Use of Humor in Erdrichs Tracks Essay -- Erdrich Tracks

Use of Humor in Erdrichs Tracks An rare adage claims that laughter is the best medicine to cure human ailments. Although this interposition might sound somewhat unorthodox, its value as a doctor can be traced back to ancient times when Hypocrites, in his medical examination treatise, stressed the importance of a gay and cheerful mood on the part of the physician and patient fighting disease (Bakhtin 67). Aristotle viewed laughter as mans quintessential privilege Of all living creatures further man is endowed with laughter (Bakhtin 68). In the Middle Ages, laughter was an inbuilt part of folk culture. Carnival festivities and the comic spectacles and ritual connected with them had an important place in the life of medieval man (Bakhtin 5). During the detriment and devastation of German bombing raids on London during World warfare II, the stubborn resilience of British surliness emerged to sustain the spirit of the quite a little and the courage of the nation. To laugh, e ven in the face of death, is a compelling intensity level in the human condition. Humor, then, has a profound impact on the air human beings experience life. In Louise Erdrichs novel Tracks, humor provides aright medicine as the Chippewa tribe struggles for their physical, spiritual, and cultural survival at the first of the twentieth century. While the ability to approach life with a backb atomic number 53 of humor is not unique to any one society, it is an intrinsic choice of Native American life. There is, and always has been, humor among Indians . . . (Lincoln 22). In complaisance to their history, this can best be described as survival humor, one which transcends the void, questions fatalism, and outlasts suffering (Lincoln 45). Through their capacity to draw common... ...emain the contrary powers of Indian humor (Lincoln 5). For the Chippewa, this humor provides powerful medicine for the physical, cultural, and spiritual preservation of their tribe. Works Cited Bak htin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington indium UP, 1984. Erdrich Louise. Tracks. New York Harper Collins, 1988. Ghezzi, Ridie Wilson. Nanabush Stories from the Ojibwe. Coming to Light. Ed. Brian Swann. 1st ed. New York Random House, 1994. Lincoln, Kenneth. Indin Humor. New York Oxford UP, 1993. Sergi, Jennifer. Storytelling Tradition and Preservation in Louise Erdrichs Tracks. World belles-lettres Today 66 (Spring 1992) 279-282. Towers, Margie. Continuity and Connection Characters in Louise Erdrichs Fiction. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16 (1992) 99-115.