An Interdisciplinary Approach

The CHC promotes an interdisciplinary approach to learning. What unexpected lenses can we read The Round House through and what do we gain from them? (For example: eco-literature, food studies, folklore, disability studies, etc.)

14 Thoughts.

  1. The Round House can be seen from a folklore standpoint because the stories of how Nanapush saves his mother are passed through generations by word of mouth. This allows the audience to see how old traditions teach lessons that are still valuable to this day. We can also gain awareness of rape and other types of violence by reading this book and hearing the stories of a victim’s family. Bildungsroman is a genre that can be seen when reading this story because Joe quickly gains much psychological maturity throughout the book at such a young age. This allows readers to understand how detrimental a crime can be to an individual and how it can affect others who care greatly for that victim.

  2. The Round House can most obviously be seen through a political lens, as the story is littered with discussions of how complex and delicate the legal system is for Natives. However, this can also be seen in a comparative politics lens; in regards to South Africa’s apartheid laws, for example. The 1913 Land Act drove racial divides by forcing black Africans into living on separate territories than whites, among other restrictions. Of course, Joe and his father discuss the logistics behind territory boundaries of their reservation immensely, since that aspect of the law would be the decisive piece of information that would determine the verdict of Geraldine’s case (had it gone to court). The Population Registration Act of 1950 forced the specific racial classifications of South Africans, from Bantu (black), White, Colored, and later Asian, while the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 outlined ten Bantustans, homelands for Bantus, which were created in hopes of creating further divides between the Bantus to prevent any black majority from arising. To this day, South Africa still faces the repercussions of its past, just like how most of the land treaties signed over a century ago still hold power over Native laws still. Analyzing how even the – as Joe puts it – “simple” cases are scrutinized can share many similarities to other foreign territorial legislation

  3. In my opinion, The Round House can be examined through lenses of psychology and lenses of history. Psychology because of the impact the attack had on Joe’s mental state and overall well-being. This book might be able to teach us something about how traumatic events can affect the brain and someones actions even if he or she is not necessarily a direct victim of the event. I also believe this book can be examined to see if its historical elements are true. In other words, does the book accurately depict what life might have been like on a Native American Reservation in the late 1980s?

  4. I think viewing this novel through a lense of psychology is really intriguing. To build off of the above concept, many key characters in the novel The Round House displayed symptoms of mental illness as well as unique psyches. A clear example of this is in the depression that plagued Geraldine during her recovery from sexual violence. However that only skims the surface. Both Cappy and Joe exhibit signs of PTSD in their terror dreams of Linden Lark’s ghost, after their revenge (307). In addition, Sonja suffered from low self esteem, Linden’s behavior classified him as a psychopath, and Whitey was an alcoholic. Analyzing the complexes of the characters presented in The Round House gives the readers (specifically psych majors like myself) insight into the effects of sexual violence, tradition, oppression, substance abuse, and trauma on mental health.

  5. When reading The Round House, the reader gains a sense of the political beliefs surrounding crime within the Native American community. While the novel seems to be a stark representation of the devastating effects of sexual assault on an individual, Erdrich brilliantly uses the political lens to provide an accurate representation of the struggles and difficulty involved with coping with a crime within the Native American community. The facts of the case, who committed the crime and where the crime was committed, would not “change the facts”, but would “inevitably change the way [Joe’s family] sought justice” (12). Erdrich not only puts in these contextual details to emphasize the struggle and emotional strain that Joe’s family is under, but she also writes this to mirror the modern day justice system. Erdrich writes to illustrate injustices within modern society in the hopes of fostering a more accepting and unified justice system. Her own voice comes out during pivotal points in the novel to demonstrate her passion and drive to create change. When Joe initially searches for Geraldine’s attacker, he notes that one cannot “tell if a person is an Indian from a set of fingerprints…name…[or] picture” (29). This is Erdrich’s attempt to parallel the sensitive nature of determining one’s backgroundndwith our own society’s methods of determining race and ethnicity. Erdrich writes about the ineffective political and judicial system in regards to Native Americans to suggest that our own system is flawed and detrimental to our well-being as a unified nation. By having the reader experience this novel through the political lens, Erdrich can effectively demonstrate her beliefs and criticisms of our modern justice system.

  6. Like two of the above comments, I believe that psychology is a strong lens with which to view the novel. The rape and assault of Joe’s mother causes very different reactions within each member of the family, though they can all be recognized as a form of PTSD; Geraldine closes herself off from her world and even her family, Joe seeks revenge with an unhealthy passion, and Joe’s father seems to internalize much of his stress, such to the point that he has a heart attack when encountering Linden in the store. In association with this psychological lens, I think there is a subcategory that is, essentially, the makings of a killer. When I began the novel, as I’m sure others would agree, I did not expect it to lead up to a thirteen year old boy shooting his mother’s attacker. And yet, it is a logical conclusion for the novel. All of the stress, all of the trauma, all of Joe’s isolation builds up over the course of the novel which eventually leads to Linden’s death. In that way, I think that Joe’s narrative is imperative to understanding a potential killer’s motive. Because although the novel begins and centers around his mother, the story is about Joe, and his struggle as he seems to lose his family, his normal life, and himself over the course of the novel. While not comparable to the tragedy that befell his mother, Joe’s loss is important as well, as his childhood is wrenched away from him.

    I also think this novel can be viewed through the lens of spirituality and supernatural. There is a lot of folklore throughout the novel, but the one scene I found especially interesting was the one in which Joe sees a ghost. This scene can also be tied back into the state of his mind throughout the book, as he quite literally pictures something haunting him. The ghost is never revisited, and it acts as a marker for Joe’s personal stability and also with his connections to life and what life really means and stands for. Life is a prevalent thematic topic throughout the novel; Sonja leaves to start her life anew, Linda gives life to her family who originally tried to take hers from her, Joe struggles in the act of killing Linden, and Joe’s mother is, for lack of better words, essentially emotionally dead throughout the greater part of The Round House. To me, The Round House is about what life means, what it means to be alive and the limitations and uncertainty concerning those definitions.

  7. I think another lens that can be applied here is the societal standard of beauty and how this is defined. Throughout the book, Joe describes his mother as weak, saying she is “weightless [and], all jutting bones” (87). However, once she returns to her “before-mother” (89), she is depicted as wearing dresses and beautiful once more. Another female character is Linda, who is described as “magnetically ugly” (110) due to her fat hands and distorted face. Aunt Sonja is only described physically by her breasts. The other female figure that is mentioned is Zelia, who Cappy ends up dating. She is described as “Dream Girl,” having “caramel skin,” “soft wide eyes,” “straight brown fall of hair,” and being “shapey” (189). Thus it is noted that the standard of beauty exempts the personality of the women and is only outward beauty that is mainly valued.

  8. An interesting lens to examine The Round House from is that of human growth and development. Joe and his friends are barely teenagers and are dealing with a situation that most adults have difficulty getting through. This lack of maturity sheerly derived from age is shown through some of Joe’s outbursts. He often explodes on other characters, as seen with the incident between Joe, Whitey, and Sonja. Without the ability to properly process his emotions, Joe occasionally struggles to be sympathetic towards others. While his mother is recovering in her room for an extended period of time, Joe becomes frustrated with her. He is still young enough to depend on his parents being functional all the time.

    Though Joe has to grow up emotionally extremely quickly for a 13-year old, he still is not physically and psychologically at the stage of an adult. The frontal lobe of the brain is often not fully developed in males until their mid-20s. This part of the brain is responsible for decision making. Joe is ten years off from having his brain completely equipped to logically and critically think through decisions. This lack of development may have influenced his choices throughout the novel, especially his choice to kill Lark. This also raises the question that if he were tried for Lark’s murder, would it be morally right to try him as an adult if he still has the brain of a child. The aspect of having the narrator be a child who is not yet completely mature adds a new depth and layer to examine the novel from.

  9. The spiritual lens, when considered, shifts a compilation of particular events in the novel from tragic to more comprehendible, perhaps because a spiritual perspective draws events, such as Caddy’s death away, from inexplicable evil and into a larger picture, one that places such evils in a sort of cycle. Although Caddy’s fate is neither pleasant nor completely justifiable on a pathetic level, its “tragedy” can be lightened by connecting it to both the death of Linden as well as the story of Nanapush. Caddy’s difficulty in coping with the killing may aid the idea that his death was, in a way, necessary, however unfortunate that may be. Nanapush’s tale supports the concept of a chain of justice and Caddy’s death is a link in this chain just as the rape, the murder of Mayla, and the death of Lark are links as well. Joe’s ghost suggests he, “Let go” (317), something Caddy clearly was not able to do as evident in his nightmares and his relationship with Zelia. Due to this as well as the lack of clarity and consistency between the morals within law and spirituality, Caddy’s death becomes another complex example of how the universe carries out both justice and evil using the power of spirituality. And, more specifically, intertwines good and evil, and justice and inequity under the umbrella of spirituality.

  10. The comparison between fact and belief is repeatedly examined in The Round House. Joe is relatively simple and factual in his beliefs; however, through the storytelling of other characters, we learn that more developed minds (such as Mooshum’s) are complex in the connection between face and belief. Through the storytelling by secondary characters, we begin to see a cultural distinction of Joe’s community – often times, the difference between fact and belief is an extremely blurry line. Mooshum’s story he tells in his sleep is presented as though he saw it with his own eyes; despite the deep spiritual presence in the tale, Mooshum believes it all. It is important to note that this is presented as a strength of Mooshum’s – a spiritual “truth” may differ from person to person and culture to culture. As Joe matures, both during events in the book and after, he will develop a stronger sense of his own spiritual/religious beliefs. These beliefs may help guide him through the understanding of facts in the future.

  11. A lense that I felt the story could be read through is one pertaining to justice. During the story, we are forced to ponder the question of what is true justice? On one hand, justice can be defined as following the process of the legal system and coming to a resolution. On the other hand though, justice can be looked at as doing what is ethically correct. Often times these two things do not align and we are forced to make a choice. No one is forced to make this choice in a more consequential way throughout the story than Joe. He is faced with two options, either let Linden go free and follow the law, or take matters into his own hands and kill Linden. As you know, he chooses the later and ends up relieving his family of the fear Linden had put them in, but also at the same time putting the burden of committing a murder on himself. The idea of justice also shows up when looking at the ability of the tribal government to prosecute Lark for his crime. They are not able to prosecute him for the crime in large part because they have a lack of jurisdiction over their own land. In my opinion, this is not morally fair to the tribe being that they were the ones who first occupied the land and lost their authority in large part because they were not a part of the white culture.

  12. As a reader of The Round House, one could easily use the fictional book to examine Native American history and culture and how that impacts reservation life in the eighties. Though the novel does not cover Native American history, the readers learns what life is like for a child on a reservation and how his family is affected by previous cases between the United States government and tribal courts. Joe’s family struggles to fight for Geraldine’s justice but are left with no help at all when the government cannot determine if the crime was committed on federal or reserve land. The court cases of the past should have created a partnership between state and tribe in order to solve crime, however, there is only a divide between the two and often means that no justice is served. History is important to reflect on in order to prevent similar instances from happening and should have served to help Joe’s family persecute Linden Lark and instead of letting him free.

  13. A way to examine this book is through a historic scope. Much of the novel deals with past treaties between Native Americans and the U.S government. This affects the way justice is served in the story. A technicality allows Linden Lark to be set free. This is one of many abuses that Native Americans face. Through history we can learn more about the reservation system and why Native people are not protected against violence

  14. An interesting lens that hasn’t been touched yet is food studies. Throughout the story, Erdrich mentions several events that are accompanied by food. For example, Linda’s famous banana bread comes up multiple times in the book. At first, Linda gives the banana bread to Joe’s family as a kind neighborly act. However, later on, the banana bread becomes an excuse for Joe to get information from Linda about her twin brother. Another example is on page 70 when Joe and his friends go to Grandma Thunder’s house to get food. Although this event seems unimportant, a lot about Native American culture is revealed by the type of food Grandma Thunder makes and through the interactions the kids have with older members of the tribe. Overall, I feel like the lens of food studies is important that it reveals more about Native American culture and the interactions between minor characters and Joe.

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