The Devils of Cultural Conflict in Louise Erdrich’s “Saint Marie”

ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine Louise Erdrich’s short story “Saint Marie (1934)” excerpted from her novel Love Medicine. The narrative, told from the perspective of Marie Lazarre, a young woman of mixed Chippewa Native American and “white” Anglo-American heritage, details the events of her time at the Sacred Heart Convent under the strict tutelage of Sister Leopolda where Marie undergoes severe physical and emotional abuse at the hand of the seemingly sadistic nun. I argue that Marie’s central conflict with Sister Leopolda, seen through a postcolonial lens, represents the conflict between the Anglo-American (Christian) colonizers’ and the Native American, or colonized, ways of life. This is demonstrated by an intermingling of Chippewa and European motifs and symbols, including fairy tale motifs, allusions to Christian practice and iconography, and Chippewa folklore. Specifically, I will show how Marie’s embodiment of double consciousness in this story demonstrates this tension between cultures by the contrast and comparison of imagery alluding to the perversion of Christian sacraments and Algonquian legends of Windigo possession. The Devils of Cultural Conflict in Louise Erdrich’s “Saint Marie”