A Round House by Louise Erdrich, Essay Example

Part I

The Round House is about a family living in North Dakota. The family is made up of Geraldine Coutts (mother and wife), Bazil (Geraldine’s husband) and Joe (Geraldine and Bazil’s son). In the summer of 1988, Geraldine is attacked and brutally raped by a non-native. Geraldine refuse to reveal the details of her ordeal to anyone and slips into a pit of despondency and solitude. Bazil and Joe react to this situation in different ways. Bazil, being the Ojibwe judge, chose to seek for justice through the legal channels. This was a difficult endeavour that led to a dead end as issue of sovereignty and jurisdiction made impossible to punish a non-native. Joe chose to seek his own answers and his own justice with the help of three comrades; Agnus, Zack and Capp. Joe is forced into an adult world where he has to battle between responsibility to family and his own emotions. His search for justice through vengeance leads him down a path where he will be forced to cross a line, one act which he cannot undo.

Part II

This story reveals the underlying social problem facing native women to this day. There have been numerous instances where native women have been defiled by non-native men, who get away with the vice owing to jurisdictional and sovereignty issues.

Racism is one of the most significant social problems that has plagued the United States for the past century. Since the advent of slave trade, racism became an integral part of the United States’ history. Through the struggle for equality and equity, the different races within the United States have collided in both peaceful and violent encounters to shape the landscape of race as it currently is. Race is seen as the determinant of justice. In the near future, I see racism influencing the landscape of the United States on all levels. The minority, (the minor races) are gaining confidence and perceiving themselves as equal citizens of the United States

Gender norms within the society are seen as oppressive and chauvinistic. Bazil’s quest for justice is hindered by these chauvinistic gender norms. He eventually succumbs to these norms as Joe abandons all other avenues, seeking his own justice.

Society is clearly depicted as a stratified society divided according to classes. By virtue of being native, Geraldine is naturally considered to come from a lower class. The non-native gets away with a hideous act owing to the fact that he comes from a higher class. He is even protected by the law on jurisdictional and sovereignty grounds.

This phenomena has a huge impact on the Native communities. Firstly, it is oppressive to native women. Native women cannot go about their daily routine and activities without worrying for their lives. They understand that all avenues of justice will not protect them in the case where they are attacked and defiled. It diminishes the value of the woman in the society and reduces her to a mere object to be used and disposed as one wishes. This is degrading to the woman.

The native communities live under persecution as they cannot seek justice for a case similar to Geraldine. This leads the natives to take the law into their own hands as the setup structures of law deny them justice. This street justice attitude makes such native naturally rebellious to the rule of law due to the oppressive nature of its application.

The Criminal Justice system, and specifically law enforcement, have a very large responsibility when it comes to fulfilling their role of getting offenders of the law off streets and into the penal system where they can be punished and rehabilitated. The criminal justice system, in this case, plays a very little role in the addressing of this issues. When a native files a case against a non-native, the case is usually thrown out of court on grounds of lack of enough evidence to prosecute the defendant.

The credibility efficiency, effectiveness and fairness of the criminal justice system can be questioned owing to the manner in which they handle cases involving defiled native women. The different units within the criminal justice system; from the police officer to the judge, turn a blind eye to the offenses committed against native women by non-native men. The corrupt nature of the justice system ignores the plight of the weak and poor and awards the rich and greedy. The criminal justice system is seen as a tool of division of the classes where the rich and greedy control most of the resources and justice. They are able to manipulate the system to favor their needs, desires and goals.

There are some important and pertinent questions that arise as regards the findings. It important that one questions to what extent is sovereignty upheld. When one commits a crime against a native woman. Then they should be answerable to a law that will consider the rights of both the victims and the perpetrator. It is evident that the perpetrator, being non-native, cannot be prosecuted under native and customary law. This would infringe on the rights and beliefs of the perpetrator. As such, the criminal justice system that is meant to protect all citizens, should arbitrate and find a proper punishment for the perpetrator and some form of compensation to the victim. However, the law fails to execute this fundamental function.

It is also important to raise the question of jurisdiction of the law. Native and customary law has jurisdiction in areas where it is considered the natives have jurisdiction over. When a crime is committed within such a jurisdiction, then the crime is punishable by native customary law. However, both the victim and the perpetrator have to come from the same native background for the law to be applicable. In this case, only the victim was of native origin while the perpetrator is non-native. As such, common law, which has jurisdiction on all areas within a sovereign nation can be applied. But what happens when this system fails?

There are circumstances in life that can be related to this story. There are numerous times where native women have been oppressed and denied justice by the criminal justice system. Racism is a hotly contested issue in security. The most recent being the Stop-and-Frisk policy in New York.  Arguments against the Stop-and-Frisk policy state that the policy has been used as an instrument of racial profiling. This is clearly seen in the fact that over 80% of all the pedestrians who are stopped and frisked are of African-American or Latino decent. The stop-and-frisk is a form of oppression where instead of justice ignoring the natives, it targets them. It is a form of social profiling that targets the native criminalizing every aspect of their culture.

Works Cited

Andersen, Margaret L and Dana H Witham. Thinking about women : sociological perspectives on sex and gender. Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson, 2011. Print.

Du, Shanshan and Ya-chen Chen. Women and gender in contemporary Chinese societies : beyond Han patriarchy. Lanham: Laxington Books, 2011. Print.

Erdrich, Louise. The Round House. New York: Harper, 2012. Print.

Visvanathan, Nalini. The women, gender and development reader. Halifax: Fernwood Pub, 2011. Print.