LaRose

Throughout the novel, violence or the threat thereof plagues the characters. Part of this threat of violence is tied to the very setting of the novel. When Romeo reflects on the televised politics of the War on Terror, he thinks about the proximity with which they all live to violence. “Everybody in North Dakota lived next door to a weapon of mass destruction. Right down the road, a Minuteman missile stored in its underground silo was marked only by a square of gravel and a chain-link fence above” (295). This violence does not represent merely the harm of a physical body but rather complete annihilation. Romeo seems nonchalant in his consideration of this proximity to extermination, as though this potential for unconscionable violence is something all people must encounter. This attitude reflects the history of extermination that many of the characters have been subjected to as Native Americans.

The author includes historical documents that reference this extermination within the novel, weaving nonfiction articles that espouse social opinions within the structure of the narrative. The author incorporates a real 1891 newspaper op-ed written by the Wizard of Oz’s author Frank Baum: “Our only safety depends on the total extermination of the Indians.