The Round House Analysis

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The Legal Entanglements and Damaging Effects of Sexual Assault The publication of The Round House by Louise Erdrich serves as a literary feat and national victory for sexual assault survivors and activists through the author 's realistic depiction and exploration into the brutal effects that domestic violence has on a victim, family, and community. In The Round House, Geraldine 's traumatic assault during the summer of 1988 is not to be treated as an isolated incident, but a common occurrence that has affected millions of Americans and evolved into a national domestic violence crisis. The lasting emotional, mental, and relational effect of sexual assault and trauma are critical matters that are rarely explicated in modern literature, much …show more content…

Joe and Bazil 's status as the immediate family members to a sexual assault survivor allows readers to see how sexual assault can impact an entire family unit; a frequent situation that many people find themselves in, but don 't know how to sensibly handle emotionally. Through Joe 's perspective as a child in this novel, Erdrich guides her audience into understanding how complex of a societal issue sexual assault is by displaying how far reaching its effects are on the victim, family, and community of a …show more content…

When a sexual assault takes place against an American every 109 seconds, the consequences of sexual assault, like those explored in the novel, are apart of a national domestic violence crisis that can no longer be overlooked. Erdrich wages war against the prevalence of sexual assault on tribal lands in her novel, urging her audience to understand how damaging an assault can be to the health and wellbeing of an individual and their family, on reservations and off. Within her thorough examination of the complexities, psychological effects, and legal entanglements caused by sexual assault cases, Erdrich hopes to use The Round House to inspire activism from her readers and further motivate American society to address sexual assault on a national

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