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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.
Part 4, Niiwin, begins with an epigraph that finishes the origin story begun in the first epigraph and provides additional detail about the creation of the world.
The dog, whom Klaus calls Wiindigoo Dog, is standing on his chest, insulting him. The Wiindigoo is a folkloric spirit who represents insatiable, destructive hunger. The dog, who berates Klaus for being drunk again, tells him a story about three dogs waiting at a vet’s office. The first dog, who belongs to a Hochunk family, ate a pot of stew that the family had made but not shared with him. Then he ate the trash that contained the bones of the meat that went into the stew. At that point he had a terrible stomach and had gone to the bathroom all over the house. He was sure that they were going to have him put down. The next dog, a Dakota dog, tells a similar story. He’d been left alone in a truck with a man’s food and had not been able to stop himself from consuming all of it. The third dog, who is Ojibwe, had gone after his owner when she was vacuuming in the nude.
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By Louise Erdrich