The Round House by Louise Erdrich - Essay Example

"The Round House" by Louise Erdrich In The Round House, Joe’s mother Geraldine is raped violently on a North Dakota reservation. The attack takes place in a sacred place that the Ojibwe use as a place to practice in secret their old religions, while also hiding their birch-bark scrolls and eagle feathers from Catholic clergymen who had converted them (Erdrich 32). However, the cabin that Joe’s mother is attacked in is owned by both the state and the tribe. Since no one knows the exact place the attack occurred, it is not possible for the authorities to determine the jurisdiction under which therapist should be tried, which leads to his being set free. This legal quagmire happens in many reservations while statistics for rape are high for Native Americans. This occurrence ends up being Joe’s coming-of-age story. The first time the reader meets Joe is when he is uprooting tree seedlings that have grown into their house’s foundation (Erdrich 4). The attack on his mother points the reader to Joe’s tenacity and the manner in which his life is undermined. Geraldine’s rape and her subsequent retreat away from Joe and his father, as well as his realization that his father, who is a tribal judge, cannot do anything because of the legal quagmire speed up Joe’s growth curve. Joe loses his innocence after finding out the rapist’s identity and deciding that it is only he, who can get revenge for his mother. The novel’s first sentence that small trees had attacked the foundation of his parent’s house (Erdrich 4) seems to overshadow the occurrences that will happen later. The home is one of the most sacred places and having its foundations shaken or destroyed is a frightening thought. In the novel, both the foundations of the home and the home itself come close to being destroyed after the rape of Geraldine, Joe’s mother, at the roundhouse. The attack has a devastating effect on Geraldine’s life, and she retreats to her bedroom, refusing to leave it or talk to anyone, including her husband (Erdrich 40). Since the attack has robbed her of her peace, she is unable to live normally, and this extends to her relationship with her husband. This is also extended to her son Joe and leads him to discover his mother’s attacker in order to return her peace of mind and enable her to leave without fear again. The attack on his mother happened during a Sunday afternoon and, on realizing that she had not returned home, Joe and his father become unnerved and decide to look for her. They find her on the reservation, and when they get her home, they realize that she will not leave the car, instead of sitting there shaken and looking frozen (Erdrich 45). Apart from letting Joe know that she is well, she refuses to speak and sits in the car covered in urine and blood and smelling of petrol. After they take her to the hospital, she withdraws on getting home, which worries Joe and his father, making them turn away from each other and to each other as is common after a family tragedy. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself wanting desperately to heal his family and take them back to where they were before the attack. This sees him try to take on the role of a parent, trying to protect his mother, as well as his father, from any more harm. The attack on Joe’s mother has a big effect on the Ojibwe community that is very tight-knit. The community is located at the reservations edge, and the people on it interact with white shopkeepers and landowners (Erdrich 50). As Joe begins his search for answers on his mother’s attack, he learns of resentments that have been long forgotten, as well as past sins that start to come to the surface. He starts to believe that his mother, one of those in charge of the tribal census, and his father who is a tribal judge are aware of more than they are telling him. As a young teenage boy, Joe and three of his friends start to think up ideas on the attack and explore these ideas. He soon identifies the roundhouse as the place the attack took place, which is a cultural and spiritual center for his tribe (Erdrich 65). Also, he also hears about the place and its origins from his grandfather, which makes him even more suspicious of the attack. Since Geraldine is unsure of whether the attack occurred on federal or tribal land because she was attacked with a bag placed on her head, the case becomes stuck. Each jurisdiction has different laws and, despite the fact that she has identified who attacked her and had established a clear-cut case against her attacker, the rapist is let go since Indians cannot prosecute non-Indians if they commit crimes on Indian land (Erdrich 67). While she could have lied and said that the land she was attacked in was non-tribal, she is unable to do so since she thinks Joe and his father would find out that she was lying. This further increases the distance between her and them as she attempts to cling to her integrity. Joe decides to seek the help of a local priest who tells him of some sins that cry for justice to heaven (Erdrich 77). This statement resonates with Joe and feels that it gives him the direction he should be taker, as well as the justification for what he feels should be done. The trauma that Joe goes through can make him grow up overnight. This is because he has to see his mother Geraldine as being needy, vulnerable, and human (Erdrich 80). While she took care of his needs and those of his father before the attack, she is unable to do the same now. He comes to learn of what his father is like in the absence of his mother, which he never had to encounter before the attack. The attack has led him to believe that he can longer depend, on his father and mother, to be present when he needs them. His life, he feels, is now his responsibility. The responsibility extends to; finding out who attacked his mother and to preventing the man from harming his family again. The trauma changed everything and forced him out of his childhood. However, it did not necessarily force him to grow up, especially since he was not equipped to handle realities of the resulting situations or even the emotional issues that come up. As Joe’s mother becomes increasingly depressed, Joe and his father attempt to find justice for her, the slow pace frustrates Joe that the legal process is taking. Therefore, he decides to take up the matter with his friends and get revenge. However, this plan comes at a tragic price as Joe is prematurely thrust into the world of adults filled with ineffable sadness and guilt. Joe’s narrative in the novel is emotionally immediate; enabling the reader to chronicle the disastrous effect that the attack on his mother has on the domestic life of his family and his premature introduction to the adult and violent world. Work Cited Erdrich, Louise. The Round House, New York: Constable & Robinson, 2013. Print. Read More