In Louise Erdrich’s novel, “The Plague of Doves”, one might find it easy to get lost in the numerous scattered narratives and characters. Luckily, the author uses a number of recurring themes to create a sense of connectedness. One of these themes is music, specifically that of a violin. Readers learn that there are many reasons music enters the novel, which include portraying a shattered family, exploring the lives of the two Pace brothers, and even providing the answer to the mysterious murder in Pluto. The novel focuses on the lives of people in and around Pluto, North Dakota, which is a small white settlement on the western edge of the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation. Music is an element of everyday life for the Native American culture. The use of a violin, a Western instrument, indicates that Western influences are becoming a part of Native American culture. The complex history of the violin also alludes to the fact that the character’s histories overlap more than one might originally think. The family of Shamegwa, Evelina’s great uncle, faces an unthinkable pain when their baby boy dies from diphtheria. It is …show more content…
However, this feeling did not last long. The next morning Shamegwa’s father had left and he had taken the violin with him. Without the violin, he was “cut off from all the true, bright, normal routines of living” (205). He became incredibly reclusive and felt he may have stayed that way until, suddenly, he found another violin. Shamegwa had had a dream. This dream told him to “go to the lake and sit by the southern rock” (205). There, by the southern rock is where he waited and the canoe holding a violin appeared. The very fact that Shamegwa accepts this violin tells readers a lot about this idea of music. It becomes evident that it is not the specific violin that Shamegwa misses, but the music