A common theme throughout the novel includes their desires to find their identities. Native Americans, throughout history, have had a difficult time knowing where they belong. This is due to the oppression they were faced with, and being forced to move off of their land. This leaves Native Americans still wondering where their identities lie, as seen in There There.
In There There, many characters are shown that are having an identity crisis and want to know where they belong. Edwin is a grown man who grew up with a white mother who raised him, and a Native American dad who was never present in his life. As he gets older, Edwin wants to know more about where he came from so he begins to message men with the same name as his father on Facebook on his mother’s account. His father responds with “I’m coming out to Oakland in a couple of months, for the Big Oakland Powwow. I’m the powwow emcee” (Orange, 70). Edwin has always struggled with looking different from the people around him, while not understanding or being a part of his culture. As he and his father continue to chat, he finds out a piece of his identity, he is a part of the Cheyenne tribe (Orange, 71). Having not grown up around his culture, he struggles with not feeling like he belongs. As he tries to think of himself as native as an adult, “I’m not finished. I am a Cheyenne Indian. A warrior. No. That’s super corny. Fuck. I get mad at that thought, that I even thought it” (Orange, 77), he struggles with even identifying with his culture. Edwin has lived with a white mother who doesn’t understand Native culture his entire life, but finally he at least knows where he comes from. He makes the effort to become part of the Native community and he gets a job working at the Indian Center.
Throughout the novel, many characters are looking to find their identities and understand who they are. Edwin, wants to be a part of the community, and takes the steps in order to do this.
This theme of self identity that you talked about is present throughout the novel in many different characters. Characters such as Octavio and Daniel, who do not have traditional Native American last names, struggle to find their identity within the American Indian culture. Octavio does not even consider himself Indian, and this leads to his ability to rob the Powwow. In the interview with Tommy Orange about this book, he mentioned how he would get called racial slurs for Asian people and Hispanic people, despite the fact he is American Indian. This is also seen in the novel in part 3. This certainly makes it difficult to find identity within their culture, as they cannot even be identified correctly by others.
ReplyDeleteAnother character that struggles with identity is Thomas Frank. Thomas was born with a white, christain mother and an American Indian father. Throughout his chapter, he struggles finding which culture he should identify with, and how both of his parents' backgrounds seem to counteract each other. When he is talking about his mother and father’s relationship, Thomas says, “she who fell in love with your dad in Indian ceremonies she ended up calling demonic” (Orange 334). This conflict that is found between his two parents represents Thomas’s inner struggle with his mixed race.