Justice In The Round House

Words: 946
Pages: 4

The Round House novel of Louise Erdrich has demonstrated different shapes of justice. Each of us, the readers, may have different opinions and feelings about each character. Simultaneously, there is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called Justice, which has some points reflect some of the characters of The Round House. In the Justice episode, Wesley Crusher accidentally committed a crime on an idyllic, primitive planet and had to be executed. However, Captain Picard and Wesley’s mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher, tried to save the boy by explaining their own law and convince them to make an exception for a visitor. By watching this episode, I have a much more generous way of judging the characters and understanding about moral code that Joe and his family live by in The Round House.
How we understand the world is informed by the stories we are told, the culture in which we are raised. To Joe, he loves his mom the way he wants to protect her from the attacker, which leads to his murdering Linden.
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Beverly Crusher and Joe’s parents. They love their children unconditionally. Captain was about to break the Prime Directive and sacrifice hundreds of people for the life of Wes; Joe’s parents accept to “argue a legal precedent” (306) to protect their son - a murderer. It is true that no parents want to their son in danger, or specifically in prison. Each of us assesses the justice in our own way, which gains the best advantage for ourselves. “To err is human”, however, we human cannot keep on making mistakes to cover the previous ones. It’s totally wrong in this case to dissimulate such a serious murder and express their happiness toward Linden’s death, which also means encouraging Joe’s action. By such a wrong reaction from parents and adults, Joe - a thirteen-year-old boy, will think that what he has done is right though in fact, he should be guilty about the