There There Questions and Answers
There There
How is femininity depicted in There There?
In There There, Tommy Orange seems to depict femininity in terms of trauma, hardship, displacement. Let's talk about Jacquie and Opal. The half-sisters are constantly displaced. They move from...
There There
How are gender roles portrayed in the novel There There by Tommy Orange? Use at least 5 quotes from the book to...
We didn't have last names before they came. When they decided they needed to keep track of us, last names were given to us, just like the name Indian was given to us. Tommy Orange's 2018 debut...
There There
What are some symbols in There There by Tommy Orange?
Virtually all of the characters in There There are dealing with personal issues of one kind or another. The most significant of these issues is addiction, whether it's drug addiction or alcohol...
There There
Does the book There There see addiction as a result of historic discrimination against Native Americans? Or does...
Addiction is quite a common characteristic of Native American life as it is depicted in There There. Tony Loneman suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome due to his mother’s addiction. It has made his...
There There
In There There, how does Blue not having grown up with her own mother contribute to her conflict with her own sense...
Blue’s conflict about her own sense of identity is shaped to a considerable extent by not having known her birth mother. Blue was adopted at birth by a white family and so was never able to...
There There
How does the theme of generational trauma and wounds play out in part 4 of There There?
In the fourth and last part of There There, Tommy Orange develops the theme of generational trauma and wounds by addressing family relationships and exploring diverse attitudes toward Native...
There There
Which characters in There There felt discriminated against?
There seems to be lots of discrimination going on in Tommy Orange’s novel There There. We think you could talk about discrimination in connection with not just one character but with an array of...
There There
How does Tommy Orange's novel There There explore the idea of belonging to a culture, tribe, city, or family?...
Tony Loneman would be an interesting character to examine for this prompt. Because he suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, Tony has always struggled with fitting into any society. Even his last...
There There
What are the curses in the book There There?
In the novel There There, curses are subtle and psychological. We can think of the curses as old grievances from the past. They do not directly affect a person's future, though they could depending...
There There
In the novel There There by Tommy Orange, how does technology influence how Edwin Black percieve his Native identity...
After graduating with his master’s degree in comparative literature, with a focus on Native American literature, Edwin Black failed to find a job. He moved back in with his mother and has spent the...
There There
How is the city of Oakland characterized in the novel? How does the city’s gentrification affect the novel’s...
The multiple perspectives that different characters offer on community, belonging, alienation, and indigenous identity in relation to Oakland help the reader understand the city’s complexity....
There There
In the section "Urbanity" in There There, Tommy Orange ponders an existential idea of adapting, but still with Indian...
In his debut novel, There There, Tommy Orange writes, Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere. The land on which the Native American people used...
There There
In the book There There, the author exposes the need to fit into a community and attain a sense of worth through the...
One great quote that encompasses familial identity, racial identity, and American identity involves Tony Loneman. In part 1, Tony discusses how fetal alcohol syndrome (“the Drome”) has impacted his...
There There
In There There, how does the fact that Blue did not grow up with her own mother contribute to her conflict with her...
As you probably know from having read the book, Blue was born because Harvey raped Jacquie. Rather than raise a child that was born out of sexual assault, Jacquie gave Blue up for adoption. Who...
There There
What is Tony's relationship with Octavio in There There?
Tony is the name of one of the main characters in Tommy Orange's novel, whose full name is Tony Loneman. As you might already be aware from having read the novel, Tony is not the most confident or...
There There
How does the title of There There by Tommy Orange relate to the novel?
Tommy Orange's title works on several levels. The two word phrase is a common one, which people use to suggest comfort and reassurance to someone in distress. As the characters are all in unsettled...
There There
In what ways does the historical precedent for violent removal of Native populations filter into the modern era? How...
In Tommy Orange’s novel There There, violence occurs in different forms. With Tony Loneman, you might claim some of the violence that he experiences predates his birth. In this sense, Tony’s...
There There
In There There, what effect does drumming at the powwow have on Thomas?
Initially, you could say that drumming at the powwow has an intoxicating impact on Thomas. As you might remember, Thomas seems to view drumming as an activity he’s destined to do. According to...
There There
In the book There There, how does Orange describe Oakland?
Orange describes Oakland vividly and variously throughout the novel There There. Following twelve different perspectives of the city, readers are taken into families and jobs, into histories and...
There There
Why is the essay at the beginning of the book titled "Indian Heads"? To what does it refer?
From the earliest days of American television, right up until the 1970s, an Indian Head was used as part of the TV transmission card that would be broadcast after programming had ended for the day....
There There
How might one create a character mind map for There There?
A mind map is a visual way of portraying the interior life of a character or characters. First, you should establish whether you are making a mind map for one character, or for the novel as a...
There There
What does the Indian head refer to in There There?
In the prologue to There There, Tommy Orange presents the reader with a tragic litany of cruelty and genocidal repression carried out over several centuries by the white man against Native...
There There
Octavio is a violent and drug dealer, but he is also very sympathetic character. Why does Tommy Orange choose to...
While I can only speculate as to the intentions of author Tommy Orange, it seems to me that he might choose to build empathy for Octavio to highlight the incredible messiness that surrounds the...
There There
For Dene, how has the urban area shaped Dene in ways that a reservation would not have in There There? How does Dene...
In Tommy Orange's There There, Dene Oxendene is a storyteller, but growing up in Oakland has given him opportunities to tell his stories in new ways and through a different medium then he would...
There There
What are some examples of character growth in the book There There by Tommy Orange?
There are plenty of great examples of character growth in There There. As a first example, let's look at Edwin Black. He has been living an isolated life, stymied by frustrations in his academic...
There There
How does the theme of generational trauma and wounds play out in part 4 of There There, "Powwow"?
In part 4 of There There, as you probably already know, we see Tommy Orange bring the generational trauma to a climax through a violent shootout. When it comes to Tony, we could also see Tony's...
There There
What is the role of Native literature in bridging our collective understanding of Native identity? What role does...
Tommy Orange, who belongs to both the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, brings a unique perspective to American literature. Modern America is often still tempted to separate Natives from mainstream...