Fighting Cruelty With Cruelty in The Round House by Louise Eirdrich Essay Sample

In the novel “The Round House” by Louise Eirdrich, incidents occur that lead to characters wanting to get revenge, yet revenge does not make one feel better about what has happened. In the novel, Linden Lark’s love of his life had a baby with another man. This incident led to him attacking two women which caused major problems with characters in the story. Linden Lark attacking these women in turn led to the son of one of the women, Joe, to want revenge on the man who attacked his mom. He decided to fight cruelty with cruelty and killed Killed Linden Lark. None of these instances helped the oppressor feel better about what had happened.

The main antagonist of the novel is Linden Lark. Linden Lark is a white man that lives off of the reservation. He is a very disturbed and bigoted man that suffers from drug and alchohol problems. Linden developed an obsession with a young native woman named Mayla Wolfskin. She had a baby with another man which caused Linden to grow furious and want revenge. In the novel it says, “I suppose I am one of those people who just hates Indians generally… my feeling is that Indian women are—what he called us, I don't want to say… He said we have no standing under the law for a good reason and yet have continued to diminish the white man and to take his honor… I won't get caught, he said… I know as much law as a judge. Know any judges? I have no fear… The strong should rule the weak. Instead of the weak the strong! It is the weak who pull down the strong.” This quote explains that Linden Lark is not a stable human being. Being involved in the legal system allows Linden to get away with attacking 2 women, although his actions do not fix anything that had happened before, but instead contributes to his unstable being. Linden’s ridiculous actions then lead to the imbalance and disruption of Joe, his family, and other characters in the story.

The attack that occurred to Joe’s mom had a huge impact on him. It caused him to act differently and begin to take on more responsibility as he was coming to that age. After the incident Joe immediately wanted to get revenge on his mother’s attacker, Linden Lark. The attack on his mom sparked an urge for revenge in Joe and caused him to respond with more cruelty and violence. In the novel it says, “I should have felt happy watching them across the table, but instead I 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.” Joe’s response to the attack on his mother was to kill Linden Lark because Joe thought that it would bring him justice and fix everything. Except, that quote explains that after Joe had gotten revenge on Linden for what he had done, it did not fix the problems in his family. This ties into the theme that getting revenge won't make you feel better, and fighting cruelty with cruelty isn’t the best response

Joe’s cruel response affected many people including him, and although Linden got justice through joe’s eyes, where does the cruelty stop? There is a cycle of an incident happening, then sparking revenge in an individual causing them to respond with more cruelty and violence. Then the characters do not feel good about what they have done. In the story it says, “I lay awake thinking of the place on the hill, the holy wind in the grass, and how the structure had cried out to me.” This quote explains how Joe is distraught and distracted by the act of cruelty that he had committed.

In conclusion, the cruel incidents that occur in the novel “The Round House” push characters to want revenge, but the revenge they seek does not make them feel better after it is done. This promotes the theme that revenge does not solve problems, but can start new ones. For example, Joe was so adamant to get revenge on Linden Lark because of what he had done to Joe’s mother, but after he had got his revenge he and Cappy had felt terrible about it and had nightmares regarding what they had done.