Joe is a thirteen-year-old Chippewa boy living on a reservation in Minnesota. The novel's narrator and protagonist, he is the son of Bazil and Geraldine Coutts.Throughout the novel, the reader observes as Joe struggles to cope with the aftermath of his mother's violent rape, which leaves Geraldine traumatized while Bazil and Joe try fruitlessly to help her heal.
Dec 17, 2012 · In House, Erdrich narrows her focus on one of Plague‘s four narrators, Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, a man of the law whose wife has been gravely violated. When Geraldine Coutts’ errand to retrieve a file from her office one Sunday has her still missing by the afternoon, the good judge and his son decide to go looking for her: “Women don’t realize how much store …
Feb 24, 2022 · After weeks when he touted a diplomatic solution, the invasion shifted Biden's tone. "There is a complete rupture right now in U.S.-Russian relations," he said when asked by a reporter about ...
Pip and Joe were just told that Pip has “great expectations,” in that he is to be educated as a gentleman and therefore is expected to leave his apprenticeship with Joe. Jaggers, the lawyer making these arrangements, offers Joe compensation for the loss of Pip’s work. Joe’s words reveal that he is offended at the idea that he would use ...
Women, Bigotry, and Sexual Violence The Round House, which examines an instance of sexual violence against Joe's mother Geraldine, explores the particular difficulties faced by Native women and how those struggles stem from an often-toxic culture surrounding sexuality, tribal identity, and gender.Sep 28, 2017
FleurFleur never actually fig- ures in the novel's action. Significantly, Fleur is a victim of rape, and like Fleur, Geraldine Coutts, a rape victim and a central character in The Round House, is silent through most of the novel and must rely upon others to piece her story together as best they can.
Cappy (Virgil Lafournais) An Ojibwe boy on the reservation, Joe's best friend, and self-described “brother.” Cappy supports Joe when his mother is assaulted and gives him a black stone he describes as a “thunderbird egg.” Cappy helps Joe in his quest for vengeance, even taking some of the burden on himself.
Cappy's death in the drunk driving accident is the final straw that strips the boys of their childhoods forever. Cappy's childhood ends in death, and Joe's ends in a transformation that affects him for the rest of his life.
the round houseThe event that changes the Coutts family's lives is the rape and savage beating of Geraldine, which occurs in 1988 near the round house, a place used for sacred ceremonies in “the old days when Indians could not practice their religion.” The attacker also douses Geraldine with gasoline and attempts to set her on fire, ...Oct 15, 2012
The theme of sexual violence against Native American women is firmly established in this opening chapter. ... The violent imagery and the use of vomit, blood, and a palpable scent of gasoline in the scene suggests that Geraldine had been beaten, threatened, and raped.
Linden LarkLinden Lark is a local white man who rapes Geraldine at the book's beginning. Linden, who is the son of Grace and George Lark and is Linda Lark's twin biological brother, is a disturbed and bigoted man.Sep 28, 2017
Linden LarkThe novel highlights this point by making Geraldine's rapist, Linden Lark, a non-Indigenous individual who escapes prosecution because of these legal loopholes. Linden even remarks in the novel “I won't get caught… I've been boning up on law” (161).Jun 11, 2018
After Lark's death, Cappy dies in a drunk driving accident while in the car with Joe, Angus, and Zack on the way to see Zelia. Cappy's loyalty and devotion to Joe are a formidable model of friendship in the book, and his death is a tragedy of adolescence that clearly still haunts Joe even years later.Sep 28, 2017
Erdrich was heavily inspired by the works of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels. Because of this, Erdrich's novels, including The Round House, are all primarily set in the same fictional location centered around the people who lived there throughout multiple generations.
Mooshum (which is the word in Anishinaabe for “grandfather”) is Joe's grandfather, who lives with Joe's aunt and uncle Clemence and Edward in their house.
thirteen-year-oldJoe is a thirteen-year-old Chippewa boy living on a reservation in Minnesota.Sep 28, 2017