James L’Angelle
University of Nevada, Reno
Dr. A. Keniston
29 October 2019
“There There” Is No Safe Zone
Unreliable as some of the narration may be throughout the novel, Tommy Orange does bring
a certain amount of realism and accuracy to the story. The many styles of narration confuses and
leaves the reader off balance because the point of view and tense is constantly shifting like the
ground above the Loma Prieta fault. Where does the reader find a safe zone, where does he find
refuge when the Big One hits in the text?
Certainly one would expect the climax to come somewhere near the end of the story, which in fact, it does with the gun battle at the Coliseum powwow. But throughout the story, mini-plots emerge that are later addressed by the characters involved as they gradually all converge on the festivities and become victims of a plot hatched early on, hinted at in various episodes, by the
author. Where exactly to draw the line on becoming a “victim” is unclear since the characters are victims in one way or another all through the story. This is where truth from fiction becomes a
useful tool to find out who really suffers and who is just a figment of imagination, appearing in
the story to justify it. This is where separating the reliable from the unreliable narrator defines
that very truth.
By the process of elimination, it becomes evident who the unreliable narrator is. When Dene Oxendene is talking to his dying uncle Lucas, the latter describes a film he is thinking about;
“It’s gonna end in a reverse Kubrick 2001 human-bashing-a-bone sequence in slow motion.
Have you seen 2001 ?”
“No,” Dene said.
“ Full Metal Jacket ?”
“No?” ( There There , page 31)
Regardless of how and why the film ends with respect to what really happened, it seems
completely out of character that Dene has not seen one of the most celebrated science fiction
films ever made by a legendary director. ( 2001: A Space Odyssey )
In yet another segment of that same episode titled “Dene Oxendene,” the budding young
documentary filmmaker arrives at his grant hearing completely unprepared and totally clueless of the people who sit on the committee, describing them by their external ethnic appearance without the slightest regard for their qualifications. (page 39) Although Dene gives a promising pitch for
his project, he walks away still doubtful the results will be positive. This is but one example of
where the character seems out of place, contrived in an unreliable narrative fashion in order to
add substance to the novel. Hiding in the fluff, however, are true characters.
Alcatraz becomes the setting in a backflash that involves the 1970 Native American
occupation of the former federal prison. A family uproots itself from its Oakland residence and
joins the protest in the episode titled “Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield,” narrated in the
first-person and the past tense. It involves Opal, her sister Jacquie and their Mom as they find
themselves in the company of some unsavory characters who have other ideas about the takeover
of the facility.
In the episode, Opal has a conversation with her teddy bear, Two Shoes, even though it’s
plainly evident that teddy bears don’t talk;
“Creator made me strong to protect you,” Two Shoes said.
I told Two Shoes to stop talking like an Indian.
“I don’t know what you mean by talking like an Indian,” he said.
“You’re not an Indian, you’re a teddy bear.” (page 51)
There is something intrinsically convincing about this particular exchange, referred to in
linguistics as an “adjacency pair.” (SLT Info) Because it has a formal definition, in spite of its
unrealistic possibility, it becomes a reliable component of the character, Opal.
Later on, when the family returns to Oakland, Opal discovers her sister is pregnant due to an assault by one of the unsavory characters on the island;
“It doesn’t matter, I can just get rid of it.”
“No, you cannot just get rid of--”
“I know someone, my friend Adriana’s brother knows someone in West Oakland.”
“Jacquie, you can’t--” (page 60)
To convince the reader of the reliability of the narrator, the episode concludes with a further
interchange;
“It’s not a story, Opal, this is real.”
“It could be both.”
“Life doesn’t work out the way stories do.” (page 60)
The comparison of truth to fiction is evident and that separates the reliable from the unreliable
narrator. It also separates the real victim from the contrived victim.
Standing on shaky ground page after page in There There , the narrator cannot find that safe
zone as he is constantly off balance in the first-person past-tense, the third-person present-tense
and at least one second-person, rapper style narration. Between the faults of the story, however,
there is a definite place of refuge so that when the Big One does hit, vis-à-vis a reliable narrator,
the reader is earthquake ready.
References
Orange, Tommy, There There , 2018, Vintage, NY
2001: A Space Odyssey , (1968) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/
Adjacency Pairs, https://www.sltinfo.com/ca101-adjacency-pairs/
Bay Bridge Photo, https://missionlocal.org/2019/10/it-was-30-years-ago-today-trapped-on-the-bay-bridge-during-the-loma-prieta-quake/
Tommy Orange Photo, https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/tommy-orange-wins-john-leonard-prize-for-there-there