Summary
In the opening scene of The Round House, Joe, the narrator, and his father, Judge Anton Bazil Coutts, are weeding little trees that have begun to destabilize the foundation of their home. Joe’s father, who is referred to simply as “Bazil,” eventually leaves his son alone while he makes a phone call to his wife, Geraldine. Joe eventually stops working on the house and makes his way inside to his father’s study. Joe explains that his father is a judge within the family’s Ojibwe reservation community in North Dakota. In Bazil’s study, Joe thumbs through a copy of the Handbook for Federal Indian Law. He stumbles upon a passage of a case entitled United States v. Forty-three Gallons of Whiskey.
Not wanting to be caught rummaging through his father’s stuff, Joe quickly hides the handbook when Bazil enters the study. Bazil asks Joe where his wife, Geraldine, is. It’s a Sunday afternoon, and although Joe knows that his mother was called into her tribal enrollment office to look for a file, he recognizes that her prolonged absence is atypical. Joe comments on the “regularity of women’s habits” and how he and his father rely on the cadence of Geraldine’s daily routines. Bazil and Joe decide to borrow Uncle Edward and Aunt Clemence’s car to look for Geraldine.
Upon their arrival at Geraldine’s office, Bazil and Joe discover that the parking lot is empty. They decide to drive to the grocery store, thinking perhaps that Geraldine stopped there on the way home from the office. Halfway to the grocery store, the duo spots Geraldine speeding past them in the opposite direction. While they notice that Geraldine is visibly upset, Bazil hypothesizes that Geraldine is angry that the grocery store is closed. The two are appeased now that they realize Geraldine is not missing, and they take their time returning their family’s car.
When they return home, Bazil and Joe surprisingly find Geraldine sitting in the car. They can immediately tell that the situation is grave, and they rush to the driver seat to help her. Joe describes that his mother has vomited on the front of her dress and that blood covers her legs and car seat. Joe accompanies his mother in the backseat as Bazil rushes all of them to the emergency room. Joe notices that Geraldine smells like gasoline, and she is disturbingly catatonic.
While in the hospital waiting room, Joe encounters a pregnant woman who questions his right to be there as an “Indian.” She continues berating Joe and suggests that Geraldine has been raped. Disgusted by the woman’s speculation, Joe takes a magazine from her hands and tears its cover into shreds. Joe is taken into Geraldine’s hospital room and finds his mother in distress. Although she wants to reassure her son, Geraldine is clearly traumatized by what has happened to her. A state trooper, local police officer, and tribal police officer all enter the room to interview Geraldine. They must discover whether the crime has happened on Native American land in order to determine how the case will proceed. Joe falls asleep in his mother’s room as she awaits surgery.
Joe retrospectively talks about his three best friends: Cappy, Angus, and Zack. When he returns to school after his mother’s attack, the friends are supportive and encouraging, especially Cappy. Following her hospitalization, Geraldine is bed-bound. Joe notices that the comforts of his home life are crumbling—the house is “stale” from a lack of cooking, and Geraldine is anxious and uneasy. Joe visits his uncle Whitey’s gas station, where his aunt, an ex-stripper named Sonja, works. Sonja offers to have her dog, Pearl, stay at Joe’s house for protection. Back at home, Bazil tells Joe how his mother escaped her attacker. He also tells Joe that the assaulter dropped a book of matches at the crime scene, which may narrow down the list of suspects.
It is unsure whether the attacker is Native or White, and Bazil tells Joe that this fact is important in determining how the case will proceed. Joe visits Clemence’s house, where he spends the evening with Whitey and his grandfather, Mooshum. Much to Clemence’s silent disgust, the men begin talking about Sonja and her former career as a stripper. Joe returns home and has a disgusting meal prepared by Bazil. After dinner, he joins Cappy and Cappy’s older brother, Randall, at Randall’s sweat lodge. The sweat lodge is used for traditional Chippewa practices. While in the sweat lodge, Randall has a vision of a ghost-like figure speaking to Joe. Randall encourages Joe to speak to Mooshum about this vision.
At the end of this section, the audience understands the residual effects of Geraldine’s attack. One evening, while Geraldine is preparing dinner, Bazil returns home. He puts his arms around his wife to greet her, but she is easily startled. She drops the casserole and retreats to her bedroom, where she closes herself off for the remainder of the week. After this incident, Bazil is determined to study his previous court cases in order to find clarity about Geraldine’s legal proceedings.
Analysis
At the beginning of the novel, Joe is portrayed as an average thirteen-year-old boy–he is naive, primarily concerned with hanging out with his friends, drinking, and flirting with girls. However, while tending the house with Bazil, he notices the “small trees'' that invade the foundation of his house. Joe passes his entire afternoon striking the tree’s roots in an attempt to rid his home of these pests. In this scene, Erdrich introduces elements of both symbolism and foreshadowing. Like the small trees that threaten the stability of his home’s foundation, Geraldine’s attack will invariably alter Joe’s life. Joe’s commitment to striking the roots foreshadows his determined pursuit of his mother’s attacker.
Bazil’s position in the community as a tribal judge plays an important role in the story. Both Joe and his father have a heightened understanding of justice, both in interpersonal practice and in its more abstract, legislative sense. Joe’s encounter with the United States v. Forty-three Gallons of Whiskey case underscores his understanding of Native law and the shortcomings therein. In the case, the court decided that Congress has the power to regulate the possession and sale of liquor in land belonging to and near Native American tribes. Erdrich’s nod to this case demonstrates how tribes have long been economically disenfranchised and subject to exploitation as justified by federal law. This foreshadows the complicated legislative proceedings that Bazil and Joe encounter as they pursue justice for Geraldine.
Joe’s encounter in the hospital waiting room gives him a perspective on how Native women are perceived and treated outside of the reservation. Joe is disgusted that his visibly distressed mother, following a horrific attack, could be judged and denigrated by a random bystander. This moment in the plot prompts the reader to consider racial and ethnic bias in the American health care system. In the United States, people of color face disparities in access to health care, the quality of care received, and health outcomes. The woman’s reaction in the waiting room further contributes to the theme of gender-based violence, which Erdrich explores in depth as the novel progresses.
As foreshadowed by the invasive weeds in the novel’s opening scene, Joe’s reliance on his family’s stability is destroyed following Geraldine’s attack. Joe’s family is one of the sole families on the Chippewa reservation that resembles a “nuclear" family structure. Joe and Bazil’s adaptation and dependency on the nuclear family is part of the reason why the attack devastates them as well. In the days following the incident, the reader understands how much Bazil and Joe depended on their matriarch—they are unable to feed themselves or care for their home once Geraldine is bed-ridden.
The main question that remains unsolved is whether Geraldine’s attacker is White or Native American. This question speaks to Erdrich’s thematic exploration of justice and injustice. The reader is reminded of Oliphant v. Suquamish, another court case that Erdrich mentions in The Round House. In Oliphant v. Suquamish, the court declared that Indian tribal courts have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians. Ultimately, the decision of which court will preside over Geraldine's case depends on specific details, many of which remain unknown because Geraldine is unable to provide witness testimony about her own attack.
