A Study Of The Initiation Theme In Erdrich's Trilogy

Native American writer Louise Erdrich's Justice Trilogy – The Plague of Doves(2008),The Round House(2012),and LaRose(2016)– mainly addresses the question of justice.However,the Trilogy also significantly thematizes the coming-of-age of Native American adolescents,making the initiation theme a topic worth-examining.Employing textual analysis,this study explores the initiation theme in the Trilogy.A review of the Bildungsroman reveals its main features regarding the protagonist,the plot pattern,and the thematic concern,helping this study to first categorize the three novels as Bildungsromane.This study then probes into the coming-of-age of the apprentices in the three novels,respectively.Evelina in The Plague of Doves grows from an uncertain teenager to a participant in and an inheritor of tribal histories after she is exposed to Native American oral stories and off-reservation experiences.Awakened by the maze-like Indian Law,Joe in The Round House regards the defense for and the perfection of tribal law as his lifelong cause.Landreaux in LaRose,after the boarding school,the life in exile,and the accidental killing of Dusty,eventually matures and achieves a balance between Native culture and mainstream culture.The Trilogy is further analyzed as a whole to explore features of the three growing paths and the initiation theme.The three growing paths are seemingly unalike but mostly identical.Though with inevitable regrets and sorrows,the three apprentices are successfully integrated into either tribal or mainstream society without sacrificing their characteristics.As for the depiction of their coming-of-age,the emphasis is not only attached to conflicts between apprentices and the society but those between tribal society and mainstream society;the presence of the Indian community in the apprentices' formation is equally stressed;moreover,owing to Erdrich's sense of responsibility as a contemporary Native American author,the apprentices' initiation are idealized.By interpreting the Trilogy as Bildungsromane,this study offers insight into the general features of the Native American Bildungsroman: Native American apprentices tend to struggle for growth among both personal and societal conflicts;their personal development is witnessed by or involves the whole Indian nation;besides,their initiation,if made positive,is probably idealized.