There There Discussion Questions

What is the significance of the spider legs Orvil Red Feather finds in his leg in There There?

According to Orvil Red Feather and his brothers, there is something specifically “Indian” about pulling what appear to be spider legs out of a bump on one’s leg. Still, upon finding the legs, Orvil is unaware that the same thing happened to his “grandma,” Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, when she was an adolescent some 40 years earlier. Spider legs symbolize the continuity between generations. Further, the idea that “the spider’s web is a home and a trap” relates to the concept that Native identity is difficult to define.. Natives are “trapped” in a history of conquest and loss even as they exist as “present-tense… modern” people.

What is the significance of the novel’s title, There There?

There There is a direct allusion to a quote by American writer Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), who lamented the loss of the Oakland of her childhood by famously declaring that, though Oakland continues to exist, “there is no there there.” The same sense of loss and displacement can permeate the experience of some modern Native people—they are tied to a past on “the land” that never actually existed for them. It also references the gentrification of Oakland experienced by some of the novel’s characters. Like Stein, they have watched the Oakland of their childhoods disappear even as it continues to exist. The lack of a comma between the last two “theres” might clue readers who initially think the title is meant to suggest a soothing expression—“there, there.” Orange’s intent is to provoke, not to soothe.

What is the role of storytelling in There There?

Throughout the novel, the telling of stories is presented as a way not only to preserve history in the present but to heal generational and personal wounds from the past. The character Dene Oxendene is given a grant to film Oakland Natives telling their stories of what it means to be Native in Oakland. This is seen as an important act of cultural documentation—not just by Dene but also by the committee that awards the grant. Storytelling is a way to heal from the past, as evidenced by a speech given by Harvey to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Harvey describes his freedom from addiction as the result of his decision to change the stories he tells himself about why he is the way he is.

How does Orange create suspense in There There despite revealing the novel’s outcome, the massacre at the powwow, near the beginning of the book?

Orange uses dramatic irony and withholds information to create uncertainty in the novel. For example, for much of the novel, the reader is aware of familial connections that the characters themselves do not know. Blue is finally reunited with her birth parents, Jacquie Red Feather and Harvey, in the moments of the massacre. While the reader knows of their connection, Blue never acknowledges it to her parents, and they seem to remain ignorant of it. In another example of withheld information, Orvil Red Feather’s fate after being shot at the massacre remains uncertain. Orange refrains from revealing whether he lives or dies.

What are some of the nontraditional literary techniques Orange uses in There There?

The novel’s events are not chronologically presented, nor are they narrated from a single perspective. Orange’s use of multiple narrators and perspectives—first-person singular and plural, second person, and third person—gives the novel a sense of having risen out of a kind of “tribal,” group narration. Additionally, the prologue and interlude step away from the fictional aspects of the novel to provide critical and historical analysis that places the novel in context.