The City Sounds Like a War
Consider the following statement from page 9: "We stayed because the city sounds like a war, and you can’t leave a war once you’ve been, you can only keep it at bay." In what ways does the historical precedent for violent removal of Native populations filter into the modern era? How does violence—both internal and external—appear throughout the narrative?
The violent removal of Native Americans and the reasoning behind it filters into the modern era of real life and the setting of There There. With the oppression of Native Americans not being an uncommon occurrence in the novel, the continuous effects the Trail of Tears and horrific treatment toward Native Americans in the past are seen in the more modern setting of Oakland. One such instance in which the verbal violence that stems from the removal of Native populations occurs is when Dene is waiting to pitch his film idea to the panel of judges, and a fellow attendee asks if the winner of the grant has to be a person of color. Though not as serious as the violent racism of the past, the nonchalant questioning of why a person of color should win and not a white person shows the ignorance people still have toward the hardships the native population have endured. With the violence and oppression Native Americans have encountered, a simple grant should be a small price to pay in trying to equalize native influence and "stance" in society. The oppression and violence does not just happen in society, however. In characters such as Edwin and Orvil, the lack of connection to their native heritage causes them to be hard on themselves, ruining their self esteem and challenging what they know about the world and where they feel they belong. The disconnect between them and their heritage is a major inhibitor in the finding of their identity, representing the inner violence in the narrative. Similar to the quote of page nine, the characters in There There cannot escape the racism, or "war," of those around them. This novel exists to demonstrate how each character, "keep[s] it at bay," and deals with the oppression and violence toward the native population.
The violent removal of Native Americans and the reasoning behind it filters into the modern era of real life and the setting of There There. With the oppression of Native Americans not being an uncommon occurrence in the novel, the continuous effects the Trail of Tears and horrific treatment toward Native Americans in the past are seen in the more modern setting of Oakland. One such instance in which the verbal violence that stems from the removal of Native populations occurs is when Dene is waiting to pitch his film idea to the panel of judges, and a fellow attendee asks if the winner of the grant has to be a person of color. Though not as serious as the violent racism of the past, the nonchalant questioning of why a person of color should win and not a white person shows the ignorance people still have toward the hardships the native population have endured. With the violence and oppression Native Americans have encountered, a simple grant should be a small price to pay in trying to equalize native influence and "stance" in society. The oppression and violence does not just happen in society, however. In characters such as Edwin and Orvil, the lack of connection to their native heritage causes them to be hard on themselves, ruining their self esteem and challenging what they know about the world and where they feel they belong. The disconnect between them and their heritage is a major inhibitor in the finding of their identity, representing the inner violence in the narrative. Similar to the quote of page nine, the characters in There There cannot escape the racism, or "war," of those around them. This novel exists to demonstrate how each character, "keep[s] it at bay," and deals with the oppression and violence toward the native population.
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