The Round House By Louise Erdrich

Exploring the subject of History has been portrayed through multiple media to often assist in remembering the events that took place. For instance, The Round House by Louise Erdrich uses literature to make a statement about the current issue in regards to the political relationship and boundary of Native American Indians; moreover, Edrich utilizes the protagonist Joe's journey through life to also make comments about societal issues. Edrich’s ability to portray these issues through the fictional genre and unique writing style allows for the book to ultimately convey a level of AP literature because the utilization of these techniques goes beyond the general basis to evoke a deeper thematic meaning towards societal standards. By encapsulating

Within the book, one of the key distinctions from other books becomes apparent when Joe begins to converse with other characters: there are no quotation marks to signal the change from thoughts to vocal measures. Quotation marks are often used to signal vocal activity in the third person point of view and the change from personal thoughts to vocal projection in the first person point of view. In a publication by the University of Connecticut, Stephen Koo states that the elimination of quotation marks could be that the proposed author is “more selective and highbrow” (Koo) regarding their literature. “Selective” and “highbrow” are two terms that refer to the specificity of a person or to invoke specific qualities. In the case of Louise Edrich’s The Round House, being more selective may have been her very reason. The main plot of the book develops from an attack, as the victim is part of an Indian tribe while the attacker is presumed to be from the “outside” or general society. The issue of relationship and boundary begins to process, Edrich may have wanted to create an artistic manner of representing this issue - the elimination of quotation marks. Originally, the marks may have

As a more historical topic, the usual steps are to document exact instances to efficiently portray the issue at hand - yet, The Round House goes a completely different pathway because the book isn’t specifically tackling one issue - the book is tackling the entire community of issues that the Native American Indians faced. Towards the middle of the book, Joe says “The thoughts that protected my thoughts had fallen away and now I was left with my real thoughts.” (Edrich 258). Here, “real thoughts” represent the actual notion of the issues that are taking place in reality, but the “thoughts that had fallen away” were the walls of fiction. When utilizing fiction, Edrich can convey a different manner of perspective, one that isn’t limited by “media representation.” In an article by the poetry foundation, “Erdrich’s accomplishment is that she is weaving a body of work that goes beyond portraying contemporary Native American life as descendants of a politically dominated people to explore the great universal questions—questions of identity, pattern versus randomness, and the meaning of life itself” (Poetry Foundation). Edrich wants to keep the spotlight on the issues that Native American Indians are facing but also wants to give light on different issues that derive from the source of