Family ties and bloodlines are an important theme in The Round House. The first image the reader sees is of a son working hard with his father in their yard while they wait for Geraldine, wife and mother, to arrive. Geraldine is described as the glue that holds the family together. Joe and his father, Bazil, run on her time. She is the lifeblood of the family, giving life meaning; they mark their days according to her movements. When she is late, they take note. Though she has gone to retrieve a file, it is a Sunday, and there are not many places she could be. The tension from Geraldine’s absence in the first few pages is palpable. With her absence, the family unit begins to unravel early on. When she arrives, and it is revealed that she has been raped, the ties that hold the Coutts together are effectively severed. Geraldine withdraws because of her trauma, and although Joe and Bazil set about looking for the attacker, the family is like a directionless compass, as Joe and Bazil struggle to make sense of the crime and find their place in a rearranged family unit.

In addition to the nuclear family, family ties encompass the extended family as well as members of the reservation; Joe’s extended family includes Clemence and Whitey, who are saddened and angry at the attack, and friends and neighbors, such as Joe’s friend, Cappy, and

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