War and Veterans in Louise Erdrich's Novels

Abstract

From the beginning of the Native American Renaissance, the subject matter of war tends to be significant to portray sufferings of emotional maladjustment among the Native American veterans who encountered the outside world through the war. Louise Erdrich is not an exception in dealing with the topics of war and veterans in her novels. Unlike some other writers, however, Erdrich does not give a hopeful ending to those veterans. The veterans are portrayed as victims and they cannot escape from the painful memories of war. The Native American veterans in particular, such as Cyprian, Billy Peace, Russell, and Henry Lamartine Jr., all have conspicuously fatal consequences arising from their participation in war, in one way or another, physically or emotionally. Each veteran has the fate of becoming an outcast or suffering a tragic death. Especially, the muted Henry Jr.’s drowning by committing suicide after his return from the Vietnam War manifests Erdrich’s powerful message about the brutal nature of war which also reminds the reader of the tragic history of Native Americans on the North American continent.