in the winter of 1981. The night of her death, she walks across the frozen field, “the snow fell deeper that Easter than it had in forty years, but June walked over it like water and came home” (7). June had just left Andy in his truck and walked into the storm. She was never seen again--she had presumably died from exposure, and her family had a small funeral for her. This is the only scene in Love Medicine in which we learn something about June directly from her. We see that she is lost and incapable of taking …show more content…
Gordie goes to Marie Kashpaw’s house, and while he was there, he was in need of alcohol. The only way to satisfy his thirst was to drink lysol, which made him daydream about his past. Gordie had a flashback to his honeymoon with June: “June pushed Gordie over in the shallows and he started laughing too. They swam past the reeds together, out to where the water was colder…” (264). This alludes to another piece to the puzzle of June and her life. This is important because it illustrates insight into the larger context. It can be inferred from the quote that June and Gordie were temporarily happy during their honeymoon. Understanding what makes a person happy in life allows us to tell what is important to them in their