Analysis of The Round House by Louise Erdrich

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House. It explores two main themes: sexual violence against women and the futility of revenge. The analysis also delves into the symbolism of small trees representing Linden Lark, who rapes Joe's mother, and gardening as a metaphor for justice. Quotes from the text are provided to support the arguments made.

Introduction To Literature

Table of Contents
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................1
Women, Melancholy And Ravishment.......................................................................................1
THEME 1: Sexual Violence........................................................................................................1
THEME 2: Feeling of revenge is not what it looks like.............................................................2
Symbols and Motif......................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

ESSAY
Women, Melancholy And Ravishment
The Round of House by Louise Erdrich is one of the rarest masterpiece in which author is able to
make a mixture of bigotry, sex, violence, racism, betrayal, superiority by expressing through the
actions of protagonist of the book i.e., Antone (Joe) Coutts, Antone (Bazil) Coutts, Geraldine
Coutts and Linden Lark.
THEME 1: Sexual Violence
From the starting Erdrich is successful to simplify the conditions of native women who have
been facing sexual violence on the basis of tribal, gender, reservations etc. For instance in the
first chapter only, main character Geraldine was raped brutally by Linden because she helped
Mayla to sneak away from linden though she was murdered by him only in latter chapter (P. 17
Chapter 1). In the other part, superiority as a white men is shown in the coming chapters in
which possessiveness over Mayla drives him to killer her so that his ego would be
satisfied(Chapter 8). In other plot, Governor, Curtis Yeltow also sleeps with underage Mayla
which shows that they have no respect towards the women and what important for them is sexual
favour (Chapter 11). Besides this, Joe also treats Sonja disrespectfully and forces her to show a
strip dance.
“You’re crying, aren’t you? Cry all you want, Joe. Lots of men cry after they do
something nasty to a woman… I thought of you like my son. But you just turned into another
piece a shit guy. Another gimme-gimme asshole, Joe. That’s all you are.” (Sonja to Joe, Chapter
9)
Apart from this, another character, Whitey's Joe uncle also beats her wife Sonja. The only person
who has show clean in terms of respect towards women is Joe's friend Cappy who loves Zelia.
Even Joe's father Bazil also harassed his mother as it was imply from the paragraph,
“Now you listen to me, Joe. You will not badger me or harass me. You will not go after
him. You will not terrify me, Joe. I’ve had enough fear for my whole life. You will not add to my
fear. You will not add to my sorrows. It is all a violation.” (Chapter five, Geraldine to Joe).
So it can be said that full book and its circumstances is based on a theme of sexual harassment or
violence against the women. This shows the picture of older years in which women were
suppressed with the power of manhood.
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THEME 2: Feeling of revenge is not what it looks like
Whole book is about the vengeance and revenge which protagonist Joe wants to take from the
rapist of her mother i.e., Linden Lark. As in the latter chapter, Joe and his friend Chappy has
killed the rapist by shooting him. According to general perceptions, people become happy and
satisfied after taking revenge from enemy but in this, both were having a bad dreams and
nightmares about the day of murder, Joe went into the loneliness which her mother is also
suffering from because they have not been able to recover from the circumstances which they
can not forgets. Joe's could not be able to maintain his emotional doldrums which is affecting
their brightness of future.
“I should have felt happy watching them across the table, but instead I was angered by
their ignorance. Like I was the grown-up and the two of them holding hands were oblivious
children. They had no idea what I had gone through for them” (Chapter 11, Joe to Geraldine and
Bazil).
So it can be concluded that, in the society, revenge is not the solution of reducing or removing
hatred towards a specific person or thing instead person should try to remove the conflict
between both the parties.
After mentioning all the quotes and perception towards the theme of The Round of House it can
be said that women were facing lots of hatred and disrespect in the old age though now time has
changed but the story is from the town which is still backward in nature. Besides this, person
should never go for revenge as it only brings melancholy, hatred, jealousy, etc in their life which
makes it miserable to live with and moreover, it is not easy for anyone to get retrieved from the
feeling of guiltiness.
Symbols and Motif
 The starting of novel and chapter One starts from “ Small trees had attacked my parents
house at the foundation” which is hard to understand in the starting but as the novel starts
it flows, it's been found out that small trees is refers to Linden Lark as he attacked Joe's
family by raping his mother (Page 3, chapter 1).
 In other scene, his father got sore back after which he left the garden but on the other
side, 13 years old Joe did not give up and continue his gardening. “You would think then
that I would have stopped, a thirteen-year-old boy with better things to do, but on the
contrary” (Page 4, chapter 1). This is a symbol which readers could not be able to
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interpretate it. It depicts that, Joe's father has loose all his hope of justice for his wife so
to complete the mission, Joe has killed his mother rapist with the help of his friend
Cappy. So gardening or pulling of weeds is a metaphor used by the author to make her
work interesting.
After completing the analysis of The Round of House, there is few questions which are still left
unsolved like Does Bazil know that something bad is going to happen with his wife as when he
woke up after a short nap, his lips were dry and his voice was hoarse and dry. (Page 5, chapter
1). Why does Joe did not share the information of finding 40000 dollars with his parents? Why
does Joe addressed Linden Lark as skin of evil as Joe also committed a crime by killing him
which is equivalent to Lark crime. ?
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Erdrich, Louise. The round house. Hachette UK.
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