Wendigo in "The Round House"

The Windigo shows up on occasion in Louise Erdrich's The Roundhouse. The reason the Windigo is such an important image in The Roundhouse is because it characterizes Linden Lark. Linden is a sociopath who destroys essentially everything in his path without showing any remorse in any way,much like the Windigo.
The only difference between the two is that the Windigo is an anccient spirit who has an insatiable hunger for human flesh, while Linden is simply a sociopath who doesn't care who he hurts.


pg 306
when Joe's dad says,"Traditional precedent. It could be argued that Lark met the definition of a wiindigoo, and that with no other recourse, his killing fulfilled the requirements of a very old law."



p180
Muushom, " . . .. But not before you had agreement in the matter. you couldn't do it alone. There was a certain way the killing of a wiindigoo must be done." This show's how Lark could be a difficult foe and shouldn't be faced alone,  which makes even more sense as to why Cappy helped Joe with killing him.


Louise Erdrich's opinion on the Windigo
"The wiindigoo really arises out of a human being’s way of being and thinking and it has to be contained and controlled by the people closest to that person," Erdrich said.  "Western justice can’t meet the demands of a reality of this kind. The traditional way of justice is the only way out."