Cappy Lafournais Character Analysis in The Round House

Cappy is a thirteen-year-old Chippewa boy and Joe's best friend. After Cappy’s mother’s death, he and his brother Randall were raised by their father Doe Lafournais. Cappy is handsome, charming, and an extremely loyal friend. He and Joe have a deep love for one another, and their friendship is notably intimate: they share shoes, talk about everything, and Joe even calls out Cappy’s name in his sleep. Cappy offers Joe support as he copes with Geraldine's trauma and he later helps Joe kill Linden Lark in retribution, despite Joe's protests that he wants to kill Linden alone so that Cappy won’t be legally accountable. However, Cappy saves Joe’s life by tailing him and delivering the shot that kills Linden when Joe is unable to do so. Over the course of the book, Cappy falls in love with Zelia, a Mexican American girl who comes to the reservation on a mission trip. Through her, Cappy becomes more religious. Cappy explores his adolescent sexuality with Zelia, and once she moves back to Montana, the young couple begins exchanging letters. After Lark’s death, Cappy dies in a drunk driving accident while in the car with Joe, Angus, and Zack on the way to see Zelia. Cappy’s loyalty and devotion to Joe are a formidable model of friendship in the book, and his death is a tragedy of adolescence that clearly still haunts Joe even years later.

Cappy Lafournais Quotes in The Round House

The The Round House quotes below are all either spoken by Cappy Lafournais or refer to Cappy Lafournais. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Women, Bigotry, and Sexual Violence Theme Icon

In all those miles… there was nothing to be said. I cannot remember speaking and I cannot remember my mother or my father speaking. I knew that they knew everything. The sentence was to endure… I do remember, though, the familiar sight of the roadside café just before we would cross the reservation line. On every one of my childhood trips that place was always a stop for ice cream, coffee and a newspaper, pie… But we did not stop this time. We passed over in a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever. We just kept going.

Related Characters: Joe Coutts (speaker), Bazil, Geraldine, Cappy Lafournais

Page Number and Citation: 317

Explanation and Analysis:

Cappy Lafournais Character Timeline in The Round House

The timeline below shows where the character Cappy Lafournais appears in The Round House. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Parenthood, Foster Families, and Coming of Age Theme Icon

...states that when he was an adolescent, he had three friends, and one of them, Cappy, is now dead. Joe still carries around a black stone that Cappy gave him for... (full context)

Cappy walks Joe home after Joe’s first day back to school. Though they normally spend time... (full context)

Chippewa Tradition vs. Catholicism Theme Icon

...Joe goes to the Lafournais household to help Randall with his sweat lodge. Joe and Cappy are the “fire keepers,” meaning that they stoke the fire in exchange for food. Joe... (full context)

...in comparison. Randall and his friends settle into the lodge and begin singing. Joe and Cappy go to the house to refill the water cooler and, as they are coming back,... (full context)

Joe, Cappy, Zack, and Angus all love bike riding, as it gives them a sense of freedom... (full context)

Land, the Judicial System, and Justice Theme Icon

When Cappy, Zack, and Angus arrive, they find Joe sitting outside of the round house and with... (full context)

...upstairs. Joe tries to tell Bazil he loves him, but Bazil has already hung up. Cappy tells Joe to hurry, and Joe, upset, snaps at him. (full context)

As the boys walk toward Grandma Thunder’s apartment, Joe tries to apologize to Cappy. Cappy cuts him off, though, and says that Joe bought the shoes Cappy wanted. Joe,... (full context)

...before. Joe confirms that that is true, and he also reveals that he went with Cappy, Angus, and Zack to the round house. (full context)

...church’s playground. Angus, realizing that Joe is upset, tells Joe he is going to find Cappy. Angus rides off. Joe lays down. (full context)

...is indeed definitely proof that Father Travis is his mother’s attacker. Angus finally returns with Cappy. Joe fills Cappy in on his father’s suspicion of Father Travis’s guilt. The boys hatch... (full context)

Next, Cappy ventures over to look in the window and tells the rest of the boys that... (full context)

...Furious, Father Travis mocks the boys, asking why they were spying on him. He asks Cappy what his name is, and Cappy lies to him, saying his name is the “traditional”... (full context)

...that since he has a mother and sister and he used to have a girlfriend. Cappy asks about Father Travis’s girlfriend curiously, and Father Travis tells the boys he was engaged.... (full context)

...back home, Joe says that he wants to use the money to buy shoes like Cappy’s and he will tell everyone he got the money by working at the gas station.... (full context)

Storytelling, Formality, and Writing Theme Icon

...day they found the gas can. Joe is horrified by how quickly he ratted out Cappy, Zack, and Angus in order to protect the money and Sonja. Feeling ill, he runs... (full context)

...Larose’s tire in his place, but one of the nuts will not budge. Joe hears Cappy, Zack, and Angus ride up behind him. Cappy succeeds in taking the nut off after... (full context)

...buzzing around the house, completing chores and full of energy. Joe leaves and convenes with Cappy, Zack, and Angus. The boys decide to go to the lake beach near the church. (full context)

...them. The boy asks them to leave because the beach is reserved for church activities. Cappy refuses. When the beautiful girl tells them to go, Cappy walks out of the water... (full context)

Cappy dunks the boy and then lets him go, but the boy vomits in the water.... (full context)

...the youth group in order to hang out with Zelia. Joe, Angus, and Zack watch Cappy and Zelia flirt, knowing that they have no chance with her. The next day, the... (full context)

Joe, Cappy and Angus discover a search-and-rescue unit a few days later while biking. At the lake,... (full context)

...his parents and his friends’ parents sitting outside, but does not see Zack, Angus, or Cappy, so he gets on his bike and leaves to find them. Near the church, Joe... (full context)

Joe goes to Cappy’s house, where he finds Cappy slumped in a lawn chair. When Joe greets Cappy, Cappy... (full context)

The narrative cuts to Joe and Cappy biking over the hills behind the hospital, both trying to blow off steam. Cappy tells... (full context)

Cappy goes into the confession booth after Angus, and at first all is well, but then... (full context)

Later, at Clemence’s house, Joe asks what Cappy was thinking when he told Father Travis about having sex in the church basement. Cappy... (full context)

...that said she would never come back. Joe is overwhelmed by this news and tells Cappy they need to leave. They say goodbye and bike away. After riding for a while,... (full context)

...whereabouts. Joe doesn’t know, but later that night, while Geraldine is out of the room, Cappy calls Joe and tells him that some of his family (Joe presumes Doe, Randall, and... (full context)

Later, Joe rides his bike to the Lafournais house, where he finds Cappy weight lifting. Cappy stops exercising and pulls out a joint and beer. The boys leave... (full context)

Joe hints that he is not just planning on shooting gophers, and Cappy understands that Joe intends to kill Linden Lark. Joe explains that he would not want... (full context)

Joe and Cappy ride back to Cappy’s house to practice shooting. The boys set up cans on a... (full context)

...by Grandma Ignatia’s house for food, where Bugger returns the bike. Joe then rides to Cappy’s house, where he boys had planned to practice shooting, but when he arrives Randall is... (full context)

Cappy suggests that they look for rocks for Randall’s sweat lodge, so Cappy and Joe go... (full context)

...repeatedly. The week passes and then it is powwow weekend. Joe goes with Randall and Cappy to the powwow grounds and helps set up in the family’s usual spot. They dig... (full context)

People start to fill the bleachers to watch the dances. Cappy and Joe set up a tent for Randall to prep himself in, and Cappy teases... (full context)

...dark, then puts on gloves and walks to the front door with the crowbar that Cappy left out for him. Joe enters and walks to the gun cabinet, where he shatters... (full context)

The next morning, Joe and Cappy wake up at the campground and eat breakfast that Cappy’s relatives Suzette and Josey make... (full context)

Randall approaches Joe and Cappy as they watch the dancers and informs them that the house was broken and the... (full context)

...a run. Joe takes an empty pickle jar full of water and the stone that Cappy gave him to the overlook and digs up the ammo and the rifle. Joe loads... (full context)

...misses entirely, then freezes. Linden starts to get up and Joe begins to panic when Cappy appears, takes the rifle from Joe, and shoots Linden dead. Cappy picks up the ejected... (full context)

When Cappy and Joe reach the oak tree, they turn and look down at Linden’s body. Cappy... (full context)

...Linda’s front porch and then get back in the car and drive to Joe’s house. Cappy pulls over to let Joe out on the road to his house when they see... (full context)

The boys, wanting to get drunk, decide to meet at Whitey’s gas station after Cappy drops the car off. After Cappy drives away, Joe walks to the station and finds... (full context)

...After resting, he asks Whitey for a sandwich. Just as Whitey finishes making the sandwiches, Cappy arrives, and the three of them sit outside and eat. Whitey gives the boys a... (full context)

As the boys head out back, Cappy asks Joe if Whitey knows they killed Linden. Joe says that he thinks so, since... (full context)

When Joe and Cappy wake up, Whitey tells them to eat another sandwich and to touch the whiskey bottle... (full context)

...Joe actually does contract the flu. During the police investigation, Whitey attests to Joe and Cappy’s presence at the gas station on the morning of the murder, saying that Joe and... (full context)

The narrative jumps forward to Joe, Angus, Cappy, and Zack hanging out together at the edge of the construction site on the reservation... (full context)

...rapture anyway, since they have confession. The boys then reminisce about how Father Travis chased Cappy around after his confession about having sex with Zelia. Joe brings up the possibly of... (full context)

Joe suggests that they get food, but Zack, Cappy, and Angus have fallen asleep. After a while, Joe hears someone crying and realizes that... (full context)

...other boys were, but not him. Geraldine sits down and tells Joe that he yelled Cappy’s name twice in his sleep the previous night. Joe thinks about Cappy crying in his... (full context)

...he is also wrong about them being safe from Linden, because he haunts Joe and Cappy’s dreams. (full context)

...Joe describes the two dreams he has after the murder: one in which he and Cappy are at the golf course and they shoot Linden, but then Joe and Linden switch... (full context)

Several nights later, Joe wakes up again as he’s shouting Cappy’s name. Joe get up and looks around the hallway, hoping no one has heard him.... (full context)

...have stumbled upon Mayla’s body in the construction site and that even if he and Cappy had not killed Linden, Linden would go to jail for murdering Mayla as soon as... (full context)

Joe decides to find Cappy and get drunk. As he rides toward the Lafournais house, he sees Zack and Angus... (full context)

Joe and Cappy say goodbye to Zack and Angus and then each go home. Joe packs a bag... (full context)

Angus and Zack show up at Joe’s house and Joe tells them that Cappy is going to pick them up in Randall’s car. Cappy then pulls into Joe’s driveway,... (full context)

Joe tells Cappy about finding Mayla’s file in Bazil’s desk and how Mayla’s baby’s father was Curtis Yeltow.... (full context)

...the road, flips, and lands in a field. Joe opens his eyes and calls for Cappy, but he receives no answer. Joe unbuckles himself and crawls out of the car. He... (full context)

...accident, Joe sits in the police station while Zack and Angus are in the hospital. Cappy’s body is in a funeral home. Joe remembers how, when he found Cappy, Joe held... (full context)

Cappy Lafournais Character Analysis

Cappy Lafournais Quotes in The Round House

Chapter 11 Quotes

Cappy Lafournais Character Timeline in The Round House