The Role of Women in There There

 Tommy Orange’s novel There There follows the stories of twelve characters and their relationships to their Native American heritage while leading up to a powwow in the Oakland Coliseum. Orange’s debut is an intricate character study that dissects the Urban Indian and what that means for Native American culture in America as a whole. The book does well to connect each character’s story to the other and goes in depth to explore their connection to their identity. While Orange’s book is a scathing argument of modern times, he also does well to highlight the stories of Native American women and their complex ties to their identity.

Every character in this novel, male or female, has a relationship with a woman. There are mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, wives, and ex-wives that play an influential role in the character’s narrative. The female characters’ relationships with others vary from positive to negative, loving to distant, and help signify the intricacy of modern Native American femininity.

The book opens with Tony Loneman and his struggles with his fetal alcohol syndrome that distances him from everyone else except for his grandmother, Maxine. She teaches him about his Cheyenne identity, gives him a place to stay, and Orange implies that she loves him for who he is. Tony relates to Octavio in the first chapter when he expresses his love for his grandmother, and Tony states “His own heart’s blood. That’s the way I felt about Maxine” (Orange, pg. 31). When Tony goes to the powwow and is dying on the ground, his last thoughts are of his grandmother and her influence on his perception of his spirituality. Orange writes, “Tony remembers something his grandma said to him when she was teaching him how to dance. ‘You have to dance like birds sing in the morning’ she’d said, and showed him how light she could be on her feet…Tony needs to be light now” (Orange, pg. 431). Despite the regalia, the mask, that Tony put on to cover himself from others, his love for his grandmother remained central to his character in the book.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Orvil Red Feather’s relationship with his grandmother, Opal, is strained for most of the story. Unlike Maxine, Opal refrains from sharing anything about their Native American heritage to Orvil which causes him to practice in secret. Orange writes that Orvil doesn’t see Opal as a “Real Indian” because “it was too hard for them too tell what was specifically Indian about her” (Orange, pg. 195). While, from Opal’s perspective, she shelters him from it because she needs to “prepare them for a world made for Native people not to live but to die in, shrink, disappear” (Orange, pg. 242). Orvil goes behind Opal’s back to learn how to dance and sign up for the powwow at Oakland Colisuem, where he is in the wrong place and the wrong time. Maxine and her introduction to Native American heritage provided solace for Tony in his final moments; Opal’s reluctance to teach Orvil about their culture nearly caused his.

Each story that Orange portrays has different levels of connectivity to Native American culture. Whether that’s Maxine and her medicine box or Opal and her superstitions, Orange creates an intricate study on people and their reactions to themselves. His characterization of Native American women in the novel differ, but their central role in the story’s overall theme of identity is important.

There, There: Edwin's relationship with his Weight and Exercising

We see Edwin’s struggle with his weight and how it affects him throughout There There. The most obvious effect it has on Edwin is his self-esteem: “My stomach is a bowling ball” (Orange, 64). Edwin is awkward and socially inept, mostly because of how big he is. This awkwardness causes him to struggle to communicate, especially with women. When Edwin has the opportunity to hang out with Blue and take her on a friend date, they walked around a lake for the entire date, and Blue says, “The awkward silence that was the entire walk was intense” (Orange, 357). Even blue picks up on how Edwin’s size is creating problems elsewhere in his life when she says “he makes too many comments about himself, his weight. It makes people uncomfortable as he appears to be most of the time” (Orange, 238). Blue acknowledges that if Edwin were to accept his weight, he might be happier. But because he points it out all the time, it hurts his relationships with others.

              While Edwin’s struggle with his weight is hurting him socially, it also causes him to push himself to be better. Edwin wants to lose weight, which causes him to attempt to work out. When he attempts to workout, rather than being sad about his weight, he gets angry: “I am a Cheyenne Indian. A warrior. No. That’s super corny. Fuck. I get mad at that thought, that I even had it. I use the anger to push, to do a sit-up” (Orange, 77). Anger often causes overweight people to begin working out or eating less. Being overweight is often so embarrassing and difficult to deal with, that anger naturally occurs. Fortunately, working out is an excellent way to blow off steam, and is also great for losing weight. Working out also releases endorphins in your brain, which make you feel good. This might explain why despite pooping his pants, Edwin has an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction after completing the sit-up: “I found myself saying ‘Thank you out loud, to no one in particular” (Orange, 78).

              Edwin struggles with his weight throughout There There. His weight makes him super awkward and hurts his relationships with others. However, his weight pushes him to make a positive change and try exercising. The feeling Edwin gets from accomplishing something and exercising, despite pooping his pants, is so overwhelming that he sits in his own poop, thanking no one in particular. This accomplishment is amplified by the fact that his weight is directly correlated with his awkwardness, so losing weight could make Edwin less awkward. Overall, Edwin proves that being overweight is hard and can cause you to be self-conscious, but that working out is a great release that has positive effects both physically and mentally.

There There: The Importance of Storytelling

    Throughout Tommy Orange’s There There, the theme of storytelling is a huge part of the foundation of portraying the Native American lifestyle in Oakland along with many of the characters’ narratives. These characters face incredible challenges such as the loss of their culture and the loss of loved ones, however what keeps them going is the power of the storytelling that they have from generations ago.

    For many of the Native Americans in Oakland, a sentiment they share is the lack of connection that they have between themselves and their community. Though many of the characters experience the disconnect from their native background, Orange uses Dene’s character to portray the internal struggles to a greater extent. Although Dene’s love for storytelling derives from his Uncle Lucas, he grows to be passionate about native history as well. Dene notices the little amount that he knows about his own identity, and tries to understand if other natives feel the same way as him. His agency to understand other characters and their viewpoints on their native culture is shown through his interviews. For example, when Dene interviews Calvin Johnson, Johnson touches on the idea that he has no clarity about what parts of native history can be talked about and what part is just unsaid that no one will ever know. Johnson talks with a sense of confusion and bitterness towards the native culture, and has no interest in an interview with Dene because he feels as though he has nothing to say about his native identity. As shown through, “Dene starts to say something about storytelling, some real heady shit, so Calvin tunes out. He doesn’t know what he’s gonna say when it comes around to him.” (Orange 146). However, it is not that Johnson doesn’t want to know about his identity, it is that he, along with Dene, and other characters don’t know how to fill in the void they have. 

    Due to the lack of knowledge and connection the characters have from their Native history, they heavily rely on storytelling to learn about their culture. In the very beginning of the novel, Orange sets the tone by writing, “We are the memories we don’t remember, which live in us, which we feel” (Orange 10). This foreshadows for the reader the importance that storytelling has on natives around the world, and the significance is depicted through the characters in the book. For instance, Opal learns about her heritage through her mother and she remarks, “And so what we could do had everything to do with being able to understand where we came from, what happened to our people, and how to honor them by living right, by telling our stories” (Orange 58). The desire to have parts of native culture in the characters’ urban lifestyle is also shown through Orvil. Specifically, Orvil wants to learn more about the cultural practices of the natives as shown through him wanting to attend the powwow. However, Orvil feels as though he needs to hide from Opal as to where he is going because native culture hasn’t been normalized, a theme that Orange is trying to portray throughout the novel.

Documenting a Cultural Genocide: Historical and Fictional Accounts in There There

 

    Often disregarded in the American education system, the Occupation of Alcatraz inspired a new era of indigenous activism meant to highlight the destruction of culture, identity, and lives caused by white colonialism in the Americas. Tommy Orange’s There There discusses a fictional account of the occupation in which family, and therefore cultural, relations become confused; these strained relations are evident throughout the remainder of the novel. Orange’s fusion of fictional and historical accounts thus emphasizes how white colonialism and white society’s erasure of indigenous stories and culture has contributed to a deep-rooted, long-lasting destruction of cultural and individual identity in indigenous communities.

            Orange includes two sections which explicitly comment on these themes. The Prologue and the Interlude discuss historical events and how these events have destroyed, erased, and belittled native cultures and identities. Orange describes how white society has “reduced [Indians] to a feathered image” (Orange 7), particularly in terms of mascots, while “it was a celebration” for the same white society when “they tore us up. Mutilated us” (Orange 8). Furthermore, the failure of the American education system to teach indigenous history beyond the Trail of Tears—how many Americans can confidently discuss the importance of the (third) Occupation of Alcatraz?—exacerbates the trend of “histories written wrong and meant to be forgotten” (Orange 10). When discussing the Native American experience, Orange utilizes strong imagery meant to evoke strong emotions—disgust, anger, sadness—from an audience formerly lacking in knowledge on these topics. Orange’s historical sections therefore educate the audience in preparation for the fictional side of the novel; this contextualization allows the audience to more broadly understand the deep-rooted erasure of indigenous cultures and peoples.

            Likewise, the fictional majority of the novel demonstrates that this erasure is a modern process rather than a historical effect of cultural genocide. While the historical sections contextualize, the fictional ones trace the less-than-clear identities of multiple individuals to emphasize how the cultural genocide of Native Americans has been preserved in modern American. Several characters, including Blue, Tony, Opal, Edwin, and Orvil exemplify this confusion of identity when they look into reflective surfaces, almost as if they simultaneously experience outer and inner reflection. Orvil sees himself as “a fake, a copy, a boy playing dress-up” (Orange 122) when he attempts to connect with his culture, and Blue similarly “see[s] [her]self from the inside out . . . and inside [she] feel[s] . . . white” (Orange 198). Tony, born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, scrutinizes his face in the reflection of the TV and “couldn’t make the face that [he] found there [his] own again” (Orange 16). Each of these reflections represents the erasure indigenous people experience; what they perceive on the outside—FAS, obesity, skin color, etc.—does not match how they feel on the inside. White society has taken over, and this process, left widely unacknowledged by its white perpetrators, demonstrates how the cultural genocide of indigenous communities continues in modern America.

Perspective and Identity in Orange's There There

    Orange's decision to employ multiple narrators in There There provides a wide range of perspectives centered on the characters and their relationships to their Native heritage. The characters in There There range from young adults to the elderly, spanning multiple generations, and are often interconnected through family, work, and the Big Oakland Powwow. Through such diverse perspectives, Orange battles the narrow stereotype of Natives and instead presents the idea that there is no singular box that all Natives fit into but rather a spectrum of identities. 

    Several characters attempt to distance themselves from or make little attempts to form connections with their Native heritage. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is first introduced as a young child in the 1970s, moving with her mother and half-sister to occupy Alcatraz Island. While her mother believes the occupation will be a way for the family to connect with their heritage, Opal leaves Alcatraz traumatized by her experiences. While caring for her three great-nephews, she does not teach them about their Native heritage with the rationale that the narrator explains, "It's to prepare them for a world made for Native people not to live but to die in, shrink, disappear. She needs to push them harder because it will take more for them to succeed than someone who is not Native" (Orange 165). Her experiences on Alcatraz and throughout her life have pushed Opal to resent her heritage and the world. Thus, she must distance herself and her great-nephews from their heritage to protect them and regain control of their lives. Other characters have little experience with their heritage, such as Calvin Johnson. Although Calvin is involved with the Big Oakland Powwow planning committee, his reason for participating is not to form a deeper connection with his heritage. In fact, during an interview with Dene, Calvin states, "I just don't feel right trying to say something that doesn't feel true. . . . I just don't think it's right for me to claim being Native if I don't know anything about it" (Orange 149). For Calvin, his lack of experience and knowledge of his Native heritage is itself a barrier to identifying as Native. Thus he is not motivated to learn more or attempt to understand his heritage, and more so feels "like [he's] from Oakland" (Orange 148).

    Many of the characters in There There want to form deeper connections with their heritage and attempt to embrace their identities as Natives. Orvil Red Feather, the great-nephew of Opal, has an extreme interest in learning about his Cheyenne heritage and learning to dance at a Powwow. Although he faces obstacles, including his own insecurities and Opal's refusal to teach him and his brothers about their heritage, Orvil learns to dance and how to dress in Powwow regalia through online forums and YouTube videos. While looking at himself in the mirror while dressed in regalia, the narrator states, "He's waiting for something true to appear before him- about him. It's important that he dress like an Indian, dance like an Indian, . . . even if he feels like a fraud the whole time, because the only way to be Indian in this world is to look and act like an Indian" (Orange 122). For Orvil, his insecurities about not knowing his heritage motivate him to learn more about Native traditions, even if it is to fit the stereotype of "[dressing] like an Indian, [dancing] like an Indian" (Orange 122). Other characters connect with their heritage through different means. Dene Oxendene, a young independent filmmaker, attempts to carry on his uncle's work by making a documentary compiling the stories of Natives living in Oakland. While presenting his project to a funding board, he makes a statement that perhaps encapsulates the narrative of There There. Dene states, "What [my uncle] did, what I want to do, is to document Indian stories in Oakland. . . . I want to bring something new to the vision of the Native experience as it's seen on the screen. We haven't seen the Urban Indian story. What we've seen is full of the kinds of stereotypes that are the reason no one is interested in the Native story, it's too sad. . . it looks pathetic" (Orange 40). Dene's statement is perhaps Orange's thesis for the novel. Although strict stereotypes of Natives exist, there is no singular Native identity, and all people of Native heritage experience their culture and identities differently.  

    By providing the perspectives of numerous characters, ranging from young to old, engrossed in their heritage or barely having Native experiences, Orange argues that no person of Native heritage is identical to another. While stereotypes of past Native stories that Dene references still rule media and the Native narrative, it is not the reality, especially amongst Native people in the modern era.  There There, at its purest, is a collection of Native people's stories and experiences, each uniquely individual and distinct from one another.

There, There: Spiders and Spider Legs

 

In There, There, spiders and spider legs represent the contrast of homes and traps, and the idea of coming of age. The symbol of spiders is introduced in the story when Jacquie remembers her mother telling her that, “The spider web is a home and a trap” (Orange 101). The contrast of these ideas reveals the difficulties faced by Native Americans in their attempt to find comfort. To Jacquie, “Home was to drink. To drink was the trap” (Orange 101). Jacquie seeks the homey feeling of comfort through a harmful addiction. Like Jacquie, Opal recalls her mother saying how “spiders carry miles of web in their bodies, miles of story, miles of potential home and trap” (Orange 163). As shown in this novel, natives’ lives are full of ups and downs, as shown by the hardships, such as addictions and violence, faced by the characters in their comfort-seeking lives.

After Orvil reveals that he pulled spider legs from his leg, Opal “wasn’t surprised, not as much as she would have been had this not happened to her when she was around the same age Orvil is now” (Orange 163). Opal had pulled spider legs from her leg “before she and Jacquie left the home, the house, the man they’d been left with after their mother left this world” (Orange 165). These spider legs also came to Opal after, “There’d recently been blood from her first moon” (Orange 165). Opal’s discovery of spider legs came at a time in which she both managed to escape the home which had turned into a trap and had begun to develop into adulthood.

Like Opal, Orvil is going through a crucial period in his adolescence, in which he is coming to terms with his identity. His coming of age, as symbolized by the spider legs, is marked by his participation in the powwow. For Orvil, coming to age means finding comfort by assimilating into his native identity. However, much like Jacquie, Orvil’s attempt to find comfort through his native identity leads him into a trap, which puts his life on the line. Unlike Jacquie’s addiction, Orvil is not at fault of the situation that he is put in. However, this only goes on to show the cruel, unfair history of natives, in which even those seeking comfort through positive means end up falling victim to the system of violence imposed on them.

Lack of Communication: Opal's Shielding of the Truth Strengthens Orvil's Curiosity

 In Tommy Orange’s There There, readers are introduced to Orvil Red Feather, a 14-year-old Native boy being raised by his great-aunt Opal along with his two younger brothers. Opal refuses to discuss their Native background, which makes Orvil want to learn about it even more. In her desire to shield the boys from the painful Native history, she only piques Orvil’s curiosity.

At the beginning, Orvil’s sneaking around to learn more about his heritage has no major impact. Since Opal will not tell him about their background because “”learning about your heritage is a privilege,”” he has to make these discoveries for himself (Orange 119). Orvil had to sneak into his great-aunt’s room to try on the regalia that she kept. He knew that he had to be secretive about it because “Opal had been openly against any of them doing anything Indian” (Orange 118). Instead of discussing why she did not want the boys to have any exposure to their heritage, she shut down any conversation that had to do with it. Over time, this curiosity builds enough that Orvil and the other boys sneak off to go to the powwow without telling Opal.

While Opal is a loving and protective guardian to the boys, she also does not try to get the boys to talk to her. She is focused on trying to prepare them for the real-world “because it will take more for them to succeed than someone who is not Native” (Orange 165). However, she does not communicate these things to her great-nephews in an effort to protect them, so they do not understand why she is “brief and direct,” only that they “are afraid of” her (Orange 165). 

There is a lack of communication between Opal and the boys, especially Orvil who is becoming more rebellious, that leads them to not understand where the other is coming from. The boys only see Opal as being “no-nonsense with them” but do not recognize her efforts to shield them from a painful history that readers were introduced to in the prologue of the novel. Opal only sees the boys as the children they are and believes in keeping “a close eye on your kids…keep them in line” (Orange 163) and not as mature enough to get to learn about their heritage. This lack of communication leads to a lot of misunderstanding between Opal and the boys.

To Sing or Not to Sing During the Dark Times

        In the beginning of his novel There There, Tommy Orange quotes Bertolt Brecht:

               In the dark times

               Will there also be singing?

               Yes, there will also be singing. 

               About the dark times. (pg. 3)

Throughout the novel, we look at Urban Natives going through very dark times. We see Opal and Jacquie living on Alcatraz and then losing their mother. We see Octavio loss his father, mother, and brother within the course of the one character. Many of the characters, such as Tony and Orvil, do not have father figures. None of Orange’s characters are wealthy or even middle class. While some characters have jobs, many others resort to selling drugs to make enough money to survive. Now, Orange claims there is singing during these dark times. But, at first glance, there is no singing or triumph in the novel. However, singing and triumph is found in the novel, but masked by the harsh reality the characters of There There live in. 

               One of the biggest triumphs in the novel is experienced by Dene when he receives the money for the grant to make the film documenting Urban Natives. But instead of focusing on the grant, Dene’s focus moves towards the death of his uncle Lucas. Dene comes home to his mother “waiting for him. She was crying” (pg. 44). Seeing the pain his mother is feeling, Dene knows Lucas has passed away. His singing of triumph is masked by the loss his family is experiencing. It is only when Orvil goes in to be interviewed by Dene for the film that we know Dene received the grant. 

Another instance of singing and triumph is experienced by Blue. Blue lived with her abused husband Paul in Oklahoma. One day, Blue takes the initiative to leave Paul and move to Oakland. She thinks “when Paul said he needed the car all day I decided to take it as a sign” (pg. 199). Blue knows it is time to leave. With the help of her friend Geraldine, Blue receives a ride to the bus station. However, her husband tracks her down. Only with the help of a kind older lady is Blue able to flee to Oakland. Blue’s escape is worthy of singing. She is safe from her abusive husband. However, the effects of abuse are heavy, and Blue was leaving behind many things she treasured. While her freedom was worth singing about, her victory is masked by loss and pain from her relationship with Paul.

While there are more victories in the novel, Blue and Dene show prime examples of “singing in the dark times.” Their loss and pain mute their singing. With a story full of pain, anger, and loss, we feel Orange compelling us, the audience, to find singing to be difficult during the dark times. However, after the tragic events of the Powwow during Tony’s death, Tony claims “and the birds, the birds are singing” (pg. 290). Here, Orange shows that despite the brutal loss of many of the characters, someone is still singing. However hard it may be, there is still singing in the dark times.

 

There There: Dene Oxendene and Tommy Orange

 Dene Oxendene, a young Native American artist exploring native identity, is, in many ways, the literary personification of Tommy Orange, author of “There There.”  Both Dene and Tommy are on a quest to understand what it means to be Native American, in hopes of bringing to light that their people are modern and individualistic.  Both explore native identity within the contexts of a city, Oakland, where the native population has become quite large, contradicting many people’s assumption that natives are limited to the same stereotypical reservation and thus, way of life.  

Orange, in the prologue of the novel, provides the audience with both historical contexts not typically mentioned in school curriculum, as well as further insight into modern native communities, who “know the sound of the freeway better than we do rivers” (Orange 11). Orange reframes the perception of Native Americans by challenging the perception that they move through the world in perfect unison with the land.  The city of Oakland, although a city, still “belongs(s) to the earth,” leading Orange to ascertain that “being Indian has never been about returning to the land.  The land is everywhere or nowhere” (Orange 11).   Similarly, Dene, in his pitch to the grant board shares Orange’s belief, explaining that “we haven’t seen the Urban Indian story,” but rather one full of “sad” stereotypes, that perpetuate the idea that Native Americans are “pathetic or weak or in need of pity” (Orange 40).  Both Dene and Orange present a desire to push past these stereotypes and they use their creative projects in order to do so.  

 Additionally, Dene’s video project mirrors that of the structure of the novel.  The novel and video project work hand in hand to illustrate the various struggles relating to being Native American, further diversifying people’s perception of what native looks like.  Dene allows his subjects the freedom to discuss whatever it is that they want.  By doing so, Dene does not limit the scope of their experiences; it prevents him from pushing a certain narrative, “no direction, or manipulation, or agenda” (Orange 40), and thus creates a more developed mosaic of what the native experience is, rather than the one created by history.  Orange, similarly, creates a mosaic of native experience by writing this novel through the point of view of many different people, differing in age, gender, and knowledge and acceptance of their native identity.  In this way, storytelling becomes an important resource in representation of experience, as well as the widening of the general public’s understanding of Native Americans.  Ultimately, the use of Dene as a reflection of Orange’s voice acts a guide throughout the novel, allowing for the meaning of being native to adapt and change with each new perspective being shared, both within the structure of the novel itself, as well as those within Dene’s chapters.

Orvil and Calvin: Culture Coping Mechanisms

 The relationship between the characters in There There and their Native identity is fraught and drawn introspectively into question due to a feeling of fraudulence. The inability for characters to feel connected with their Native background is explored by Orange through the characters of Orvil and Calvin. Both Orvil and Calvin struggle to connect with their heritage in a way that they feel should allow them to claim the fullness of Native history. Calvin says, when asked by Dene whether he claims any Native pride, “I just don’t think it’s right for me to claim being Native if I don’t know anything about it” (Orange 149). Calvin struggles to connect with his identity, despite having, as Dene calls it, Native “blood”, because he does not have the knowledge that he believes must be associated with a person to identify as Native American. Instead, Calvin qualifies and denies his heritage, forming a gap between himself and the culture he has been under-exposed to. 

Orvil, like Calvin, struggles to claim his Native culture, yet we see him attempt to assert agency over his culture through relentless pursuit of his heritage rather than its abject denial. As Orvil struggles with his isolation from his Native identity, he embraces his culture against his grandmother’s wishes and despite the inaccessibility of information. Though Orvil makes great strides to better understand his culture, the culmination of his connection with his Native identity still results in feeling of being a fraud. Orvil thinks, after the Grand Entry, that the dancers looked like “Indians dressed up as Indians” (233). Despite Orvil’s and Calvin’s differing levels of acceptance of their culture, a disconnect between both characters and their identity is present to the same degree. 

Orange juxtaposes Calvin’s disinterest in his Native background to the passion Orvil has in his Native heritage to ultimately lead the characters back to a place of confusion and detachment from their identity. Despite the characters’ motivation or lack thereof to interact with their Native culture, they are both met with violence and imposter syndrome at the powwow, rather than connection and belonging. By comparing the two character’s different difficulties with their identity, Orange represents the struggle for modern Native Americans to connect with their culture due to years of alienation and discrimination by non-Natives, who have erased Native history or repackaged it to better fit a stereotype. The most meaningful advice on how Native American identity can be claimed comes from Opal when she says, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you what being Indian means. Too many of us died to get just a little bit of us here, right now, right in this kitchen. You, me. Every part of our people that made it is precious. You’re Indian because you’re Indian because you’re Indian” (119). Though Orvil and Calvin both exert control over the performance of their Native heritage uniquely, Opal’s advice indicates that regardless of one’s acceptance or denial of their identity, you’re Indian because you’re Indian.

There There, Tony Loneman as a blueprint for Indian Identity

 In There There by Tommy Orange, "what it means to be Indian" is never once specifically defined for a broad audience. Many characters in the book attempt to give their own answers and many seem to be pretty set with at least some details, but none can give a specific answer. This concept is personified most clearly in the character Tony Loneman. 

Tony Loneman is the first and last narrator of the novel. It is established immediately that Tony is affected by fetal alcohol syndrome, or as he calls it, the Drome. Tony described that he first noticed something wrong when he saw his face in the reflection of his TV when he was six and "tried but couldn't make the face that [he] found there [his] own again" (Orange 16). This statement rings true in a broader sense for all of the characters in the novel. At some point or another, all of the characters make separate realizations that they do not know what their heritage means to them, or how to make their faces their own, in a sense. This is what inevitably draws them all to the powwow, a drive to find some sort of definition or answer to their question and desires. Tony Loneman's narration also states that "[m]ost people don't have to think about what their faces mean the way I do" (Orange 16). While Tony is clearly suffering from a lost sense of self, the situation once again applies to many characters. Due to the oppression and outright atrocities committed against Native people as described in the prologue and interlude, as well as general day to day racism that Native people also feel, pride in one's culture has been lost to many communities of Natives. The lack of pride contributes to a lack of knowledge and understanding of one's past and culture. It forces Native people to think more about their "face" than many other cultures might. And, when Tony is lying on the concrete of the stadium, slowly passing away from his injuries, he finally finds out more of what it is to be Native as described in the book, he finds his own definition. As Tony is dying he thinks that he may not float away when he dies, but instead "fall inside something underneath him" because "[t]here is an anchor, something he has been rooted to all this time" and in his final moments he remembers advice given to him by his grandmother, "You have to dance like birds sing in the morning" (Orange 290). As Tony passes away he hears the birds singing, and in that signing, he finds his answer. Unfortunately, his finding an answer only in death is something that many Natives in the book seem to be heading towards. No other character has a similar revelation to Tony in his passing, seemingly left to continue questioning their culture for the rest of their lives. With the addition that many of them experienced a traumatic mass shooting at their first attempts of connecting with their culture, the powwow, some may even go on to reject their culture for a large portion of their lives. However, Tony Loneman provides a clear blueprint for the experience of all of the Natives in the novel. The lack of a clear vision that leads to questioning and hopefully one day a personal answer.

Daniel Udelhoven

There There: On the Power of Literary Point of View

 Tommy Orange’s There There is an unusually real account of life from an oft-ignored population. It is the story of Oakland’s urban Natives, situated in the period leading up to the Big Oakland Powwow. Orange, like Jesmyn Ward in Sing, Unburied, Sing, opts to tell the story from several points of view. By rotating between 12 distinct narrators, he emphasizes the power of the individual and how their unique voices contribute to the unified plot.

Just as each character has a different personality, so too do the methods of storytelling vary with each person. For instance, some characters are portrayed in the first person. Hearing the character’s story directly from their mouth is an extremely effective way to introduce them while simultaneously educating the reader. This is clearly an important goal of the novel, as the Prologue and Interlude make it clear that Orange is angry about the current characterization of Native Americans, as well as the history that caused it. Tony, Edwin, Calvin, and Daniel speak and think the same way we do, and when they don’t, we can understand why.

Perhaps the best exercise in empathy comes in the form of Thomas Frank. Told from the second-person point of view, Thomas’s introduction casts the reader in the role of a struggling urban Native. The chapter is powerful because we are Thomas, and the writing makes it easy to believe so. Orange chooses Thomas’s chapter to be this way perhaps because no reader really wants to imagine themselves as the janitor character, which makes it all the more important that we do so. Orange provides a front row seat while he proves that Thomas is more than his occupation. We, as Thomas, reveal ourselves to be a functioning alcoholic and explain that we became one “without a thought” because “most addictions aren’t premeditated” (Orange 217).

Other chapters are told from the more familiar third-person perspective. Orange uses the omniscience of this point of view to tell the reader things about certain characters that they would not be likely to offer if telling their own story. This is most evident with Bill and Opal. Bill is old-fashioned and principled; he “can’t stand what the youth are allowed to become these days,” considering them to be “coddled babies” without work ethic (82). Being so judgmental, Bill doesn’t seem the type to readily admit his own faults, such as the time when “there were so many drugs coursing through him [that] it was hard to believe” (85). With Opal, her fervent superstition has replaced her native spirituality. She has distanced herself from those original beliefs to the point of being “openly against [Orvil, Loother, and Lony] doing anything Indian” (118). Therefore, even though she has lucky numbers and spoons, knocks on wood, and avoids sidewalk cracks, her superstition is something that Opal “would never admit to” (160).

There There is, among many other things, a novel about the power of perspective. The reader sees the plot through different people and through the various ways those people might tell the story. In the end, we are left with a new understanding of the urban Native American and their struggle to find a place in a society that has viewed their existence as an impossibility.

Graffiti and Identity

 In There There, the reader is introduced to Dene Oxendene on his train ride. Dene observes the same graffiti he has had for years, not just in Fruitvale but across Oakland. Throughout the rest of Dene’s chapter, the reader also learns that he has the tendency to tag various places. Dene uses his tags as a form of self-expression, furthering his identity that seems to be muddled. 

Throughout the novel, the reader is conscious of the lack of identity that many Native Americans have. Orange makes sure that Dene is no exception to that, “Dene is not recognizably Native. He is ambiguously nonwhite…He’d been assumed Mexican plenty, been asked if he was Chinese, Korean, Japanese…The question came like this, ‘What are you?’”(Orange 28). Dene lacks racial identity, even to the point where he would be ineligible for a cultural arts grant. This only separates him from a group with which he already has difficulty identifying. This is especially impactful because of Orange’s final question, “What are you?” This remark allows Dene to think that he is only defined by what his skin tone says about him by the broadness of the question. 

Watching people graffiti and tag around Oakland, Dene wants to make himself known.  he desires visibility past his ever-present racial ambiguity. He began experimenting in middle school, “Back at school Dene wrote Lens everywhere he could. Each place he tagged would be like a place he could look out from, imagine people looking at his tag…”(Orange 33). The graffiti he made, even though he just scribbled on lockers, bathroom stall doors, or desks, gave him something that people could look at. Orange makes it known that at this stage in his life, Dene seeks to be known by his peers for himself. Specifically, Orange writes about Dene imagining people looking at his Lens tag, as he wants this name, although purely fictitious, to be recognized, and everywhere. An identifier, unique to only Dene, and something that was birthed from him, not a muddled background that begs the question, “What are you?” 

It has been noted throughout Dene’s chapters that graffiti is evident across Oakland. It is something that Dene has used to express himself, especially when he feels ambivalent about his background. Graffiti today can be seen in a variety of settings, with cities hiring artists to do graffiti-styled works and murals. The relevance of graffiti artwork in There There can not be understated. In Dene’s first chapter, graffiti allowed him to feel seen, identified, and be his own unique self. As the purpose of graffiti has continued to change, Orange utilizes this form of artwork to give Dene the ability to be seen.

Irrationality in Orange's There There

    Characters in There There are not characterized by their rational behavior. Throughout the novel, I fail to find a single character who behaves remotely as a rational actor, and this is something I have struggled with throughout the novel. As someone who studies science, I find it difficult to relate to characters who appear to be fundamentally irrational actors. As I think about some of these characters, though, I realize that this irrationality is central to the novel because it is necessary to portray these people as broken. These are people who are members of a broken culture, live in a broken city, are broken by addiction, have been historically broken by another people, are burdened by a broken economy, and are living within broken families. For these people who grow up and exist within a hostile environment, Orange makes it a central point of the novel to portray these characters as irrational actors to speak about some of these issues.

    For example, Opal's daily motions revolve around baseless superstition. Throughout her day, she "lives by a superstition she would never admit to... trying to remember which spoon she'd eaten with earlier. She has lucky and unlucky spoons. In order for the lucky ones to work, you have to keep the unlucky ones with them, and you can't look to see what you're getting when you pull one out of the drawer" (Orange 160). Going further, Opal even works lucky and unlucky numbers into her route, making sure to hit the right side of the street at the right time. If she is convinced that the outcome of spoon choice in the morning will have overarching consequences of fate, she is irrationally superstitious. (In fairness, this isn't much less rational than beliefs held by mainstream Western religions, but that's beside the point.) Opal seems to have filled a spiritual void in her life with a superstition of her own creation. Where others may have a culturally fitting religion or flavor of spiritual guidance, Opal has none other than her own superstition because of her rejection of her Native American identity. Orange uses Opal's bizarre beliefs to show the effect of the erasure of a cultural identity on an individual. Without a culture to connect herself to, Opal is lost. It is noteworthy that Opal sees herself as somewhat powerless in her construct of superstition. Where others find empowerment in their spiritual guidance, Opal tries to avert disaster. This is another insight into the Native American mentality that Opal's psychology provides to the reader.

    Another distinctly irrational story is presented later in the novel. Daniel takes care of his severely depressed mother, and he supplies 3D printed guns for Octavio's organizing of the powwow shooting. Unfortunately, Daniel has no father figure, and his brother, Manny, is dead. Daniel, however, is young, and is forced to take responsibility for himself and his mentally absent mother in lieu of the rest of his family. Daniel has developed skill in  a broad spectrum of software engineering tools, namely "JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, C++, HTML, Java, [and] PHP" (Orange 191), a wide range of languages applicable to back-end software engineering, web design, web scripting, and app design. To make money, however, Daniel does not try to employ his skill set in finding a job (one he could even work from home). He instead accepts payment from Octavio to coordinate 3D printing of guns for robbing the powwow. I struggle to rationalize Daniel's motivations here. He is desperate for money, but he possesses an extremely valuable skill set in the labor market. Despite his worry over the robbing going badly (to the reader, it is obvious it will), he still chooses to work with Octavio. With the story of Daniel, Orange is making a point about the effect of self-perpetuating family norms that seem to be pervasive throughout the native community. Daniel has no father figure; he has no one to tell him that his skills are valuable and that he can do better than working with Octavio. Given the money, Daniel blows a huge portion of the money on a drone (which he eventually crashes), showing he has no concept of money management. This is another irrational action that is a result of his broken family home. Without any parental guidance, Danial is lost and is an irrational actor. I figure that without this guidance, Daniel will continue to make poor decisions in his future career and family lives, likely perpetuating home issues for his own children. With the story of Daniel, Orange has identified the repeating nature of the broken home for the Native American culture, and he is angrily speaking out against it.

There There: The Behavior of Men in The Novel

     The novel There There by Tommy Orange is a collaboration of twelve different Native Americans’ experiences in the twenty-first century. The twelve different stories told in the novel present a diverse range of opinions, experiences, and lives that these Native Americans have experienced. However, certain similarities between these individuals and their lives exist throughout the novel.  The most profound parallel between a majority of the twelve stories is the similar behavior exhibited by the men who are involved in the characters' lives. Overall, the examples in the novel show that the men are abusive and absent, only affecting characters in a negative way. 

The characters in the novel who discuss their parents usually describe an absent father, some not even knowing who their father is. Most characters briefly address the fact they don’t have a father figure in their lives, but some don’t mention any sort of relationship with their father at all. An example of this is Dene, who details conversations with his mother and uncle, but never mentions his father. The foil to Dene in this regard is Edwin, who is determined to find out about his father and his heritage. Edwin says, “I personal messaged ten different Harvey’s from [my mom’s] profile who seemed obviously native”, in an attempt to find his father(Orange, 69). Though there is a variance in responses to not having a father in the novel, there is a void left in the life of anyone without a parent. 

Unfortunately, The men in the novel that are actually present aren’t any better than those who left. A theme of abuse is present throughout the book from men with a variety of relationships with the central characters. Multiple of the novel’s central characters describe experiencing or witnessing abuse where a man was the perpetrator. Yu shows that abuse comes from a variety of sources in terms of relationships to the character. A prominent example of this abuse is Blue’s journey to escape her husband. Yu describes her husband in a predatory manner as he tries to figure out Blue’s location in aggressive texts and prowls around a woman’s restroom to find her (Orange, 206). Octavio also describes his uncle, “throwing [his aunt] against the wall, slapping her once with each hand” (Orange, 176). These examples of abuse in the novel are different in the actions of the perpetrators, but the idea of a culture of abuse still remains present. 

Overall, Orange uses these examples of cowardly and poor behavior by men as one of many hardships Native Americans go through. Many Indigenous People are subjected to environments filled with substance abuse, crime, and abuse, but Orange shows no help or sympathy given by white people to these hardships. Orange presents this abuse and neglect by men as so common in the Native American community as a way to explain to the reader how Native Americans have grown accustomed to being treated in this abusive manner, whether it be from a family member or a white man on the street.

There There: The Struggle with Finding One's Identity

Throughout There There, many Natives struggle with finding their Native identity. One of the main reasons for this is due to the city of Oakland being a place that does not feel like home to the characters in this novel. Tommy Orange describes Oakland as a city where many low-income Native families live and gather, but the land is now changing. This piece of information is why all the characters are fond of Oakland, but at the same time they feel distanced from the city due to them not being able to find nor share their identities.  

The city of Oakland is changing, and this is causing many Native residents to feel distanced from the community. Dene Oxendene is a Native that lives in Oakland, and he wants to hear the stories of other Natives who grew up in Oakland. After Dene heard about Gertrude Stein’s childhood in Oakland, he realized, “the place where she’d grown up in Oakland had changed so much, that so much development had happened there, that the there of her childhood, the there there, was gone, there was no there there anymore” (39). When Gertrude Stein was talking about “there there” she was referring to a place where someone calls or feels at home. This statement helps prove that the land of Oakland is changing, and it does not feel like home to Natives. As time has gone on, Natives are still being pushed out of their own land due to new people coming and moving into the town, and that is why most of them do not know how to express their identity. All the interviews that Dene does show why Natives feel this way.  

Another way this novel shows how Natives lack a sense of showing their identity is through Dene’s interviews. Each interview that Dene has, it seems as if most of the Native’s do not know what it means to be a part of the Native community. One of the first interviews that Dene has was with Calvin Johnson, and he describes his life growing up in Oakland. Calvin does not fully know his Native identity, and he later goes on to say, “But it’s like we can’t talk about it because it’s not really a Native story, but then it is at the same time. It’s fucked up” (148). He does not feel comfortable telling people about his Native side since other residents of Oakland might not like what he has to say. Calvin also does not want to express his views about being Native because he does not exactly know what being Native means. Once again, many Natives do not feel as if they can show their true identities, since there are new people living in their land. The characters are distanced from Oakland, but they still find the city a stable place for them. Oakland has a lot of Natives who do not express their culture and identity.  

All the Natives in this novel still enjoy living in Oakland, even though they feel detached from the community. Although they have a tough time finding or showing their Native identity, these residents feel like Oakland is a stable place to live. This novel shows how Natives adapt to their land changing, and how it affects their culture and identities. Most of the characters' identities were impacted in a negative way since they never utterly understood how to express themselves.

The Significance of Spider Legs and Number Superstitions

    Spider legs appear twice throughout the novel, both times in clumps of three. The significance of the spider legs and the number three lies within Cheyenne culture as well as Opal’s superstitions about the number three and Orange uses this to foreshadow events that will occur in the novel.

    When Opal first discusses numbers, she mentions that “Four and eight are her favorites. Three and six are no good” (Orange 161). Spider legs appear in the novel for the first time in Opal’s leg in a set of three right before Ronald tries to rape Jackie. To stop this, Opal beats Ronald with a baseball bat and when she returns to see if he survived, she sees him outside and thinks of “A Cheyenne word: Veho. It means spider and trickster and white man” (Orange 169). She also notes that Ronald “looked as white as any white man she’d ever seen” (Orange 169). The meaning of Veho allows the reader to make the connection that the spider legs were foreshadowing an event involving either a white man or a trickster; in this case, it was (at least what Opal perceives to be) a white man, Ronald. Orange also uses the fact that there were three spider legs to foreshadow that something bad is going to occur because, as Opal said, “Three and six are no good” which stands to reason given the event that occurred. The second time spider legs appear in the novel is in Orvil’s leg right before the powwow, also in a set of three. At the powwow, during the shooting, Calvin says, “Octavio gets hit and fires a few more back at Charles. Calvin sees a kid in regalia go down ten or so feet behind Charles” (Orange 273). The kid in regalia who gets shot is Orvil, indicating that the three spider legs once again foreshadow a horrible event. The word Veho linking spiders and tricksters also foreshadowed that the man who would shoot Orvil was Octavio, the one who initiated the robbery of the powwow. In addition to further confirming the validity of the number superstitions, Orange also confirms that spider legs indicate that a trickster or white man will have something to do with the occurrence. 

    Opal’s superstition about the number three appears to be true, given that horrible things happen right after Opal and Orvil pull three spider legs out of their legs. Orange uses this evidence that Opal’s superstitions are correct to give the reader a small sense of closure about the end of the book, specifically regarding Orvil’s fate. After they arrive at the hospital and the doctor comes out to talk to them, Opal is counting the number of times the door swings and notes that they “come to rest on the number eight” (Orange 285). As Opal mentions earlier, “Four and eight are her favorites” (Orange 161). This allows the reader to infer that that something good will happen, indicating that Orvil is okay.

Spider Web Symbolism

    Throughout There There, Tommy Orange uses spiders and their webs to symbolize the idea that people and places can represent both home and a trap. He utilizes the spider to illustrate this idea, because a spider's web acts as its home but also helps to trap other insects. Similarly, the characters in the book find comfort in things and places that also ensnare them. 

    Jacquie Red Feather faces her own representation of the spider's web through her relationship with alcohol. She finds solace in drinking as it allows her to escape the traumatic events from her past, but drinking is an addiction that causes problems for her. For example, Jacquie abused alcohol throughout most of her life and never stood as a good parental figure for her daughter or grandsons. Jacquie finds herself wanting to drink at the conference and confesses, "Home was to drink. To drink was the trap" (Orange 148). Jacquie feels comfortable drinking and knows it will bring her happiness in the moment, but she also expresses how "the web stuck to you everywhere you reached once you were trapped" (Orange 171). She realizes how although drinking can bring her those feelings of safety for a moment, she will ultimately become trapped by her addiction if she continues to drink.

    While Jacquie finds herself trapped by her own struggles, other characters in the novel, such as those who die at the powwow, are trapped by their circumstances and surroundings. The powwow exemplifies home for many Native Americans, and as Orange describes, "We made powwows because we needed a place to be together" (Orange 200). The Oakland powwow provides Native Americans with an opportunity to connect with each other and celebrate their heritage; however, tragic events unfold at the event which is meant to represent community and safety. The shooting at the powwow traps many people and takes their lives. The powwow was both a home and a trap for characters such as Orvil, Edwin, and Thomas who went to the coliseum seeking identity and purpose and encountered a horrible fate instead. 

    Orange utilizes the spider imagery throughout the novel to highlight how the characters find comfort in things, people, and places while also becoming trapped by those same entities. Whether due to their own habits like Jacquie's addiction or external circumstances like the shooting, the characters must be cautious of what they consider to be home, as this home can also be a trap. 

    

Purpose of Portraying Addiction in There There

     Tommy Orange includes a variety of perspectives throughout his novel There There. However, one commonality between all of the character’s experiences is their or their loved ones' battle with substance abuse addiction. Native Americans throughout history have had the stereotype of being the “drunken Indian,” and the white settlers who committed genocide blamed the Native American’s problems on their alcoholic tendencies. Tommy Orange does not deny this stereotype, but instead explains why Native Americans often turn to drugs and alcohol.

Each character in the novel is somehow affected by substance abuse. Tony Loneman suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, Calvin, Carlos, Charles, and Octavio are all involved in selling drugs and drug addicts, Daniel Gonzalez's father was an abusive alcoholic, etc. One specific character who illustrates Orange’s purpose in highlighting this aspect of Native American culture is Jacquie Red Feather. Jacquie suffers multiple traumatic experiences at a young age, including when Harvey rapes her at Alcatraz. Orange gives this backstory of Jacquie's young adult life before flashing forward to her struggle with substance abuse to illustrate the events that led her to alcoholism. Jacquie does not turn to alcohol because she is lazy or dumb; she turns to alcohol to ease the pain of her past trauma. Similar to Octavio who turns to drugs and alcohol to deal with the grief and hardships. 

When the novel flashforwards to Jacquie in modern day, she is a recovering alcoholic and a substance abuse counselor. The situational irony only highlights how serious and deeply ingrained the problem is. Orange uses the analogy of a spider and web when describing Jacquie's addiction saying, “In this case Jacquie was the spider, the minifridge was the web. Home was to drink. To drink was the trap” (Orange 101). Drinking is a comfortable state for Jacquie and the other characters. Octavio describes his reason to drink “because it helps us feel like we can be ourselves and not be afraid” (185). Furthermore, Thomas Frank even calls his drunk persona “The State”. In “The State,” Thomas is just the perfect amount of drunk where he is functionable and life is bearable. Alcohol numbs the pain they experience day-to-day. 

In an AA meeting Jacquie attends, Harvey proclaims, “‘It’s not the alcohol. There’s not some special relationship between Indians and alcohol. It’s just what’s cheap, available, legal’” (Orange 112). Orange highlights through Harvey’s dialogue that the relationship between alcohol and Native Americans emerged because it was the cheapest way to deal with the pain. Jacquie’s mom describes the origin of Native Americans and substance abuse by telling the story about Veho who “was the white man who came and made the old world watch with his eyes” (106). The white men do this “until your eyes are drained and you can't see behind you and there’s nothing ahead, and the needle, the bottle, or the pipe is the only thing in sight that makes any sense” (106). The Native Americans were put in desolate and painful circumstances, where the only legal and cheap escape from their pain was drugs. 

Orange highlights the substance abuse issue while illustrating the terrible circumstances that push Native Americans to alcohol and drugs. By doing this, Orange shows why the relationship between alcohol and Native Americans exists; it is the cheapest way to deal with the pain.

Interior Chinatown's Use of Real World Evidence

            The illustrations within Interior Chinatown can seem almost exaggerated in the extent to their severity. Although the Asian community certainly faces racism (as does any marginalized group), it is difficult to accept that they face “limits to their dream of assimilation” within American society (Yu, 30). However this unfortunate aspect of the novel is confirmed to be present in society today, as seen through Yu’s illustration of real world evidence of racism and hardships against Asians within society. Yu strategically places these real world pieces of evidence in the reading in order to demonstrate to the reader that while this is a fictional novel, the hardships faced by Asians within it are anything but fictional.  

One of the first instances of Yu utilizing real-world evidence to demonstrate the realism of his fictional story is when he includes a newsreel montage that depicts a period of immense violence in Taiwan when “tens of thousands of Taiwanese citizens are killed” by the government (Yu, 140). This real report is then followed by the fictional backstory of Ming-Chen Wu, which also illustrates the violence in Taiwan at this time. This prevents the fictional backstory of Wu from appearing overexaggerated, since it was previously described through a nonfictional account. Thus as the Taiwanese soldiers “calmly shoot” Wu’s father, the audience understands this genuinely happened to people in this dangerous environment (Yu, 143). 

Yu also depicts the realistic racism and hardships Asians face under the American system of law, immediately before Willis Wu’s trial is depicted. This allows the reader to understand both the immediate disadvantage Wu has within the trial based on his ethnicity as well Wu's inability to rely on the legal system for justice, seen when Wu must resort to “Plan B” (Yu, 252). Most readers would likely be skeptical to the necessity of using kung fu to gain true justice rather than using the American justice system. However, Yu describes how this is the same system of law that, for a time, stated “no ‘Chinamen’ can own property in the state” (Yu, 215). This allows for the reader to understand why the legal system seems against Wu, as well as justifies Wu relying on his kung fu to grant him justice.  

Overall Yu’s utilization of real world evidence of the hardships and racism Asians face allows for the reader to consider how realistic the fictional novel is. Through this evidence it is easy to understand that the characters in this story were not uniquely facing extreme hardships, but rather are simply fictional characters apart of the category of real people (Asians in this case) that face these burdens.