LaRose

In the third section, the author temporarily breaks with the main narrative of the Iron/Ravich families in order to examine the history behind the LaRose name. Most of the section involves the alternating confluence between white and Ojibwe cultures, as seen in the merging of LaRose and Wolfred, as well as the greater white social attempt to annihilate native culture, as seen in the boarding schools. The author interrogates the nature of whiteness which constricts the native women, binding their bodies and rendering them unable to move or breathe. The readers witness LaRose symbolically destroy the clothes she wore at the boarding school in order to strip herself of this enforced whiteness. By appropriating the clothes for use as infant things, LaRose possibly demonstrates how aspects of white culture itself can be torn apart and restructured into something worthwhile and useful.

This section also gives readers a glimpse into the sickness and disease that plagues native populations. The previous section briefly mentioned the annihilation wrought by white disease on Native American populations, but this section gives readers an immediate perspective as it follows multiple LaRoses who succumb to tuberculosis. Not only are these women themselves victims of the disease, they also witness the disease—among many others—ravaging their peers in the boarding houses. The author then implicitly links whiteness to a kind of disease, as it is only within these white spaces that the LaRoses fall ill. However, the author also indicates the common sentiments at the time through the arguments of the first LaRose’s doctor, who disagrees with the widespread belief that disease exists as the will of God. Instead of being the embodiment of manifest destiny, he argues that human greed is to blame for the near extinction of native populations.

The author also uses this section to expand on the thematic importance placed on knowledge, demonstrating that knowledge is generational and exists as something that is passed down, usually by the mother. The author also indicates the disconnect between white history and internalized Ojibwe knowledge. Whereas white history and culture represents something that is externalized, shallow, and even forced upon other people, Ojibwe culture theorizes knowledge as something that comes from within, again usually passed down through the mother. Despite their best efforts, the white boarding school teachers remain unable to kill this inherited knowledge. It seems, then, that the Ojibwe expand beyond white conceptions of identity, as the culture becomes inextricably linked to the knowledge itself. Annihilation becomes impossible, then, as long as this knowledge exists and continues to be passed down.

This section focuses around this knowledge but within decidedly feminine parameters. All the LaRoses are teachers in some way, espousing the knowledge inherent within female voices. Knowledge itself becomes feminine, which readers note continues with Mrs. Peace. Although the last LaRose is a boy, there remains some indication that he will uphold his namesake role as well. As the LaRoses are also all healers, the author equates healing with teaching, demonstrating the palliative effect of knowledge. The presence of this section directly after the previous Romeo section forces the reader to acknowledge Romeo’s lack of maternal care. Of the characters in the novel, he is most clearly without a mother and therefore lacks knowledge. He seeks to create his own knowledge through the accumulation of stolen information. However, Romeo creates knowledge out of the trauma of maternal absence, tainting it. Romeo’s information will only generate more trauma, as it does not contain the healing power of ancestry.