Citation528 A.2d 870, 1987 Del. The group of teenagers was down by the shore and they scared her, so she talked to Two Shoes. This is what the community needs, he says: to be valued for the depth and breadth of its stories. Dene Oxendene Dene is a primary character in the novel. Which characters seem to be interested in connecting with their Native ancestry? The wind howled at him. Opal left him by the rocks and went down the shore. When readers are first introduced to Dene Oxendene, we learn of his impulse to tag various spots around the city. At dinner, his mother, Norma, was annoyed with Lucas for saying he "made movies," when all his movie ideas were just in his head. It has been six days since his last one. Alcohol was medicine to make him feel better, he said—it’s just that some medicines can kill. Eventually, she died, right there in the house. At the same time, the lack of judgment in the narrative tone towards the characters suggests that perhaps the real antagonist lies somewhere outside the list of the novel’s characters—maybe in the violence that has broken down Native communities for centuries. “There is no there there,” he says in a kind of whisper, with this goofy openmouthed smile Dene wants to punch. He narrates several chapters, beginning with his application for grant funding for a film project inherited from his uncle, Lucas. The next chapter establishes the greater conceit of the novel through the character Dene Oxendene getting funding for a storytelling project through which he wants to capture stories from people in the Native community without any agenda. Dene Oxendene Dene is a young documentary filmmaker who picks up a project from his uncle and applies for a grant to carry it out. He worries about the panel of judges he is going to see. Maxine says he is a medicine man, deserving of respect, and she tells him the history of colonization. He can find out anything on the Internet, go anywhere, and he gets stuck in spirals of clicking. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Opal took her teddy bear, Two Shoes, with her. He hadn't made any of his movies, but he held boom mics for other people’s movies. What does his grandmother say about his “Indianness”? He tells Dene that is no one is really “from” Oakland, and he quotes Gertrude Stein to him, talking about the city of Oakland: “There is no there there.” Dene knows this quote but doesn’t say so. Dene Oxendene In the next chapter, we meet Dene Oxendene, a mixed race (half white, half Native) young man who is trying to get funding for his film project. He doesn’t need more money; he gives most of what he makes to Maxine. Dene goes inside to the panel of judges, a multiracial group in the middle of debating the merits of his project. Ronald was a medicine man, and their mom followed his advice, rather than the doctors’. At the top, he looks at the graffiti tag scrawled across the tracks: Lens. 8. Towards the beginning of There There, Tommy Orange’s powerful debut, a character called Dene Oxendene appeals for funding for a film project. Near the beginning of Tommy Orange’s debut novel, a character named Dene Oxendene --- probably the closest thing to a stand-in for the author himself --- explains the motivation behind the documentary film project for which he is seeking grant funding: “I want to bring something new to the vision of the Native experience as it’s seen on the screen. Dene introduces himself and tells them about the project he has inherited from his uncle. He asked Dene to make a movie with him the next day. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Parts 3 and 4 of There There build a rising tension that climaxes in a large shooting at the Big Oakland Powwow. He managed to turn on his uncle’s camera and shoot as he walked home. Dene feels a rush of self-loathing approaching like the fast-moving train. People are afraid of him, and he wonders if Maxine is wrong about him being a medicine man. The three boys head to the coliseum for the powwow. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of There There by Tommy Orange. Dene is interested in stories like Calvin’s, and how they can help people who feel the same way to feel less alone—but, it’s implied, Calvin himself has not had access to any of these stories in his lifetime, and it has made his loneliness worse. The trouble began when a few white boys asked Tony for coke. Different characters’ stories will circle the Powwow for the rest of the book. 7. Include a Works Cited entry, correctly formatted. The first chapter opens with a series of memories and thoughts from Tony Loneman. Dene Oxendene. He’s using an old movie camera given to him by his dying uncle. When he makes it up to the platform, the train he thought he was missing comes to a stop on the opposite side. Opal’s mom took her aside one day and told her that the only thing they can do was to tell their stories—and that she had cancer. Dene has set up a storytelling booth at the powwow. Tony’s section reveals a plot to steal the prize money from the Oakland Powwow. Dene thought of the tag Lens for the first time on the bus home on the day his uncle Lucas came to visit. 1175. He felt bad again for leaving her to cry alone. Edwin goes back to his room and listens to a group of Native DJs called A Tribe Called Red. Dene knew what had happened from the look on her face before she even said anything. Jacquie swore at Harvey again and told Opal that she told him not to do it but he did. She also explained where they were going: Alcatraz, a former prison that had been taken over by Indians. Dene immediately ran out the door with his uncle’s camera in hand. They made it back to shore. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will to perform in public for the very first time. Tony blames her for this, and for the Drome. Dene realized he shouldn’t have run away from his mother; there was no one to be mad at. Oakland as the novel’s setting is similarly important as a site of belonging, connected to the characters’ Native identity. He looks at his reflection in the dark TV and sees himself as a dancer. He looks up the connection between the gastrointestinal system and the brain. Dene hasn’t read any other Gertrude Stein, but this quote, to him, represents the story of Native people all over the Americas. He also reads to her before she goes to sleep. Include in-text citations. Towards the end of There There two of the characters encounter each other on opposite sides of a video camera. Her sister was drunk and introduced her to a teenage boy named Harvey. When he got home that afternoon, his mother told him Lucas was in the hospital overnight. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Dene’s, on the other hand, is written in the third person, giving readers an outside view. Tony is big, strong, and prone to fits of anger. Instant downloads of all 1389 LitChart PDFs He was dying of liver failure because he has been drinking heavily his whole life. Indeed, Part I declines to identify any clear protagonist or antagonist. Continue to work on your Family History/Life story project – it is due tomorrow. Dene Oxendene, who is half Native American, is an aspiring documentary filmmaker. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Gertrude Stein was really saying that so much development happened in Oakland that the place, the there, of her childhood was simply no longer there. Tony's IQ percentile is the lowest possible, but his psychologist, Karen, affirms his intelligence. Our, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, Interconnectedness, Coincidence, and Chance. A very drunk Octavio confided in Tony about his love for his grandmother and gave him coke to sell. These are disparate sections, without direct links to each other and told in different ways. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. On one is Dene Oxendene… For Dene, who already knows this quote, Rob represents the changes to Oakland that rob it of its “there-ness.” Dene sees the gentrification that Rob represents as continuing the long line of historical displacement of Native community. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, Part I: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (1), Part III: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (2), Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (3), Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (4), Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (5). Another reason Calvin perhaps doesn’t feel badly about robbing this powwow is because of what he suffered before he could even make it into the last one. He knows Oakland, his only home. He has difficulty reading, but sometimes the words move him, like when Maxine has him read something by her favorite author, Louise Erdrich. The three boys are trying to raise money to buy Lony a new bike. Dene begins filming stories from Native people in and around Oakland, including at the Big Oakland Powwow. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. The Question and Answer section for There There is a great He goes into the kitchen for a glass of Pepsi, but he spits it out in the sink when he sees his reflection in the mirror. He imagines old white men in robes who will know everything about him—except they will assume he is white. One Harvey responds, willing to meet up when he comes to Oakland for the Powwow. How does graffiti culture work to recontextualize public spaces? One day, Opal and Jacquie’s mom came home with swollen lips and told them to pack their things. Next, readers hear the voice of Dene Oxendene. Dene Oxendene Character Analysis Essays must also connect his character in some way to Orange’s “Prologue.” To that end, please reference at least one quote from the “Prologue.” MLA References: Include at least five quotes total from the chapter and Prologue. He looked it up in its original context, Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Lucas told Dene his idea for a movie about an alien conquest of America. Tony didn’t have it, so he asked Carlos, who told him to visit someone named Octavio. The next day, Dene tagged Lens everywhere he could at school. How did you interpret this act? Lucas returned from the hospital the next day and admitted to Dene that he was dying, but he kept drinking. When he got home, he hid behind a telephone pole, watching his mother cry in the doorway. In what ways could Dene's project be viewed as a response to the prologue narrator's views on the problems inherent in the historical representations of Natives in America? Summary. He has spent years wondering what tribe he is from, years studying Native identity without knowing his. His plan, he tells the judges, is to let the content direct the vision. A Facebook ding from upstairs makes him rush to his room. His goal is to use film to document the stories of Urban Indians, a project his uncle Lucas had thought … Tony recalls when his guardian, Maxine, told him he had fetal alcohol syndrome. They give him a final three minutes to speak for his project. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Suduiko, Aaron ed. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle’s memory. The novel’s characters capture beautifully the history and truth of being Native in all its nuances, from Dene Oxendene, a documentary filmmaker who honors his uncle’s life by capturing the stories of Oakland Natives, to Jacquie Red Feather, a recently sober substance abuse counselor reckoning with her past and returning to her family. So, one day, Edwin logs into his mom's Facebook account and found a couple of Harveys who match the criteria, sending them fake messages from his mom about meeting up. His mom comes home and asks for an update. Edwin tells her he doesn’t want to hear anything about his weight; he knows he is fat. A kid in the back of his bus wrote emt, which Dene understood to mean empty, in the window condensation. He sweats as he takes the steps up a dead escalator at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland. His plan, he tells the judges, is to let the content direct the vision. There There study guide contains a biography of Tommy Orange, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will to perform in public for the very first time. Maxine knows him better than anyone and helps him makes sense of the world around him. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. On the bus, Opal’s mom explained that Bear Shield is an old Indian name that comes from their own customs before white people. The man, who assumes Dene is white, says he is moving to West Oakland where rent is dirt cheap. Lucas was collecting interviews of Indians who have moved to Oakland, asking them to share a story about how they ended up in Oakland and what it was like for them. He wasn't overweight growing up, but now he is obese. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Tony, for example, knows Oakland intimately. The Defendant Oxendine, Sr., was convicted by jury of manslaughter for the death of his son, Jeffrey Oxendine, Jr., whom the Defendant had beaten or kicked in the abdomen. They held hands on the boat as the drunk teenagers steered madly. He pointed the camera at her and filmed. Dene Oxendene walks up an out-of-order escalator at Oakland’s Fruitvale Station and sees a train starting to arrive—he feared he’d missed it. Dene is always mistaken for being white, despite being half Native. Calvin’s feelings of cultural and personal isolation are strong and painful, and are perhaps at the root of why he seems to feel few moral qualms about acting as a double agent as the powwow robbery approaches. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield For example, Edwin, Tony, and Opal's sections are written in the first person, placing us directly inside the experience of their battles with self-image, hope, anger, and loss. By that point, he knew to acknowledge but not be caught looking. Dene is tired and out of breath, and wishes he had a cigarette that could “invigorate” him. He is using his uncle’s camera and plans to ask everyone who comes into his booth the same questions. On a cold morning in January 1970, the three of them left the small yellow house where they lived in East Oakland. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. He stays in his room on the computer especially when Bill is over—his mom’s boyfriend, whom he doesn’t like. Dene leaves the interview confident he won the grant. Dene Oxendene – young documentary filmmaker enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. He is addicted to the Internet; he spent the last four years sitting in his room on his computer. Part I is a powerful introduction to key elements of the structure, plot, and literary elements of There There. In a later section, Edwin learns the identity of his Native father, who is coming to Oakland for the same Powwow. In Part... To start, Orange introduces a motif that shows up throughout American history under the heading "Indian Head." He seats on the floor and tries to complete a sit-up. Opal kept her head down and focused on school, until one day Jacquie told her she was pregnant with Harvey’s baby. But then he couldn’t find a job, so moved back in with his mom and subsequently gained a hundred pounds. On the way into the interview for the grant, Dene meets a young white man who is also there to interview. First, it introduces readers to a key formal feature of the novel: the story is told through a multitude of characters’ voices. Discuss the interaction between Opal Viola Victoria Bear … Teachers and parents! Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle's death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Edwin logs off. I have highlighted 4 questions on the question sheet that I would like for you to look at and answer. Brief Fact Summary. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Tony sympathizes with his ancestors’ plight; he would hate to have to leave Oakland. Tony, the first character to speak, alerts readers to his own role in the devious plot that will haunt the rest of the book; yet rather than depicting him as a villain, Orange treats Tony sympathetically. His mother said there was nothing she could do. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Indeed, the characters in this first chapter assert their Native identity and their allegiance to Oakland in the same breath, a powerful claim that lays the foundation for the rest of the plot to unfold. Rothstein, Talia. His interviewees will be able to say anything they want, and he will pay them for their stories. Tony knows he is smart where it counts. A single drop of sweat drips down the side of his face from out of his beanie. Yesterday, he dropped his phone in the toilet and his computer froze, so now he has no access to the Internet, either. Not only does this establish the link between colonial violence and gentrification: it also subverts the stereotypical view of Indian culture that it is irrevocably tied to the reservation and the tribe’s traditional land before the reservation. His mom says she just wants to talk, and she asks him about how his stories are going. The Defendant was convicted of manslaughter, and he argued on appeal that since the Defendant’s girlfriend had […] She ran towards the sound and found Jacquie and Harvey. As he eats an old slice of pizza, he reads about the relationship between brain and food. First, it introduces readers to a key formal feature of the novel: the story is told through a multitude of characters’ voices. FICTION There There Tommy Orange Harvill Secker, $32.99. Maybe one day, he thinks, he will be known for something bad he has done. Tony has been selling weed since he was thirteen. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. He first describes the Indian Head test pattern that was broadcast on American television from the image’s creation in 1939 until the... Orange's novel is about the experience of urban Indians: every one of his characters has grown up in a city—specifically, Oakland—rather than a reservation. Dene introduces himself and tells them about the project he has inherited from his uncle. We see the traditional and the modern in Dene Oxendene’s project that merges storytelling and technology. Recently, Edwin has become fascinated with looking up information about the brain on the Internet. Today you will be working on the questions from yesterday and the next chapter in the novel, called Dene Oxendene. Not affiliated with Harvard College. He refers to the city as his only home, and he enjoys riding his bike around different neighborhoods just to observe them. Harvey is shocked but believes him, and he tells him they are Cheyenne. He did have one project that he was working on, however, that wouldn't require any money. He also told her the stories of how white men named teddy bears after Teddy Roosevelt. At the time, he misheard the name of the syndrome, and it became known to him as the Drone. There There essays are academic essays for citation. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. 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