Joe reflects, “Memories put down in agitation at a vulnerable age do not extinguish with time, but engrave ever deeper as they return and return” (142-143). Bildungsroman is a genre of fiction that follows a young person’s psychological and moral growth to maturity, which is often incited by a loss at the beginning of the story. To what extent is The Round House a bildungsroman? What other genres does it contain or touch on? Does the blending of these have a reinforcing or distracting effect?
The Round House has specific traits that resemble a bildungsroman. For instance, Clemence, who is Joe’s mother, is greatly affected by the loss of normalness and peacefulness in her mind and body. She is raped by a horrible man, Linden Lark, at the starting point of the book, which changes the tone of all of the characters’ lives in a negative and rough manner. The Round House immensely represents a bildungsroman because the narrator is the victim’s son, and he tells the story from his point of view. This allows the audience to see him grow psychologically and morally as he portrays a more mature role throughout the story. This book’s characteristics also fit into a political fiction genre because the society on the Indian reservation and the laws that they are obliged to abide by are criticized. Joe explains a law where Native Americans’ have their rights overridden as, “… Public Law 280, which gave certain states criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indian lands within their borders” (Erdrich, 142). The blending of these genres allows for a reinforcing effect by displaying a young, innocent boy, whose world is corrupted and flipped upside down, and is unable to be fixed because of powerless laws. This forces him to grow and mature, which in turn represents both genres and ties them together.
I think the entire novel is able to be considered a bildungsroman since throughout the novel, starting with the tragedy of the mom being raped, other characters eventually disappoint/anguish/show their true selves, which forces Joe to continually rethink everything his juvenile self had believed in. This novel can also be considered a folk tale since it does tell of Akiikwe, Nanapush and how the idea of a round house came to be. However, for the majority of my time reading this novel I considered it most to be a mystery; yes, Joe was obviously trying to figure out how to find the identity of his mother’s rapist, but he was also trying to navigate his future actions, like the killer that he is later discreetly assumed (and states he is) to be. I think for the most part having these genres blended together makes the story all the more realistic and captivating because life experiences are never black and white in what they’re categorized to be. The novel itself can be sectioned off further into teen romance, family drama, comedy, and other subgenres, but people don’t because that would detract from how realistic the tale resonates with readers.
While The Round House may touch upon a multitude of genres and social issues, I believe that this novel is by is best classified as a Bildungsroman. Despite The Round House seeming to flip flop between a plethora of issues (such as sexual assault, religion, underage drinking, to name a few), these issues provide the foundation of circumstances throughout Joe’s life that truly solidify the novel as a sort of “coming of age” story. Without all of these different pieces stacked upon each other, we as readers wouldn’t be able to fully understand Joe’s mental transformation into adulthood. But along with Erdrich choosing to push the boundaries of a Bildungsroman by choosing to focus on a wide variety of topics, Erdrich makes an untraditional choice of having the main character not physically age over a great length of time like most authors choose to do. Instead of watching Joe’s physical journey, we instead follow the mental maturation of Joe’s mind due to his and his family member’s experiences. Additionally, it must be noted that Erdrich’s choice of narrator as a 13 year old boy (rather than Geraldine, the victim of the rape), heavily nods toward her purpose of intertwining the intense subject of sexual violence with a much more original execution of the well known Bildungsroman plot. A combination that brings to light the different effects that sexual violence has– more specifically, the effects that many authors are too hesitant to touch.
I strongly agree with Hannah’s perspective. The main genre of the novel is certainly a Bildungsroman. While it is true multiple genres are imbedded into the text, I believe this is done so to make the novel all the more realistic regarding Joe’s development. At times it seems the story is occurring in six different places at once. Sometimes Joe is simply being an immature, sexually charged boy hanging out with friends, others he is exposing issues with Native American treatment, and the next he is pondering his encounter with a ghost. We see magical realism, political, and youth references throughout the novel. Without the scattered feel of the writing, Joe’s coming of age would feel rather unauthentic. If the the entire novel was based solely on finding out who raped Clemence and this topic was all Joe spoke and worked on, the novel would lose the realistic and believable feel. With the severity of the topics portrayed, Erdrich clearly wanted to craft a novel that would give justice to these issues all while developing an interesting and maturing protagonist.
I would be careful in calling this magical realism. What many mean when they say “magical realism” is not, in fact, what the label means. Many refer only to a work of fiction (or in worse cases, fantasy) that takes its more fantastical elements in stride, distinct from realistic fiction in that it contains fantastical elements and distinct from fantasy in that it doesn’t necessarily suppose an alternative universe. Where this understanding errs is that it still allows magical realism to be escapist or speculative (ie, what would our world be like if it had werewolves?).
Now, most serious (aka not escapist) literature seeks to get at truth either through exploration and question asking or via explanation. Much of speculative literature, especially the sort I described above, asks questions in order to explore truth, especially human nature. In the werewolf example, we can see several ways that an author might use this alternate reality to get at what really matters to us about “humanity”. This might be considered high fantasy–it’s fantastical yet gets at important truths.
Magical realism as it saw genesis in Latin American literature is distinct from high fantasy in that it provides alternate views that do currently or have previously existed. It is not a hypothetical or a what if. Like other realism, it looks at the actual world we live in. The magic comes only from a perspective on that same world which is not the “scientific” understanding held by the ruling class or popular mainstream. Magical realism is no less realistic than other realistic fiction because of its use of magical elements, and in fact sometimes is more realistic as it acknowledges more diverse views of reality than the “realism” of the mainstream.
Thus, I would agree that Erdrich’s novel falls into the category of magical realism because of its fantastical elements like the ghost and belief in spiritual guidance such as the birds leading Joe to the doll, however I hope to keep a clear emphasis on the realism of the novel as it presents the actual reality of Native Americans, not a disconnect from reality, delusions, or a hypothetical world different than ours in which ghosts exist.
All great points and yes I completely agree! I am aware of the origins of magical realism in Latin America, and obviously this book only includes elements of the genre:).
Awesome, I love three genre and I’m glad you brought it up because I almost forgot about it!
The Round House is a bildungsroman to every extent imaginable. In the very beginning of the book Joe suffered a terrible family tragedy; his mother’s rape. Throughout the book, he consistently mentioned that even though his mother was physically resting in the upstairs bedroom, he still felt as if he had lost her and his real mother was never coming back. “She is isolating herself even from Joe. Doesn’t see anyone from work… Won’t see visitors…”(75). This course of events signifies his loss and is what allowed his “psychological and moral growth to maturity” to begin.
I believe Joe matured exponentially throughout the entirety of the book – especially considering the book only spanned one summer. He was thrusted into this position of extreme responsibility and adulthood that no middle school child is used to dealing with, and it forced him to mature quickly. He began going through court cases with his father, drinking and smoking whenever he could with his friends, and looking around the reservation for whoever could’ve been his mother’s attacker. I find it particularly interesting that in the beginning of the book, 13-year-old Joe barely knew what the word “rape” meant (9), but by the end, the same 13-year-old successfully murdered the man who attacked his mother (282).
I agree with the other students who have published comments; The Round House is a bildungsroman. Joe experiences, essentially, the loss of his mother, which causes him to grow up much more quickly than he would have otherwise. This is, as Hannah mentioned above, a psychological change and not a physical one. I think that the choice to have Joe grow and change mentally was a fantastic choice on Erdrich’s part. Geraldine’s attack, while physically harmful, most affected her mental state–when Joe asks her if she could “come back to life,” she responds by saying, “I can’t do it. I don’t know why. I just cannot do it” (88). As others have commented, the book does have themes that touch on political issues, spiritual practices, and the culture of Native American reservations. While these issues are present, the book makes me think most about Joe’s life and experiences–the period of time that we could label his bildungsroman.
I do agree with everyone that The Round House is a bildungsroman, to an extent. It follows the general idea that a tragic loss occurred in the beginning of the novel and that the audience was able to follow Joe’s psychological maturity. However I don’t think that with the limit of time in the book that we were truly able to see that growth in morality and psyche in Joe. What Joe did to Lark absolutely didn’t surprise me at all, because he was fiercely loyal to his family from the very beginning. Joe refused to go to school until his mother returned from the hospital(pg. 17), ignored when his mother struck him unintentionally(pg. 23), and attacked Lark with his father in the grocery store(pg. 244). If Erdrich had gone on to discuss more of Joe’s life post-Cappy’s death, I think this would have fit nicely into the description of what a bildungsroman is, however I didn’t see enough of growth or change in Joe’s morality to warrant it. The Round House had traces of folklore(Mooshum’s stories), as well as realistic historical fiction, which I thought really brought the novel to life. With so many different genres present, the novel allowed for plenty of diverse trains of thought to emerge and deepen the meaning and significance of the novel.
Respectfully, I would like to bring to light the idea that having a consistent moral compass and having to use it/consider it are two different things. Joe certainly is consistent in his loyalty to his family and his drive for truth and justice, but is required to actually implement them in a handful of very significant events throughout the novel. Joe may have always been loyal to his family, but up until his mother’s rape, he was not required to declare this loyalty or consider it in making incredibly life-altering decisions. When it comes to choosing to murder Lark, Joe considers his own morality and values. His moral identity is so heavily driven by family and an alternative definition of justice, he sees killing Lark as moral, at least partly. This element is fairly unchanging, yet Joe’s decision to kill Lark in itself marks a huge transition from what was to what is, thus giving the novel incredibly bildungsroman-esque qualities. Plus, the decision to kill Lark is hardly the only morally complex decision Joe must make in the book. In these ways, Joe’s character and his development seems to stand in line with the characteristics of a bildungsroman novel.
Great point, I like this way of thinking about it!
I think that this novel would definitely fall into the category of a bildungsroman. The “loss,” however, in this story, is not the loss of a life at the beginning. Instead, it can be seen as a loss of innocence on part of Joe, a loss of childhood. It also is a loss of privacy and safety, and, of course, the emotional loss of Joe’s mother when she is sexually assaulted. As for the psychological growth in maturity over the course of the book, I feel like this too applies to Joe. He has to grow, has to mature, especially because he is functioning without his mother, and, to a certain extent, without his father as well. Yet, as is noted multiple times throughout the novel, Joe is still only thirteen. He does not become an adult, or a young adult, even, by the end of the novel. He is still naive, though not innocent any longer, enough so to try and take a road trip with his friends. This novel, too, ends with the death of Cappy, which does not necessarily follow the requirements of a bildungsroman. Other genres I would use to describe this novel are mystery and crime, of course, given the mother’s assault, folklore, as previously mentioned, and also, more plainly, realistic fiction, which ties into my next point. The presence of these other genres I feel is reinforcing, because life is not perfect, and it is filled with loss by the plenty, and corruption, and complicated people who live within grey areas. Stories like this are important to that genre, because they convey that in real life, these coexist, and one is not always without the other. Maturing is not a easy process, nor is it born out of good will always either.
I would agree with Kylie and Gracia that “The Round House” only partially fits with the Bildungsroman genre. The limited time span provided by the book fails to move Joe fully to adulthood. Further, the uncertain ending may return us to a normalcy for the Coutts family that is too similar to what they had prior to the attack. The typical novel of this genre leaves the protagonist’s “foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over and a life of usefulness ahead” (1). Joe instead achieves his goal of revenge when he attacks and helps kill Linden rather than otherwise moving beyond initial impulses and childish naïveté. The return to normalcy is further tainted by Cappy’s death, again marking Joe’s young life with tragedy. This bleaker ending is characteristic of 20th century and later Bildungsroman works which ended in “resignation or death” rather than the brighter ending of earlier pieces in the genre (3). The odd mix of resolution, lack of change, and unhappy endings leaves “The Round House” slightly out of sync with the typical form of these novels.
Erdrich’s novel certainly has the “coming of age” sense demanded by members of the Bildungsroman genre and deals with the required topics of psychological, moral, and spiritual education (1-3). Yet Joe is somewhat dogmatic in his beliefs and though his emotions and thinking mature, his moral sense and belief in spirituality are largely unchanged. Further, rather than the eager youth seeking adventure such as Byron’s “Childe Harold,” Joe has the impetus for his “Bildung” (German for education or development) thrust upon him (1, 2, 4). It is only in a reactionary sense that Joe takes an often self-centered and anger-fueled agency in the matter to seek out truth and justice.
While I appreciate the way in which “The Round House” fits with the Bildungsroman theme, the sense of stagnation and excess of lewd, violent, and pop-cultural elements left me leaning towards classification as post-modernist literature prior to reading the discussion prompts here. Much like Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49,” Erdrich’s narration wanders with exacting details that evoke more than they explain (5). Long detours such as the discussion of “Vaders” and “Emperors” (circumcised or uncircumcised penises) give a strong example of how “The Round House” elicits a mixed and sometimes visceral response to the book’s content. Readers are drawn along Joe’s storyline with the same sickly fascination that draws the young characters towards adulthood and more specifically Joe towards the truth. Further, Erdrich’s choice not to call out dialogue with quotation marks or other similar punctuation toys with format in the same grain as Caroll’s shaped paragraphs in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Brathwaite’s typographic and spelling manipulation in “Letter SycoraX” and later post-modernists’ radical arrangements of words and type face (6, 7). By leaving the distinction between narration and dialogue unclear, the author adds to the feel that the novel’s events are being recalled and are foggy, unclear memories. This additionally gives the sense of an oral history, an important aspect of Joe’s Ojibwe heritage.
The combination of these two genres as well as the clear indications that the story occurred long before Joe’s telling of it leave the book with an audience much older than the 12 year old protagonist. Barely appropriate for many incoming freshmen, the book deals with extremely mature topics in a blunt, almost vulgar, manner.
Works Cited
1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman
2. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bildungsroman
3. https://www.britannica.com/art/bildungsroman
4. Byron, George G. B. “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1866. Print.
5. Pynchon, Thomas. “The Crying of Lot 49.” Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966. Print.
6. https://www.adobe.com/be_en/active-use/pdf/Alice_in_Wonderland.pdf (37)
7. Brathwaite, Kamau. “Letter SycoraX” from “Middle Passages.” New York: New Directions, 1993. Print.
(I wrote roughly these ideas out before once then the computer crashed without saving it, so any lapse of continuity or missing links in my argument may owe to that they were written previously and failed to make it into this version of my post).
I would have to disagree with you about the appropriateness of this book. I don’t quite see how you would think this book is vulgar. I believe it dealt with the topics in a way that made it easier to digest. Yes, it was straightforward, but dancing around the issues would not have had such an impact.
We are all adults and this is a real problem in the world. I think this was a superb book for us to read.
To clarify, I’m not trying to say this was a bad book to assign, merely that this could be a shock to the more sheltered among our peers and render some readers unreceptive to the messages… it’s a wonderfully written book and certainly thrives in its style and what I believe its purpose is, merely that the bluntness adds to the post modern feel and raises the audience age.
I agree that The Round House is a bildungsroman in some ways, but in others not. Additionally, the fact that Joe killed Lark proves that he did not overcome the need for revenge and instead was consumed by his anger. This led him to a commit an act that has severe consequences personally. While he did significantly mature, as seen in many of his interactions with his father, he still remained trapped in his desire for “ideal justice,” (306) as his father would call it. Joe was unable to see that this type of justice just simply does not occur easily and naturally in reality. Furthermore, Joe experienced yet another traumatic experience when his friend, Cappy died. Like mentioned by my colleagues beforehand, Erdrich never developed this opportunity for Joe to mature. Thus, I think that Joe needed to mature more for this novel to perfectly fit the genre of bildungsroman.
In the afterword, Erdrich mentions that the book is “loosely based on so many different cases, reports, and stories that the outcome is pure fiction” (321). Thus, I would also argue that the book easily fits the fictional genre and even historical fiction because it is based on actual events and experiences of Natives.
I believe that The Round House is partially a bildungsroman novel. Joe starts out in the book with the purity and innocence you would find with any other boy his age. The major tragedy in the beginning of the book forces him to start making decisions for himself and start confronting the complicated emotions he feels. He has to start thinking of others and himself in a way young teens don’t normally do. However, he does not grow to full maturity. Even through to the end of the book he makes brash and illogical decisions. Even though he confronts his emotions he commonly lets them control him.
I believe this book has many aspects of a comedy. It may be a tragic comedy but there are many situations in the book where I laughed out loud. I believe that the combining of this tragedy with the comedy enhanced this book greatly. Without the jokes and silly grandmothers talking about the promiscuous old man, this book would have been to emotionally draining to read.
The Round House certainly fits into the Bildungsroman genre. Although it seems obvious to point a finger at the rape of Joe’s mother as the primary force behind Joe starting to mature, there is much more to it than that. While certainly this tragic event is the starting force behind the Joe’s journey to adulthood and maturity, it seems as though his falling out with Sonja, the aftermath of killing his mother’s rapist, and Cappy’s death (though we do not personally see how Joe copes with this) are what truly forces Joe into adulthood. The rape of Joe’s mother certainly causes him to mature- he has to learn how to depend on himself and how to live without a mother for the period that Geraldine retreats to her bedroom, but the pain and grief she feels is not his. He does not yet understand how his actions affect others or what consequences they can have and he still views the world with some childlike naivety. He does not understand the complexities of the law on the reservation and he thinks that his mother’s assailant will absolutely be caught and brought to justice. Furthermore, his brash decision to deliver justice with his own hands demonstrates that Joe is not yet fully mature. He believes he is doing what must be done but fails to realize that if he were to be caught and punished, this would likely cause even more grief to his parents. He does not allow himself to consider what comes afterwards. Also, Joe’s relationship with Sonja is another major contributor to his evolving maturity. It is through her that he learns how his actions can be irreparably damaging. He fails to appreciate her for all that she does for him as a maternal figure and instead objectifies her body at every chance. He threatens to expose her secrets to her husband who he knows to be abusive in order to gratify his sexual curiosity. This is the height of immature selfishness, showing that he is still continuing to mature. It’s not ’till after he loses her that he truly realizes how his actions can affect others. Add to this the loss of his best friend Cappy, and I believe you have the full turn of events which truly cause Joe to mature into an adult and finally lose his childish innocence. While we do not get to see the culmination of all these events as the novel ends almost abruptly, I believe it is hasty to discount the novel from the Bildungsroman genre. Though we never get to meet the fully matured adult Joe, it is undebatable that Joe matures from an innocent child into something more throughout the course of the novel.
Throughout the novel, in addition to the coming of age themes, there are hints of comedy, mystery, and politics present throughout. These themes are what allow the novel to be a fully fleshed out coming of age tale, for life is never flat and just one thing. These additional themes are what allow the novel to seem more realistic and relatable. Without their presence, the novel would be dull and flat and not nearly as successful in what it sets to achieve.
The Round House follows the course of a standard bildungsroman. Joe starts the novel as a pubescent boy whose smallest rebellion is drinking beer with his friends. However, in a short amount of time, we see Joe transition into a murderer. After witnessing the aftermath of his mother’s rape, Joe is snapped into a tormented state of mind in which he obsesses over gaining justice for his mother. The novel also contains aspects of the mystery genre as it follows Joe’s investigation of the crime. He constantly searches for clues and insights for who the perpetrator could be. This long investigation takes a toll on Joe’s mental stability, ultimately pushing him far enough to take justice into his own hands and murder his mother’s rapist. Joe remarks near the end of the novel that he feels as if he has switched roles with his parents, having gone through a lot to protect them. However, I view his maturity growth as a loss of innocence rather than an increase of responsibility. Joe’s growth does not lead him to maturity, but rather a dissent into darkness.
“The Round House” partially fulfills the qualifications required to classify the novel as a bildungsroman. In order to come upon a verdict, we must first consider that this opinion is contingent on the reader’s definition of the word, “maturity,” as well as the boundaries that segregate it from our perception of “immaturity.” It is also important to note that Louise Erdrich does not provide the reader with much insight into Joe’s life before the attack. Because of this, it is difficult to legitimize any certain conclusion about the novel’s classification, as the reader is unaware of Joe’s state of maturity before his mother’s rape.
Because Joe reaches a more advanced state of growth by the novel’s conclusion than he held at the beginning of the book, “The Round House” mostly observes the expectations to be classified as a bildungsroman. Additionally, the premise of the novel details a rape, which qualifies as a loss, another condition of the genre.
A major turning point in Joe’s character is represented in his fallout with his aunt, Sonja. When Sonja confronts him about his inappropriate and objectifying behaviors, calling him a “gimme gimme asshole,” Joe begins to believe that he is “ruined” and unworthy. This rebranding allows Joe to feel more resolved in justifying murder, although the thought continues to torment him.
The event that marks Joe’s transition from “immaturity” to “maturity” is fully realized when Joe takes justice into his own hands. By defying the law and committing an act of moral condemnation, Joe transcends the boundary between innocence and experience. To quantify this, Joe writes, “[My mother] sees the murderer in me” (293). Once categorized as a killer, Joe reaches a point from which he cannot return and suffers the “‘human consequences of having taken a life’” (306), according to his father. This classifies “The Round House” as a bildungsroman primarily because Joe can see the transition within himself. He comments on this, writing, “I was halfway to my room before I remembered my mother climbing to that place of loneliness from which we feared she would never descend” (293).
Perhaps the most concrete evidence of Joe’s transition is the second to last line of the novel: “We passed over in a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever” (317).
While this serves as evidence that “The Round House” qualifies as a bildungsroman, both the novel and the genre fall short by assuming that maturity is a tangible phenomenon that can be measured and “caps off” certainly. “Maturity” is not an absolute in space nor in time because humans are always growing and advancing. Although Joe will live with the consequences of his murder persisting into forever, he, like all humans, will never reach a coming of age because we are always coming of age.
I like your thinking the most out of anyone else here. The idea that Joe has “reached” some place because of his struggles is wrong because there were other parts in the novel in which Joe learned a lesson and yet continued to make “wrong” or unconventional decisions. Joe seems to struggle so much with his own identity in the novel because he is constantly trying to redefine himself in the context of what is happening around him. For example, when Joe gave finally confessed about the beer that he and the boys had found he learned that telling the cops wouldn’t get him in as much trouble as he feared. Yet, Joe failed to tell anyone about the money even after he was certain that it was related to Lark. The point that you made that I like the most is the idea the that people are continuously growing and changing just like Joe does in the novel.
The Round House epitomizes the characteristics and qualities of a bildungsroman. Joe, a seemingly innocent and naive young boy, is suddenly forced to mature and adapt to adverse situations in his life. At the beginning of the novel, Joe notes “how much store men set on the regularity of [women’s] habits” (3). Joe mentions this to demonstrate how dependent he is on his mother’s mere presence. Joe, a young adolescent relies on his mother to be the adult and lead him in the correct direction in life. However, Geraldine’s rape disables and destroys her ability to do this, thus forcing Joe to become independent and self-driven. Towards the end of the novel, it is evident that Joe had been suddenly forced to develop and mature on his own. When sitting with his parents, Joe said that he “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 the oblivious children. They had no idea what I had gone through for them” (305). However, the “justice” that Joe feels that achieved at the end of the novel does not justify his means of doing so. His actions and decisions highlight the negative effects of maturing and developing without having a positive role model or mentor to guide him. The Round House contains qualities of a revenge thriller, in which the main character, Joe, goes to extreme and dark lengths to gain revenge on behalf of his mother. This dark and immoral path that Joe takes ends up forming his moral character and development. The traits of a revenge thriller complement and reinforce traits of a bildungsroman because Erdrich can thoroughly warn of the negative effects of maturing without the presence of a strong moral mentor.
I can easily see how it would be possible to classify this novel as a Bildungsroman. Although it does not provide insight, other than in the form of memories, to Joe’s life prior to when the novel takes place. However, it could be argued that the beginning of the novel is Joe’s starting point and the emotional takes place between the novel’s specific starting and ending points. The emotional growth of a character is not required to be from life to death. Similarly, I think that this novel shows the emotional growth of most, if not all of the main characters. Through the event told through Joe’s perspective, the reader can see the changes in the other character from changes in their appearance, actions, demeanor, etc. Although I don’t believe this is the best classification for this book, I can see how it is connected to the story. The book will also mean different things and fall into different classifications for each reader. I appreciated seeing how each of the characters grew and changed as the story unfolded.
The Round House fits into the genre of bildungsroman very well being that the character who the story is told through undergoes a major change in his maturity level. Obviously, Joe suffers a major loss at the beginning of the story when his mother is attacked and completely withdraws herself from daily life, forcing Joe to grow up far faster than he had anticipated. When they are at the hospital, after the attack on his mother, Joe states “My father’s emotions was something, his gesture implied, that I was too young to witness. But during the last few hours I had become increasingly resistant to authority”(13). At this point, Joe still realizes that he is not mature enough to consume the information his father has. At the same time though, we are beginning to see the start of a change in Joe where he is starting to resist authority. This progresses throughout the story with small examples such as the boys drinking beer, all the way to Joe taking matters into his own hands and killing Linden. The tables turn at the end of the story when joe is withholding information about the killing to his parents. At the beginning, the parents were the one who were in control of the information and withholding it from Joe in an attempt to shield him from what was really happening. By the end though, Joe is the one who has the info but refuses to give it up in order to protect his parents.
Some other genres that the Round House could fall under would be mystery, realistic fiction and it has some components that would lead a person to believe it could be classified as historical fiction. The story could easily be classified as a mystery, because at the beginning of the story we do not yet know who the attacker was, or what actually happened during the crime. We are lead to discover who this is through a series of stories and clues that eventually can be pieced together to form a clear picture of who the villain is. The Round House fits into both historical and realistic fiction for the same unfortunate reasons. The issue of sexuall assault and juristidction on tribal lands is unfortunately not an issue unique to this story and forces us to question the way in which the United States has treated these nations over time. Thus, forcing us to look at the story through a historical lense. In my opinion, these differing genres add to the impact of the story as the allow it to be looked at from different perspectives.
It is important to establish which character to focus on in a book such as The Round House for the genre to be totally understood. Although only one initial event occurs which leads us through the plot of the book, the idea of what each character “loses” can differ. Joe’s mother lost not only her sanity and sense of normalcy, she also lost her physical health, and, to an extent, her family. She pushed her family away because of her trauma. Joe loses his sense of emotional security, as well as his “before” mother, or his “real” mother. Bazil loses his wife in the beginning, as well as control over his son as Joe begins to explore his curiosities regarding both his extended family, his friends, and the truth behind what happened to his other.
The difference between The Round House and other coming-of-age books is the fact that Joe, the lead character, didn’t have to suffer any trauma himself. It is rare that a character can fully mature from an event that didn’t actually occur to them. It is Joe’s curiosity that leads him naturally onto the path of maturity.
The Round House is in large part a blindungsroman. While the story is centered around Joe’s mother, Clemence’s, rape, Joe’s raw narration makes the reader connect with him quite strongly. His deep care for his family leaves him no option but justice and revenge for his mother, which for him turns out to be a coming of age journey full of many realizations(blindungsroman). This is evident in a variety of ways; for example, Joe starts out as a sexually explicit boy, but soon realizes the nature of this behavior and how similar it is to the thinking of his mother’s attacker.