Louise Erdrich gives the story of Fleur Pillager, a young woman who embarks on a journey to the city to avenge the stealing of her land. Pillager makes her way to the home of James Mauser, the suspected thief. Before leaving for the city, she assumes her mother’s name, “Four Souls,“ hence the title of the book. Fleur is planning to kill Mauser. Polly Elizabeth, Mauser’s sister in law, employs her as a laundress. Fleur uses her cunning to ensnare Mauser into a trap of death. Her plans are dashed after she engages in sex with Mauser.
In a desperate act of expiation, Fleur marries Mauser. She becomes underweight, and her drive for vengeance becomes complex. Fleur is stressed and goes on a drinking spree. Fleur gets pregnant haphazardly. By bad luck, she delivers a baby boy with autism. Erdrich uses alternating characters, Nanapush and Polly Elizabeth, to drive her point home. Nanapush tells Fleur’s story as well as his own. The relationship between Nanapush and his wife, Margaret, is centered on revenge and envy.
Erdrich uses Nanapush to tell two parallel narratives based on vengeance and bitterness. Nanapush becomes jealous when his childhood nemesis, Shesheeb, returns to the reservation. He suspects that her wife might be having a secret affair with Shesheeb. Erdrich used her wits and unparalleled intelligence to narrate the experience of Asian Americans in the USA in the 20th century. White people persecuted the Indian community and robbed them of their land. These acts made Asian Americans be driven by revenge and jealousy against white people.
