The Round House: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The Round House opens as the narrator, Joe, describes himself and his father Bazil weeding saplings that have grown into the foundation of his parents’ house. As Bazil removes some of the seedlings, he accidentally makes spots for new trees to grow the next year. Joe expresses surprise that any of the saplings had survived the hard winter. Bazil stands up and tells Joe they’ve done enough, but Joe continues to work as Bazil goes into the house to call Geraldine, Joe’s mother. Joe continues to weed alone all afternoon with an unusually sharp focus. Joe says that he retrospectively wonders why he was so focused on the project.

When Joe finally quits weeding the trees, he goes into Bazil’s study to peruse Bazil’s copy of Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Joe notes an exclamation point in the margin next to a case called United States v. Forty-three Gallons of Whiskey. Joe finds the name funny, but the case is actually very important, as it upheld a precedent that Native treaties with the United States government were the same as those of sovereign nations. Joe drinks a glass of water as he reads and thinks that the “grandeur and power” of the Chippewa people that his grandfather, Mooshum, talks about has not been totally lost because it was legally protected.

Bazil walks into the study and Joe hides the book under the table. Bazil then asks Joe where Geraldine is. Joe and Bazil stare at each other briefly in a way that Joe thinks is “somehow adult.” Joe suggests that Geraldine may be at work. It is a Sunday, but Geraldine, who is a tribal enrollment specialist, had received a phone call and then told Joe she was going to her office to find a file. However, Joe thinks his mother should be back by now. Joe muses that, unbeknownst to women, men count on the “regularity of [women’s] habits,” so Geraldine’s absence surprises them.

Bazil and Joe exit the house to borrow Joe’s uncle Edward’s car and find Geraldine. Joe explains to the reader that his father is a judge. Joe walks with his father to his aunt Clemence and Edward’s house. Joe’s grandfather Mooshum, who is very elderly, also lives with them. Joe and Bazil borrow Clemence’s car and drive to Geraldine’s office, but the parking lot is empty. As Joe and Bazil drive to the grocery store to see if Geraldine stopped there, Joe begins to feel how abnormal it is that Geraldine has not come home.

Once they are halfway to the grocery store, it occurs to Joe that it is closed on Sundays. Bazil keeps driving, however, and suddenly Geraldine speeds past them going in the other direction, looking anxious, and presumably heading home. Bazil speculates that Geraldine is angry that she had also forgotten that the grocery store was closed on Sundays, exclaiming “oh Geraldine!” Joe can tell from those two words how much Bazil loves Geraldine. Knowing Geraldine is safe, Joe and Bazil relax. Bazil and Joe then take their time returning Clemence’s car.

When they get to the house, Joe and Bazil see that Geraldine is still in her car. Bazil runs toward her, realizing that something is wrong. He opens the driver’s side door and pries Geraldine’s fingers from the steering wheel, then lifts her out of the car. Joe notices that she has vomited on the front of her dress and that the back of her dress and the car seat are both covered in blood.

Bazil tells Joe to tell Clemence that he is taking Geraldine to the emergency room. He lays Geraldine in the backseat. Geraldine, though conscious, does not speak. Joe sits with her, noticing the smell of gasoline on her, and he insists on staying with his mother rather than going to talk to Clemence. Joe realizes that he rarely challenges his father, but Bazil concedes now. Joe holds Geraldine, who is shaking, and tells his father to drive fast. When they arrive at the emergency room, someone immediately comes over and puts Geraldine on a gurney. Bazil sends Joe to call Clemence. The nurses wheel Geraldine away to be seen by a doctor.

Joe sits down in the waiting room across from a pregnant woman who is reading a magazine. The woman asks Joe if “you Indians” don’t have a hospital on the reservation. Joe tells her that the emergency room is under construction. The woman says, “still,” and Joe gets angry. He uses the phone in the nurse’s office to call Clemence, but no one picks up. Joe sits back down in the waiting room as far away from the pregnant woman as possible.

The pregnant woman turns to the woman next to her and audibly speculates that Geraldine has had a miscarriage or has been raped. The woman then looks back at Joe to see his reaction. Joe walks over to the woman, takes the magazine from her hands, rips its cover off, and then rips it up. Joe gives the pieces of the magazine cover back to her and walks out. Outside, Joe hears the woman complaining to the nurse. He resolves to stay outside until the woman leaves or Bazil comes to get him. Joe mulls over what the pregnant woman said, thinking it cannot be a miscarriage because Geraldine had had an operation to make her infertile. That only left the other possibility— rape.

Later, the pregnant woman leaves the waiting room, so Joe goes back inside and calls Clemence, who, upon talking with Joe, leaves for the hospital immediately. A nurse brings Joe to see Geraldine in her hospital room. Joe finds his mother in a hospital bed, with Bazil standing over her. Joe notices Geraldine’s swollen and distorted face and asks what happened. Geraldine doesn’t answer this, but tells him she is “all right.” Joe reaches out to touch Geraldine, but Geraldine yelps and pulls her hand away, to Joe’s dismay. Bazil gestures for Joe to follow him, and once they are outside the room Joe tells his father that Geraldine is “not all right.” Bazil says that Geraldine was attacked, but does not know by whom. Bazil tells Joe that they will find the attacker, and Joe agrees.

Bazil hopes the police will come quickly. When Joe asks “which police?” (meaning tribal or not) Bazil responds, “exactly.” Three officers arrive at the hospital—a state trooper, a local town officer, and Vince Madwesin of the tribal police. Bazil asked for the three different officers to be present since it was not clear whether the crime had been committed on state or tribal land and whether the perpetrator was Native or not. Bazil leaves Joe and speaks with the officers one by one in a private room. Afterward, the officers shake Bazil’s hand and leave.

When Bazil and Joe go back into Geraldine’s room, Geraldine’s doctor, Dr. Egge, is there. Dr. Egge suggests that Joe leave and gives Bazil a harsh look, so Bazil tells Joe to see if Clemence has arrived yet. Joe objects, but Bazil makes him leave. From the waiting room, Joe watches Bazil and Dr. Egge speak from afar. Bazil turns and presses his forehead and hands to the wall outside of Geraldine’s room. Dr. Egge sees Joe watching and points to the waiting room. Instead, feeling “resistant to authority,” Joe runs to his father and hugs him.

Joe interrupts his narrative to say that, years after Geraldine’s attack, after he had gone into law and looked into his mother’s case, he realized that this moment was when Dr. Egge first told Bazil the extent of Geraldine’s injuries. After Joe hugs his father for awhile, Clemence arrives, separates Joe from Bazil, and leads him into the waiting room. Clemence tells Joe that Geraldine is going into surgery. Clemence proposes taking Joe home with her so he can go to school the next day, but he objects.

Joe asks Clemence if his mother was raped, and she says yes. Joe then asks if Geraldine will die from it, and Clemence says no, but tells Joe that it can be “more complicated.” Clemence points out that Geraldine was hurt very badly and that some rapes are more violent than others. Clemence and Joe both cry, and Joe asks Clemence why Geraldine had smelled like gasoline. Clemence says nothing, then puts her head between her knees as if she were going to faint. Joe does not ask again. He falls asleep in the waiting room and wakes up later. He sees Dr. Egge talking to Clemence, then feels a wave of relief, sensing that his mother is okay. Joe falls back asleep.