Summary

Chapter Eleven is titled “Dog Love,” and is narrated in the first-person voice of Nanapush. He and Margaret have a loving, friendly, peaceful space of time in which he helps her gather and prepare materials for her dress. A visit from his nephew, however, changes things. The nephew is reminded by conversation about a time when Nanapush snared and almost killed someone. Despite Nanapush’s attempts to distract Margaret and change the course of the conversation, Margaret is reminded of what happened to her, and realizes the truth.

After Nector leaves, the relationship between Nanapush and Margaret becomes angry and tense. “Neither of us,” Nanapush says, “had the courage to dismantle the barrier of hard sticks, pointed words, and prickles of jealousy that soon tangled like deep bush between us” (135). At one point, Nanapush decides that the only way to rebuild what had...