Student Question
In There There, how does Blue's upbringing without her mother affect her identity conflict?
Quick answer:
Blue not having grown up with her own mother contributes greatly to her conflict with her own sense of identity. Brought up by a white family, she’s always felt disconnected to her Native American roots. This conflicted identity is only exacerbated by her experience in an abusive relationship with a Native man named Paul. However, when Blue meets her mother at the end of the novel, there seems to be a chance for her to start to resolve this conflict.
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 establish any kind of bond with her birth parents. All she knows about her background is what her adoptive mom told her: that she's Cheyenne and her birth mother's name is Jackie Red Feather.
As a consequence, Blue has always felt that she’s caught between two completely different worlds, White and Native American, without ever truly belonging to either. This conflicted sense of identity leads her to take a job at the Indian Center in her native Oakland to feel a sense of belonging, and then a similar job as a youth-services coordinator for her tribe, the Cheyenne, in Oklahoma, in an attempt to connect with her Native roots. There, marries a Native man...
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named Paul in the "tipi way" and joins the Native American Church. It is Paul's family who gives her an "Indian name," which she'd never had: the Blue Vapor of Life. However, the relationship is abusive, and after Blue leaves, she is even more conflicted about her Native identity. And though she has asked around about her mother, no one has heard of the Red Feather family.
When Blue meets her birth mother by chance at the powwow, she is shocked. However, she doesn't have much time to process it because the powwow is robbed and there is a shooting. The last we see of Blue when the novel ends is her sitting in the waiting room next to Jacquie, while Edwin, who she has just realized may be her half-brother, is being treated for a gunshot wound, as is Jacquie's grandchild. Blue wants to say something to Jacquie, but she doesn't. However, the reader might infer that Blue will be able to reconnect with her birth mother after the novel ends and perhaps her conflicted sense of self will be somewhat resolved by doing so.
In There There, how does Blue's upbringing affect her identity conflict?
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 adopted Blue? A well-off White family in Oakland hills.
It's weird to think about how Blue's identity conflict links to the notion of displacement and trauma. Unlike Jacquie, Blue is not raped as a teen, nor does she have to move around. The whiteness of Blue's adopted family seems to act as a stabilizing influence. It's like a shield against trauma and displacement.
Yet the protective, privileged environment seems to make Blue uncomfortable. She doesn't like the "pill-shaped throw pillow" her mom makes her keep on her bed. Nor does she seem to have much use for the pool in her backyard.
Eventually, she gets a job at a Native American center in Oakland. What does that do? "That helped me to feel like I belonged somewhere," Blue tells us.
There's something unnerving about how easy it is to talk about Blue's conflict of identities in a stereotypical way. When she's with her White family, she's safe yet alienated. When she's with her Native American community, she feels like she belongs, yet she's exposed to trauma.
The binary seems racist. If Blue had married a White man, would he abuse her? Is there something innately abusive about Native American men? In real life, we know that any man of any race can be abusive. Yet in There There, abuse seems to be linked to Native American men like Harvey, Ronald, and Paul.
I don't want to say that Blue sought trauma. That's victim blaming. Yet by connecting with her Native American identity, that's what she had to confront.
It's as if the lack of trauma Blue experienced with her White family contributed to her lack of identity. We might wonder how trauma and struggle made Blue feel like she belonged. As counterintuitive as it might seem, we might want to think about how trauma can serve as a focal point for identity and belonging.