Native American Literature and CinemaApril 22, 2014Social Injustice at RoundhouseLife for Native Americans on reservations has never been entirely easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely unaware of. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich highlights these issues. She gives her readers a sense of what it means to be Native American by illustrating the life struggles of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a reservation in North Dakota. This book explores a path of advocacy against social injustices. The most visible plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice committed against his mother, which has caused conflict within his entire family and within himself. The book opens with "Small trees had attacked my parents' house at the foundation." (Erdrich 4) The initial conflict in this story is that Joe's mother, Geraldine, is raped. This event becomes the seed for all the other problems that arise in the story. This damages the foundation of their family. The opening line is the largest metap...