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.
I love what you have to say here about the role of addiction in There There, especially the notion of alcoholism being the cheapest way to deal with pain. There is so much irony about addiction in general and the cycles it perpetuates because people get stuck in a trap of depending on the alcohol to the point where it is very debilitating. What at first is a cheap and accessible way to self-medicate pain becomes very financially expensive and overall taxing in all aspects of life. In the novel, even the characters that have not experienced the addiction themselves, are touched by it somehow. I love that Orange acknowledges the stereotype of Native Americans being alcoholics because he is able to reclaim the “lazy drunk” narrative as what it truly is: a cycle of trauma after the genocide of a culture. In your post, you mention the use of alcohol as something that numbs the pain of the day-to-day. I find it very interesting because it forces us to consider why the day-to-day of so many Native Americans needs to be numbed in the first place. By not denying the drug addiction faced by the Native American community, Orange can explain where the issue stems from and thus forces his mainly white audience to reflect.
ReplyDelete