While he cannot prevent the unimaginable from happening, Joe must learn to deal with life's punches and persist in the face of adversity. Although Joe tries to ward off these irritants, the situation is ultimately beyond Joe's control. The small trees symbolize the trauma that will soon enter Joe's life, rattling the foundations of his home and changing the course of his life forever.

Joe is determined to rid his home of these pests, and he passes his entire afternoon striking at the tree's roots. However, while doing housework, he notices that 'small trees began to invade' the foundation of his house. Joe remarks on his youth and general sense of naivety at this moment: he lives a stable and tranquil life with his two parents. In the opening scene of the story, Joe is tending to the house with his father, Bazil. Although Joe cannot go back in time and reverse what has happened to Geraldine, he can take ownership over his narrative and articulate a situation that at once left him silenced and powerless. Through this narrative structure, Joe hopes to retrace his own past while simultaneously making connections to the ancestors and lineages that preceded him. It is important to note that the entire novel is narrated in flashback. Instead, Erdrich demonstrates that indigenous communities view time cyclically and see the 'past' as an active factor in the 'present.' Throughout the novel, there is a clear rejection of a perpetual, linear structure of time. The Past (Motif)Įrdrich explores the concept of time, particularly through the lens of Native American communities. The similarities between Nanapush and Joe reflect the long and continued history of violence against indigenous women. As the plot proceeds, Joe's sleuthing leads him to discover that Geraldine was attacked by Linden Lark at the round house. The origin story of the round house is a direct parallel to the recent events that Joe has experienced. The reader learns from Mooshum that the round house was built by Nanapush, a mythological figure who remained loyal to his mother after she was attacked by her own husband. The round house is a meeting place where the tribe convenes for religious ceremonies and celebrations. The novel's title references a physical space that holds deep symbolism for the Chippewa community. Joe's visions of apparitions are thus a manifestation of his feeling that he has lost a grip on his reality. In The Round House, Joe sees ghosts when he is in a vulnerable state and he is unable to make sense of the events that transpire. Trauma, even when one works through the process of healing or resolution, can recur at any given moment. Throughout the novel, Erdrich uses the motif of ghosts to demonstrate the lingering nature of trauma.

The round house by louise erdrich