Erdrich delicately handles the issue of female disempowerment in the character of Sonja by portraying this behavior more permissively than one would expect. We just keep going.”. Erdrich’s choice to first introduce this character with his end in sight is narratively risky, but it fits in well with the overall tone of desperation present throughout the book. In the end, she takes nearly all the money to run away from Joe’s uncle and live on her own. One of the most long-standing mysteries in the book concerns the fate of Joe’s friend Cappy, who Erdrich reveals at the outset of the book to have died by the time Joe is narrating his tale, years later. Subscribe to our email newsletter. Read the Study Guide for The Round House…, Fighting Evil Without Becoming Evil: Perceptions of Justice in 'The Round House', View Wikipedia Entries for The Round House…. Do you see? While their moral standards for the rest of the world were rigid, they were always able to find excuses for their own shortcomings. Like “This was our ritual. I was right, in that there was just the three of us. Where they betrayed, he was faithful.”, “Add there was that moment when my mother and father walked in the door disguised as old people. You will leave me to think the way I want to think, here. Sonja used to be a strip dancer and maybe even a prostitute and she wanted to marry Joe’s uncle and change the perception many may have about her. Although not all the characters may not be unique like Sonja, and though the simple writing and the story may fade in memory, Erdrich’s portrayal of the isolation and rich culture that define reservation life forms a powerfully memorable backdrop to this tale of vigilante justice. The action takes place over the course of a year. Error rating book. Erdrich’s nuanced treatment of Sonja’s character is just one of many instances where she approaches complex moral and legal stances, a rich cultural history, and a long history of abuse with a deft hand. With these complex, in-depth descriptions, Erdrich effectively conveys the poverty, love, isolation, and rich culture that govern reservation life. While this approach does not leave much room for emotional analysis, it makes the book easy to digest as well as realistic, given Joe’s young age at the time of the story. Nobody else thought night and day of her. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Race, politics, injustice, religion, superstition, magic, and the boundary between childhood and adulthood are explored in The Round House. Choose a theme or two and trace how it is demonstrated in a character’s life throughout the novel. ― Louise Erdrich, The Round House. Nobody else, not Clemence, not even my mother herself, cared as much as we did about my mother. He was poised on circumstance.”, “My father could out-weather anybody. Space was put between us by human error. The protagonist in the novel is Joe and the antagonist is Linden Lark. In her latest novel “The Round House,” Louise Erdrich weaves a tale of crime and justice through the eyes of a 13-year-old Ojibwe boy, Joe. God can't do that without taking away our moral freedom. We’d love your help. It was almost enough to make a boy want to be a Catholic.”, “While their moral standards for the rest of the world were rigid, they were always able to find excuses for their own shortcomings. You will not terrify me, Joe. Erdrich binds the novel together through two seemingly disparate elements that together create a depth to her depiction: the spiritual world of sweat lodges, mythology, and tales of ancestry, alongside a legal history of court cases pertaining to reservation law. Where they abandoned, he saved. In the first chapter, when Joe describes the trees that have grew near their house, "Small trees had attacked my parents' house at the foundation.". Erdrich includes very few loose ends or connections that the reader must make for themselves, and this technique of overt connections does not detract from the suspense of the story. In a story with so much injustice, this one small, nearly hidden victory seems a large one. Though the reader might fault Sonja’s actions as weakness of character, Erdrich sympathizes with Sonja’s mistreatment—nearly every man she encounters, even Joe, treats her as an object because she is pretty, and she has low feelings of self-worth because of this. It would pass.”, “I stood there in the shadowed doorway thinking with my tears. Little time elapses between chapters, and once a question is posed, it does not take too long to find out the answer. Erdrich’s setting is expertly crafted. The narrator is the 13 year old Joe and he narrates the events from a subjective point of view. It is an exquisitely told Erdrich favors fast-paced action to keep the story moving forward. You will stop asking questions and you will not give me any worry. The author draws a parallel between Joe and the fictional character in Joe’s grandfather’s story in the sense that both men use violence to make sure the bad person pays for what he or she had done. Besides that there was the deft speed with which he’d caught Angus, the free weights beside the television, the fancy Michelob. I glanced up at him. Linda, Joe’s parents and other relatives all knew what he had done but they decided not to criticize him for his actions, knowing that he did the right thing. I've had enough fear for my whole life. An important imagery appears at the end of the novel when Joe is faced with Cappy’s dead body. But the subject matter needs to be told and talked about. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. The Question and Answer section for The Round House is a great After serving as an emotional refuge for Joe, Sonja eventually begins taking this money and spending it on expensive clothing and earrings. The Round House by Louise Erdrich Joe's House Joe pulls the tree saplings from the house's foundation. The Themes Of Justice InThe Round House Erdich 1119 Words | 5 Pages. "'That's enough,' he said, though he was usually a perfectionist. You will not go after him. Our breaking break, our communion. I’d call out, Are you still back there? Zelia there. The action is important because it foreshadows the extent to which Joe is willing to go to protect his family from the people trying to hurt them. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, “Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. Knowing who the rapist is halfway through the book creates more tension, as Joe’s family tries to emotionally recover from the incident while still pursuing justice. English has destroyed and sucked up the languages of other cultures - its cruelty is its vitality.”, “Very little is needed to make a happy life, he said.”, “This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.”, “The Larks were bumbling entrepreneurs and petty thieves, but they were also self-deceived. By now they stood staring at each other helplessly over the broken dish.”, “And it occurred to me how even pulling trees that day, just months ago, I was in heaven. Not affiliated with Harvard College. That proved to be an understatement as Cappy himself admitted of being unable to sleep and function properly because of what he had done. Thus, the money that would have improved the life of one mistreated woman finds its way into the hands of another. It is hard to say I enjoyed the book because of the subject matter. You will not add to my sorrows. and it all began with that trusting moment where my father walked up behind my mother and she smiled at his approach without turning. At the same time, I found, as I rose form the chair, I'd gotten old along with them.”, “We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human, are we?”, “Now you listen to me, Joe. Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here One of the most revered novelists of our time - a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life - Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be long. Yes, tears can be thoughts, why not?”, “We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human being, are we? Not only did he own a copy of Alien, not only did he have an amazing and terrible wound, but he had called us humiliating names without actually resorting to the usual swear words. Another example of these connections includes a time when Cappy’s brother tells Joe about a vision he saw during a sweat lodge. When Joe sees a dark shape in the bushes a few nights later with a silver glow about him, Erdrich makes sure the reader draws the connection between the two incidents by explicitly stating the connection. Someone from the community is currently working feverishly to complete this section of the study guide. Erdrich's novel, The Round House is filled with symbolism. Unaware. What”, “And here was the thing I didn’t understand then but do now—the loneliness. It gave him the sensation that he was tottering on the tip of a flagpole. “I had a fat Indian for a husband at one time,” one character recalls. While this mystery surrounding his death is certainly not the driving force of the narrative, the mysterious undercurrent colors the reader’s entire relationship to Cappy, as the cause of his death is not revealed until the final pages. So we study our souls.”, “Of course, English is a very powerful language, a colonizer's language and a gift to a writer. I'd even heard him speculate about weather in the afterlife.”, “And so, you see, her absence stopped time. 'The Round House' by Louise Erdrich is available in stores now. You will not add to my fear. These scenes of the older generation boisterously cackling over their sexual exploits, much to the horror of the young narrator and his friends, are not merely comic interludes; they are integral to painting a realistic world, a fuller picture of family ties on this reservation in the late 80s.