Justice & Revenge

[NNEDV]

Ultimately, The Round House is a story about a lack of justice and the therefore seemingly inevitable desire for vengeance. Louise Erdrich has said that “In writing the book, the question was: If a tribal judge — someone who has spent his life in the law — cannot find justice for the woman he loves, where is justice? And the book is also about the legacy of generations of injustice, and what comes of that.”

Can revenge be “the only form of justice in some locations and in some terrible situations," as Erdrich asserts? Or, is it “a sorrow for the person who has to take it on?” Or something else entirely?


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Quotes taken from an NPR interview found here: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/02/1620860...

[Emily]

Love the quotes from Erdrich! Her words add another dimension to an already rich, complex story.

[Illiterate]

I don't know if revenge is justice, whether there is a judicial system in place or not. I think this book toys with the idea of the cost of revenge. Does it satisfy the avenger or does manifest itself into a punishment that takes its toll on all those around them. Would a judicial system help all the future people who dare to take justice in their own hands. Would it spare them this punishment, an unknowing punishment. I think that this book raises idea that punishment and revenge are not the same thing.