121 pages • 4 hours read
Louise ErdrichA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Thomas Wazhashk arrives in his office for his shift as the night watchman at the Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant. He goes on patrol.
The narration shifts to how Turtle Mountain women work in a factory, noting that “[t]his was the first time there had ever been manufacturing jobs near the reservation and women filled most of these coveted positions. They had scored much higher on tests for manual dexterity” (3). The government believes this is because Indigenous woman worked with beads, but Thomas thinks that it was because their vision is sharp.
Thomas finishes his patrol and returns to his desk, where he will “read, white, cogitate, and from time to time slap himself awake” (4). He was named for the muskrat, “wazhashk,” an important animal because “[i]n the beginning, after the great flood, it was a muskrat who had helped remake the earth” (4). The chapter closes by noting that Thomas is perfectly named.
The focus shifts to Patrice Paranteau, who has always been called “Pixie” because of her elfin eyes. She is trying to get others to use her full name because she is now an adult working in a factory. She also thinks that she “was above petty incidents like Bucky Duvalle and his friends giving her that ride to nowhere, telling people how she’d been willing to do something she had not done” (5).
By Louise Erdrich
Antelope Woman
Louise Erdrich
Fleur
Louise Erdrich
Future Home of the Living God
Louise Erdrich
LaRose
Louise Erdrich
Love Medicine
Louise Erdrich
Shadow Tag
Louise Erdrich
The Beet Queen
Louise Erdrich
The Bingo Palace
Louise Erdrich
The Birchbark House
Louise Erdrich
The Game of Silence
Louise Erdrich
The Leap
Louise Erdrich
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Louise Erdrich
The Painted Drum
Louise Erdrich
The Plague Of Doves
Louise Erdrich
The Red Convertible
Louise Erdrich
The Round House
Louise Erdrich
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
The Shawl
Louise Erdrich
Tracks
Louise Erdrich
American Literature
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Indigenous People's Literature
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
SuperSummary New Releases
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection