In what ways are Nanapush and Pauline different? What are the
differences in the way they see the world?
What do you notice about the title of each chapter? what might
be the significance of the multiple titles?
To whom does Nanapush appear to be telling his story? What
are the differences between the way Pauline tells her story and Nanapush
tells his? What might these differences suggest?
Describe the relationship between Nanapush and Fleur Pillager.
Why is there such a strong bond between them?
What things does Nanpush blame for the tribe’s troubles? In his
mind, does the tribe share some of the responsibility for their problems?
Who is Misshepeshu and what is his significance to the Ojibway tribe
in general and to Fleur Pillager in particular?
What is Pauline’s attitude towards Fleur?
What happens to Fleur in Argus? Who tells us this information?
What is the effect on you, the reader, of the two different narrators?
Why might Erdrich have constructed the novel in this way? How does
the structure of the novel connect to some of the novel’s themes?
Why won’t Nanapush give any of the Anglos his real name?
What is Nanapush’s opinion of Pauline? What is her opinion of
him?
Who are Eli and Margaret and what is their relationship to Nanapush,
Fleur, and Pauline?
Why does Eli come to Nanapush for help in pursuing Fleur?
To whom is Nanapush telling his story? What is her relationship
to the other characters and how does she get her name? Who is on
record as her father?
Who is the Morrissey family and how do they make their money?
Explain Pauline’s ideas about death and dying. What do these
ideas tell us about Pauline’s character?
Who is Napoleon and what is Pauline seeking from their relationship?
Why does Pauline cast a spell on Eli?
What is significant about Eli’s moose hunt?
Why is Margaret’s head shaved? Why does Fleur shave her head?
In Nanapush’s opinion, why are these things significant?
What is the symbolism of the “ugly design of bruises”?
What sorts of visions does Pauline have? How does she describe
God’s relationship to the Anglos? to the Indians?
What happens to Fleur’s second child? Why does Pauline say that
she can’t help Fleur at her moment of crisis? (Be very specific)
Where do Fleur and Pauline go with the baby? What is Fleur trying
to accomplish?
What is the symbolic significance of the shoes that Lulu wears, which
Nanapush refers to as having “heels like tiny knives”? How might
the shoes that Lulu wears relate to the meaning of the title of the novel?
Why is it significant that when Fleur sets out to hunt, confident that
her family will meat that night, her hunt is failure? What does this
suggest about the fate of the family and about Fleur herself?
What saves the family from starving?
What does Nanapush notice about the map that Father Damien shows them?
What does the family decide to do about it?
Why does Bernadette Morrissey go to work for the Indian Agent in town?
Who is it that Lulu apparently wants to marry? Why is Nanapush
against this marriage?
Why does Father Damien want Nanapush to take a position of responsibility
within the tribe? Why doesn’t Nanapush want this position?
Why does Nanapush want to “work a medicine” on Fleur? Why does
he fail in his attempt?
What does Pauline think will be accomplished by praying in Nanapush’s
boat in the middle of the lake?
What does Pauline do to Napoleon? What does she think she is doing?
What do Margaret and Nector do with the tax money? What are the
various consequences of
their actions?
What does Fleur do to the land and trees around her house, and why?
Do her actions seem like acts of triumph to you, or acts of defeat?
How do Nanapush and Margaret get Lulu back? What is ironic about
what they do?
In the concluding chapter, how does Nanapush describe what the tribe
has become? What has become of Lulu, while she was at the school?
How would you describe the final image of the novel? Is it positive,
negative, optimistic, pessimistic, or some combination of all of these?