The Painted Drum

Considering Erdrich’s assurance in her Author’s Note that “no sacred knowledge is revealed” (277) in her novel, it would be imprudent to make assumptions about how the drum functions, symbolically or otherwise, as an instrument of Ojibwe spirituality. That said, the symbolic value of the drum within the context of the narrative, as a literary device, is another matter. While the drum is closely associated with healing, community, and the little girl who “gave the drum its voice” (179), it ultimately symbolizes perseverance.

Several characters in the novel have given up, capitulating to their grief or melancholy, until the drum speaks to them and inspires them to persevere. The spirit of Old Shaawano's daughter—not yet embodied as the drum—appears to him when he is crippled with despair and urges him to make the drum. With her guidance, and later, with the drum’s, he perseveres in spite of his losses. Similarly, Bernard reflects, despite “my father’s drinking rage[s] […], I never did search out oblivion in order to forget my father’s harm. Something steadied me. Something gave me rightness in my mind” (179). He believes that that something is the drum’s songs, which he learned as a child.