Whitey is Joe’s uncle and the owner of the reservation’s gas station. Whitey lives with Sonja, an ex-stripper who most people think is his wife even though they are not married. Whitey gives Joe a job at the gas station during the summer. Whitey is a jokester and a loving uncle whom Joe adores until one day he sees Whitey beat Sonja because he thinks she’s cheating on him. Joe, horrified by his uncle’s actions, tries to reconcile the uncle he loves with Whitey’s capacity for violence.
Whitey Quotes in The Round House
The The Round House quotes below are all either spoken by Whitey or refer to Whitey. 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:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Harper Perennial edition of The Round House published in 2013.
Chapter 8
Quotes
I won’t touch her, see? Even though some prick she's stringing along bought her diamond earrings. I won’t touch her. But she is dirty. His eyes rolled toward her, red with weeping now. Dirty. Someone else, Joe.
Related Characters:
Whitey (speaker), Joe Coutts, Sonja
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Whitey Character Timeline in The Round House
The timeline below shows where the character Whitey appears in The Round House. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Two: Lonely Among Us
...about the idea of going to the grocery store, so Joe offers to bike to Whitey’s gas station and buy more milk. Geraldine, relieved, gives Joe money, slurring as she speaks...
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Joe rides his bike to his uncle Whitey’s gas station, where Sonja, Whitey’s wife, is working behind the counter. Sonja looks up from...
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...cook dinner. Joe goes to get a pie from Clemence for dessert. At Clemence’s house, Whitey, Mooshum, and Clemence are sitting around drinking iced tea. Clemence, who is caring for Mooshum...
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...return to discussing the rape, but quickly stop when they remember Joe’s presence. Mooshum asks Whitey to tell him about “Red Sonja,” referring to Sonja’s old stripping persona, which clearly turns...
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Chapter Three: Justice
...had tried to do, they organized a boycott of the Lark gas station and helped Whitey open his own, putting the Larks out of business. Linden Lark returned home around that...
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Chapter Seven: Angel One
...Bazil and tells him that she is taking Joe on errands. They say goodbye to Whitey, who is pumping gas, and drive to Sonja and Whitey’s house. Joe follows Sonja into...
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...to watch out for Linden, and Sonja tells him she likes using Linden to make Whitey jealous because Whitey thinks he owns her.
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Chapter Eight: Hide and Q
...is going to the hospital tomorrow to see Geraldine, and so Joe should stay with Whitey and Sonja.
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After Joe works at the gas station the next day, Whitey and Sonja take Joe and Pearl home with them. As they drive home, Joe asks...
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During one of the days that Joe is staying with Sonja and Whitey, Whitey notices at breakfast that Sonja is wearing earrings that he has never seen before....
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Angry, Joe wants to quit, but he must stay because Whitey is gone. Whitey returns at eleven, smelling like beer. Sonja makes sandwiches at lunchtime and...
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...walking inside the store to ring Larose up for her purchases. Outside, Joe sees that Whitey has wandered off to the nearby bar, so Joe starts to fix Larose’s tire in...
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When the day is over, Sonja, Whitey, and Joe all get in the car and head back to the house. Everything seems...
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...tells Clemence that he quit his job at the station. Clemence realizes that Sonja and Whitey are fighting again. Joe helps Clemence with chores. After dinner, Joe goes into the sewing...
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Chapter Nine: The Big Good-bye
...uncle. Grandma Ignatia names the son, who Joe only ever knew as a friend of Whitey’s. Joe remarks that this story always surprises white people but that other Native people have...
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...out a mug shot of Linden Lark. Joe tells Bazil that he saw Linden at Whitey’s before he was taken into custody.
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...angry, and Joe tells Sonja that if she doesn’t let him stay, he will tell Whitey about the money they hid. Sonja is shocked and then becomes extremely sad. She asks...
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...up and took drugs. Sonja says that she got stuck in stripping, and then when Whitey fell in love with her, she knew he would never marry her because she was...
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...down the dirt road with Father Travis in hot pursuit. Father Travis chases Cappy around Whitey’s gas station, the grocery store, through the graveyard, and back to the church playground. Cappy...
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...finishes his story, he changes the subject to Sonja. Clemence tells Joe that Sonja left Whitey yesterday while he was at the gas station, with a note that said she would...
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Chapter Ten: Skin of Evil
...calls Joe and tells him that some of his family (Joe presumes Doe, Randall, and Whitey) “paid a visit” to Linden and “messed him up good.” Geraldine comes back, and then...
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Chapter Eleven: The Child
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...
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When Joe comes back, he says that he has the summer flu. Whitey continues to talk about Linden’s murder, saying that there is no evidence because of the...
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As the boys head out back, Cappy asks Joe if Whitey knows they killed Linden. Joe says that he thinks so, since he threw up after...
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When Joe and Cappy wake up, Whitey tells them to eat another sandwich and to touch the whiskey bottle again. He also...
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During the next week, 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...
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