Throughout the text, we see confluences within the reservation community: tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions meet; tribal religious ceremonies coexist with Catholicism. What other confluences are depicted in the novel?
Throughout the text, we see confluences within the reservation community: tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions meet; tribal religious ceremonies coexist with Catholicism. What other confluences are depicted in the novel?
Other confluences include abusive and violence. Clemence, Joe’s mother, is raped by a white man who escapes the legal charges, whereas Sonja is an ex-stripper and treated as an object by almost every man she meets. Sonja undergoes an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Whitey, and Clemence is raped by a white male on property overseen by three different jurisdictions. Although Joe and Cappy end up killing the rapist, both men in the story remain not guilty in the eyes of the legal system. In Clemence’s situation, the confluence of a respectable husband and a violent rapist are depicted throughout the novel. Clemence’s husband provided for the family and loved her deeply, while Linden raped her and also attempted to take her life. These polar opposites symbolize how two different personalities merge to impact a single individual.
I agree with Maurisa’s noted confluence between abuse and love, and I propose that Erdrich also depicts a confluence between traditional and modern-day views of justice. Mooshum’s stories of Nanapush and his wiindigoo mother do not simply serve to root The Round House in Native American tradition, but to provide a foundation for reflection and justice in Joe’s modern-day situation. In his sleep, Mooshum tells of a husband who tried to get rid of his wife Akii by claiming she showed cannibalistic tendencies that could only be attributed to possession by a wiindigoo. According to tradition, wiindigoos must be killed by a blood relative, but Akii’s son Nanapush helped save her instead. To Joe, this story is just a legend until he learns that Mooshum knew Nanapush and together they built the Round House. Joe’s connection to the story further solidifies once he kills Lark and is tormented by the thought “Would I become a wiindigoo? Infected by Lark?” (294). Joe’s situation is troublesome because Lark should have been prosecuted by the law for both murder and rape, but because of conflicts between tribal and federal jurisdiction, he remains on the loose. Therefore, killing Lark is the only way to prevent future harm to the community, but by doing so, Joe makes himself a murderer who could also be prosecuted. The true confluence between the traditional precedent and modern legalities comes with Joe’s father’s proposal to plead on behalf of Lark’s murderer, without knowing him to be his own son, on the basis of wiindigoo justice. He claims, “Lark met the definition of a wiindigoo, and that with no other recourse, his killing fulfilled the requirements of a very old law” (306). If this precedent goes through in court, Joe will be saved from most, if not all, serious consequences. We are not told what happens with Lark’s murder case, but clearly what first appeared to be tribal folklore quickly becomes intertwined with the central plot of the book. Not only is there confluence between tribal and federal jurisdictions on Joe’s reservation, but confluence between traditional and modern-day forms of justice.
I think the modern day versus traditional ways of justice is a huge one too. I think in many ways the book alternates between modern versus past ways of handling things. With the women in the book, they are perceived both in a “traditional” more sexist view as well as a more modern standpoint, for example. Geraldine, Joe’s mother, for instance, has a job and is well respected by her husband and son. She is important, she has her own life, and was enough of her own hero to free herself and get away from Linden’s assault. However, she is abused, her emotional absence results in rotting food and a dissipating house, and others become angry with her response to a traumatic incident. Similarly, Sonja doesn’t put up with a lot, she talks about how she tried to make a better life for her daughter, London, works at the gas station and tries to be almost a pseudo mother to Joe, yet is abused by Whitey, sexualized by Joe, and overall not treated well. Within the first few pages Joe describes women as “[not] realiz[ing] how much store men set on their… habits” (Erdrich 3), thus already putting a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the women throughout the book. So, there is a confluence definitely concerning modern day and traditional views of women as well.
I also thought that there were confluences concerning what it means to be family a lot throughout the book too; Linda is adopted into a tribe, but does that make her part of it or belonging, rather, to her birth parent’s household? Sonja is almost like an aunt, yet is not perceived that way. Cappy and the rest of Joe’s friends are almost family too, and act as more of Joe’s family than some of his actual relatives. So, I feel that family is a recurring crossroads as well in the book.
Sonja’s characer easily presented some of the most conflicting and thought-provoking confluences. The two that struck me the most were the confluences of what a woman ought to be(motherly versus overly sexual and objectifying), and the clash of morals throughout the novel.
In regards to standards of womanhood, Joe’s dependency on Sonja as a motherly figure, as well as his overt sexual attraction to her presented a huge conflict of emotions. She rejected the idea that women were only to be sexual in certain settings, which allowed her to somewhat excuse her actions for the strip tease n front of Mooshum and Joe, and was disgusted with Joe, instead of feeling ashamed of herself for expressing her sexuality. She generally ignored Joe’s lust while taking care of him, like when she caught him staring at her while she was taking him to put their secret money stash into several college accounts.
In regards to morals, I think the most prominent and powerful conflict was that of the money situation. She was confided in about tens of thousands of dollars, and instead of taking it all for herself, she did what was best for Joe. While this was morally just for Joe, because he needed the money to get into higher education, it was also morally unjust because they didn’t report the found money to anyone. Later on, Sonja takes the money for herself to start a new lie away from her abusive partner, which seems moral, but also puts Joe in a precarious situation because the money he initially found and was going to be able to use for college, was taken from him for another person’s benefit. The merging of these conflicting morals allows for the reader to take some time to analyze the nuances of each character’s justifications for their actions.
Another confluence is justice versus morality. This is depicted when Cappy and Joe kill Lark. Joe called this act a sin “Crying Out to Heaven for Vengeance” (250), knowing that while it was not moral, it was just. His father later explains justice as multi-faceted and Lark’s murder as a “wrong thing which serves an ideal justice” (306). In this way, something just can still be immoral. These two ideas come together in Joe and Cappy’s action. Thus, this leaves the reader to wonder if justice outweighs morality.
An intriguing confluence within The Round House is that of age and the interaction on the reservation between the old and the young. By using 13-year-old Joe as a narrator, Erdrich creates a fascinating world view and lens to see the novels events through. Amidst the frightening and adult events that occur in the novel, Joe and his friends exhibit a youthful exuberance and need for action, something every child has and then slowly lose as they get older. When Joe and his friends interact with those who are older than themselves, specifically the elderly in the tribal community, wonderful scenes of hilarity ensue. Erdrich plays on the sex obsessed minds of young 13-year-old boys and throws the four adventurers into talks with Grandma Ignatia, who in her elderly wisdom lacks the inhibitions to talk about sex the way that most adults do. The boys marvel, and get quite uncomfortable, at Grandma Ignatia’s ability to so freely talk about sex. Old Mooshum’s transfer of knowledge through stories and sleep talking to Joe is another example of this confluence, with the old passing on traditions, histories, and culture to the new youth.
Besides interactions of age, it is a confluence of maturity and immaturity and the spectrum of adulthood that Erdrich highlights as well. Joe is pure, innocent, and immature at the beginning of the novel until his world view is shattered by his mother’s rape. From reading through old court cases with his father to finally putting a bullet through Linden Lark, events throughout the novel cause Joe to progress deeper and deeper into an adult world and emerge out of his innocent childhood state. The novel concludes with Joe’s parents walking into the hospital after Cappy’s death, and the realization to the whole family that they were all old after the events that had transpired. The entire family has been altered and changed by the events of the novel and Joe moves forward into a more mature world, passing into it with “a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever.” (317)
While reading, I found myself uncomfortable with the narrator’s expressions of attraction or descriptions of erotic scenes. Upon attempting to discern the source of my discomfort I considered if it was due to Joe being a young man and my personal experience being different. I considered if it was because promiscuity was not associated with native culture throughout my education. However, upon my conclusion, I identified the fact that the book is, in essence, about a sexual assault and the humorous sexual innuendos felt disrespectful. For example, while Sonja suffered from an abusive relationship, Joe repeatedly mulled over the size of her breasts. Another example, at Mooshum’s birthday party, stories are told about the size of a man’s genitals while Joe’s mother experiences her first outing after the rape. While I encountered the contrast as disrespectful originally, I recognize that it isn’t. Erdrich masterfully blends the sexual urges of a thirteen-year-old boy with the story of a disturbing rape and its destructive aftermath. Erdrich enhanced her main point about justice for victimized native women with the confluence of innocent love and domineering assault.
For me personally, I found a major confluence to simply be that between the children and the setting. As someone fortunate enough to live in a safe, comfortable home the thought of boys living in a town of drunks, hate and violence is very much a clash between my own ideas of what childhood and violence should be. Yes, I realize that this is not everyone’s experience with this topic and that this is more of a personal opinion. The confluence between my perception of a clash of childhood and maturity and the more normal reaction by the boys has forced me to reevaluate my own opinions and beliefs.
An interesting confluence that I saw in the story was the difference between what you need to do versus, what laws and other people tell you to do. This is prevalent throughout the story as joe is constantly told that he should not be pursuing his mom’s attacker on his own. He goes so far as to eavesdrop on his father while he is having meetings regarding the case. A quote that made me stop and think for a moment occurred at the end of the story when Joe’s father said “There was no justice for your mother, his victim, or for Mayla, and yet justice exists.”(305) The father was saying that in this case, there was not justice in the legal sense of the word, but there was justice in the moral sense of the word. Judicially, the crime was not able to be prosecuted due to the fact that it was a white male who committed the act on tribal grounds and the mother was unable to name a specific location. Morally though, Joe was able to achieve justice for not only his own family, but also for Mayla and her child. If Joe had not been willing to go outside of what was allowed within the laws, Linden would more than likely continue to be a fear the family would always be looking over their shoulder for. This raises the question of what lengths we should go to keep those who we love safe? Joe made sure that he was the one who committed the murder, because he was a minor and he would face less severe consequences than his mother. This shows both a tremendous love for his mother, but also a tremendously selfless heart.
Joe’s curiosity clearly impacts the process of “justice” for his mother throughout the book. Upon initially exploring the crime scene with Angus and Zach, Joe finds beer. His curiosity towards drinking the alcohol trumps the preservation of evidence; this event actually foreshadows problems Joe will face later on, also due to his curiosity. When he finds the baby doll in the water, Joe feels he must open it. Upon finding what is inside, Joe is overwhelmed, and brings it to Sonja. Joe’s naive handling of potentially important items is not intended to hurt anyone; in fact, he means to help the establishment of justice for his mother. It isn’t until later that Joe will be able to fully understand that, unfortunately, curiosity is often not appreciated in the field of justice.