What Is The Loss Of Innocence In The Round House

Coming of Age in a World of Tragedy: Joe’s Loss of Childhood in The Round House

The loss of Joe’s innocence can not be traced back to a singular event but is more of a gradual process that unfolds as Joe becomes more aware of the reality of his community.
While childhood is often marked by the years one through eighteen, in Louise Erdriches The Round House, it is viewed more as a mentality. The first change in Joe's mentality can be seen when the milk goes sour in his fridge, representing the loss of innocence and stability in Joe's life. After accidentally drinking the sour milk, Joe rushes up to his mother's room and says, “‘Mom, the milk was sour’...She had never let the milk go sour before."(Erdrich 23) The souring of the milk, while

After realizing that Whitey was beating Sonja, Joe remarks, “My blood pulsed and swam. The poison that was wasting in me thrilled along my nerves. I thought I’d kill Whitey. I was not afraid. ‘Whitey!’. . . ‘Come out and fight me!’” Since Joe has only been shown the idealized relationship between his parents, experiencing the imperfect nature Whitey and Sonja's love exposes him to the harsh reality of his community and transforms him into a different person despite his young age. While the attack Joe witnessed was a physical event, Erdrich also masterfully uses the symbolism of trees and nature to track Joe's personal development throughout the novel. The peak of this analogy is reached when Joe looks back on these events saying, “It occurred to me how even pulling trees that day, just months ago, I was in heaven. Unaware. I had known nothing even as the evil was occurring. I hadn’t been touched yet.”(Erdrich 294) Joe’s realization of how much he has grown in the last months suggests that age in The Round House is not bound by a linear timeline but instead shaped by lived experiences. The loss of innocence that Joe experiences is not a sudden occurrence but a gradual process; however, it is marked by key events and symbolism, such as the souring of the milk, the exposure to