Searching in Tommy Orange’s There There
Self-identification is a complex journey with an interplay of culture and experiences throughout one's life. As stated, no person is fully completed, like an infinite factory line of one's identity, constantly building upon and adapting to changes. The line is created through experiences not just from the self but through experiences from its predecessors passed on from generation to generation. In modern society, many of these stories are reflected in modern literature, where the complexity of cultural, historical, and generational trauma is shown. One such modern literature, Tommy Orange's There There, centers on twelve Native American characters weaving their journey of self-identity and the complexity of their culture through their fragmented identities amidst the legacies of historical trauma, cultural dissociation, and modern society.
Especially with younger generations, there is the "[emphasis on] the dual nature of hybridity" (Krivokapić). It simultaneously works in two ways:" 'organically,' hegemonizing, creating new spaces, structures, scenes, and 'intentionally,' diasporizing, intervening as a form of subversion, translation, transformation'" (Krivokapić). Within There There, we notice a Native American and White mix character, Edwin Black, who had very minimal interaction with the Native American community as his father left at a young age. Despite this, he studied "comparative literature with an emphasis on Native American literature. I wrote my thesis on the inevitable influence of blood quantum policies on modern Native Identity. . . All without knowing my tribe" (Orange 71-72). "His father materializes out of nowhere in response to Edwin's message on his mother's Facebook page, and that is how the young man finds out he is half Cheyenne, but he is troubled with not knowing how to be one and resorts to stereotyping. . . His way of coping is eating to nourish his sense of being alive. At the same time, he becomes overweight, and his sense of social diminishment consumes him - he exists only virtually, through his presence on social media, and remains emplaced in a room that seems to swallow him" (Vlaicu 7). Knowing his cultural identity without any influence or knowledge about it led to his curiosity about an identity he did not know about. He was raised differently than other Native American children, and because of the cultural unknowing, he found his own way of coping or "filling the hole inside of him." He even questions his own cultural identity. Despite having Native heritage, he never had a connection with it and thought, "Every possible way I think that it might look for me to say I'm Native seems wrong" (Orange 72). We see the dual nature of the hybridity of "organic" and "intention" in Edwin's sense. He is separated from his culture as his father left, leaving no Native American cultural connection, and he "organically" finds his culture, creating a new structure of himself on how he views himself based on societal stereotypes. Although he questions himself, Edwin adapted and added that culture into his complex self-identity; however, while he found another aspect of himself, that self-identity hole never filled up. If anything, it grew as the only way was to resort to the stereotypes society depicted. "My problem hasn't just been with gambling. Or gambling. Or incessantly scrolling down and refreshing my social media pages. . . all this time I have spent doing almost nothing" (Orange 62-63). It became a physical manifestation of being overweight, despite not having a direct influence of Native American culture on him. He was in a constant state of starvation, filling that hole in his self-identity.
The complexity of self-identity and the interweaving of culture become prominent among the sisters, Opal and Jacquie. Starting with Jacquie, she ". . . has a history of drinking and is recently sober. A substance abuse counselor, she travels to a conference where she meets Harvey. . . She fights the memory of her second daughter's committing suicide. . ." (Vlaicu 7). It is later noted that Opal adopts Jacquie's grandchildren. However, because of the pain that she has endured with the culture she was bestowed upon, she refuses to teach them what it means to be Native American, not wanting to pass on the trauma of being Indian. ". . . Opal had been openly against any of them doing anything Indian . . . She treated it all like it was something they could decide for themselves when they were old enough" (Orange 118). With Jacquie not being there, Opal did not want Jacquie's grandchildren to experience the trauma she and her sister went through, seeing that they should not know. However, one grandchild, Orvil, becomes curious about his Native American heritage because of the lack of connection, similar to Edwin's Situation. He puts "his regalia on all wrong. It isn't backward, and actually he doesn't know what he did wrong, but it's off" (Orange 118). Despite being his the care of Opal, since she was against the idea of passing on the culture and the trauma that it carried, Orvil never understood the meaning behind his culture, thus cultural identity. ". . . Orvil reveals that all his mother ever did was push him and his brothers out. . . The residual effects of colonization seem thus materialized in these characters' bodies and their sense of self, or rather, a lack thereof" (Krivokapić). He "experiences a crisis of authenticity" (Vlaicu 7) as he explores more and more about what it means to be "Indian." This familial connection and generational line of cultural dissociation and disconnection reveals the complex nature of self-identity through generational trauma and curiosity. Regardless of the attempt to block the generational, it came back around, making it a universal experience for the Native American community. However, because of how it was brought upon, Orvil's experience was unique, and it built another aspect onto himself, only to realize, like in Edwin's case, that the journey in search of self-identity is complex and continuous.
The narrative of There There portrays identity as a continuous, multifaceted, and universal journey. "Orange's characters experience absence in multiple ways - as loss of, or separation from family, marginalization, or the lack of a sense of identity." (Vlaicu 6) Through these unique experiences, the interconnected stories of the characters showcase the interplay of historical trauma, cultural dissociation, and the evolving nature of cultural identity in a constantly evolving world.