Examples Of Justice In The Round House By Louise Erdrich

When I was a young girl I believed justice was getting even. I was often told of the cliché phrase, “an eye for an eye” and I believed this phrase for the majority of my childhood. Until one day my little brother stole some money from me and in return I stole several things from him. At the end of the day I had a guilty conscious and it was haunting me more than it was bothering him. This same issue appears in the novel, The Round House, by Louise Erdrich. The novel tells a story of revenge through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy named Joe who is on a quest to find justice after his mother is raped. Although his intentions are entirely pure, his goal is corrupted by revenge. It isn’t until the end of the novel that Joe comes to the realization

As explained by Joe’s father, the best we can do justice is the type of justice the law uses and ideal justice is the way people would ideally seek out justice. Joe wanted more than what the government could provide, which wasn’t very much. He wanted to get his ideal justice. Therefore, when he had “the sense that,” his mother, “was ascending to a place of utter loneliness from which she might never be retrieved.” (43) he dived into the hole of corruption trying to save his mother. Instead of saving her, he got lost in revenge. For Joe revenge was ideal justice. So he took matter into his own hands to rid the world of Linden’s existence. He pushed himself to mature so that he could handle getting the revenge that he thought his family deserved. Once Joe was corrupted his dearest friend, Cappy, tried to save him and shot the bullet that killed Linden. Joes innocent intentions turn into revenge that devoured most aspects of his life and all in

After linden was murdered everyone was supposed to be safe. Joe’s parents would never have to see Linden ever again and Joe would get his family back. Joe should be happy that he had stooped his family “ from living in the fear cloud” but he wasn’t (305). Joe’s father thought everyone was good now but Joe knew his father was, “wrong about that one thing in particular… I was not exactly safe from Lark. Neither was Cappy. Every night he came after us in dreams” (307). Joe went on this long journey to take a burden off of his family just to put the burden on himself. It will stay with Joe for the rest of his life. It would have stayed with Cappy for the rest of his life as well but revenge came back around and killed Cappy. Their deaths shaped Joe for the rest of his life because he will always have their names over his head. So when Joe is sitting at the table with his family watching his family full of life he realizes all the hardship that he had caused meant nothing. Joes father even claims “There was no justice for your mother” (305). There was certainly no justice for Joe either because he was, “angered by their ignorance. Like I was the grown up and the two of them holding hands were oblivious children. They had no idea what I had gone through for them. Or Cappy. Me and Cappy” (305). Joe learned that his ideal justice was all wrong simply because justice will never