Women, Bigotry, and Sexual Violence Theme Analysis

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.

Although Erdrich’s book is a work of fiction, Geraldine’s violent rape is part of a real phenomenon: Native women are far more likely to experience sexual violence than non-Native women and men. Often, the perpetrators of this violence are non-Native men, and because of rules against prosecuting non-Native people on reservation land, it is often impossible to bring them to justice. This demonstrates how long-term institutional racism and oppression directly threaten the physical safety of Native people (and Native women in particular) by removing consequences for crimes and leaving violent criminals at large.

Linden Lark takes part in this terrible trend, as he not only violently rapes Geraldine, but he also abducts and murders Mayla out of jealousy over her relationship with another man. Linden’s possessiveness over Mayla and his fury at her rejection seem to be exacerbated by his sense of racial superiority as a white man. Linden’s violence is certainly closely intertwined with his bigotry, as he “hates Indians generally” and he has called Native women a word so ugly that Geraldine would not repeat it.

Many other men in the novel, both Native and non-Native, mistreat women in ways much less severe. Curtis Yeltow, for example, sleeps with underage Mayla, using his power as a governor and an older man to manipulate her. Whitey, Joe’s beloved uncle, beats Sonja, a fact that seems to be known amongst the rest of Joe’s family and goes more or less ignored. Even Joe, the story’s protagonist, treats Sonja poorly. Through Joe, Erdrich shows the reader how boys and young men are indoctrinated with problematic senses of entitlement to women, whom they sexualize in ways that are often degrading and dehumanizing. Though all the boys in Joe’s friend group presumably receive similar messaging about women and sex, Joe and Cappy deviate in their approaches to romance. While Cappy loves and respects Zelia, Joe objectifies and manipulates Sonja, first masturbating to pictures of her before forcing Sonja to let him watch her strip. Although Sonja explicitly tells Joe she does not want him to watch the dance she has planned for Mooshum, Joe threatens to blackmail Sonja if she does not let him stay.

Joe’s actions surprise both himself and Sonja, and after the dance Sonja, angry and upset, shows Joe where her old manager cut her breast with a razor while she was a stripper. Joe begins to cry, and Sonja tells him that “lots of men cry after they do something nasty to a woman.” Clearly, Sonja associates the gendered sexual violence she has experienced, like the mutilation of her breast, with actions like Joe’s less obviously harmful manipulation and objectification. Thus, as Joe begins to adopt a more adult role in his family and his community, he has also begun to mimic the kinds of adult male attitudes that indirectly caused his mother’s rape.

Erdrich never directly resolves what makes some men more violent or disrespectful towards women than others, but Linda Lark suggests some possible reasons for this when she talks with Joe about her twin brother. Linda tells Joe that she thinks that Linden was spoiled by Grace’s guilt over abandoning Linda, producing a “monster” inside him. When Joe asks Linda about this, Linda tells him that not everyone has a monster, but that those who do can choose to keep it locked up. Linda seems to imply that some people are more capable of or inclined towards violence than others, perhaps due to the sadness, hatred, or bigotry they are exposed to in their lifetime (like Linden’s upbringing in the cruel Lark family). However, Linda implies that the control of those impulses is what really matters. Thus, though Erdrich does not shy from exploring and condemning the toxic attitudes about gender and sexuality that threaten women (and particularly Native women), she proposes that the onus for controlling violent impulses rests on individuals.