In Tommy Orange’s There There, Opal has
an illuminating conversation with her teddy bear. Opal tells “Two Shoes to stop
talking like an Indian.” Indianness, in the way that Opal understands it, is tied
with notions of spirituality and knowledge native traditions because Two Shoes uses
phrases like “sacred bear medicine” and “Creator” (Orange 51). These spiritual
aspects and cultural knowledge are characteristics of the identity that Opal prescribes
to natives, but being native by blood is a necessary condition in Opal’s
conception of Indianness. Two Shoes is a teddy bear, and this automatically
disqualifies him from being native in her view. However, Two Shoes refers to
the native teenagers as “our relatives,” identifying himself as a member of the
native community (Orange 50). Two Shoes is, in a way, adopted by Opal, so he could
feel like a part of the community through this familial tie, even if it is not
one of blood. Opal named him Two Shoes, which a name that sounds similar to the
style of names native people often have. Two Shoes goes on to tell Opal “we’re
not so different.” Two Shoes’ notion of Indianness appears to revolve around their
commonalities and shared history of suffering at the hands of “pig-brained men”
(Orange 51).
Two Shoes states that the pig-brained man that misnamed
Indians was Columbus, and for bears it was Teddy Roosevelt. This is an
important anecdote because these are two historical figures who are still praised
by many, and this stellar reputation is juxtaposed by the harm that they caused.
The story that is commonly told about the origin of the name teddy bear leaves
out the fact that Roosevelt “slit that old bear’s throat,” which mirrors the
stories that are preached about the discovery of the so-called new world by
Europeans that conveniently leave out the genocide of the natives. Roosevelt’s killing
of the bear was characterized as the “kind of mercy the don’t want you to know
about” (Orange 51). Again, this parrots the rhetoric of colonizers that claimed
they were bringing civilization and Christianity to the natives in order to
save their souls, as well as in more modern examples of assimilation schools where
they would kill the Indian to save the man. Two Shoes ties this comparison of
bears and natives together when he says, “Sister, they slit all our throats,”
and then shares Roosevelt’s racist quote (Orange 51).
This interaction relates to the overall theme
of narrative and authenticity that occurs throughout There There. The
interaction is authentic because it tells the truth about what happened to Native
Americans, and does not shy away from giving well-deserved criticism. Two Shoes
tells Opal that “[y]ou gotta know about the history of your people” because where
she is now was determined by people before her (Orange 51). Two Shoes tells
Opal stories that she was unaware of, and this helps her contextualize native people’s
place in history and how she wound up talking to a teddy bear on Alcatraz.
Opal’s teddy bear, Two Shoes, not only teaches her the stories of her people, but also symbolizes Opal’s link to her Native American culture. During Opal’s childhood, specifically on Alcatraz Two Shoes “speaks” to Opal about their histories. He reminds her about the government’s disdain for the native people and encourages her to lean into her culture. Two Shoes as a symbol of her link to her native culture is evident as she leaves him at Alcatraz when she is young and she later states that “she’d abandoned all hope for outside help on a prison island back when she was eleven” (284). Once Opal return from Alcatraz with her family she begins to shut out her Native American culture and disassociate herself from those ideas symbolizing her leaving them on Alcatraz along with Two Shoes. This disassociation is seen in her raising of her great-nephews, never teaching their Native American culture. She shuts out native culture until she attends the Oakland Powwow, following her great nephews. Here Opal is forced to reconnect with her native culture, and upon reconnection Opal says “[s]he hears something coming from a place she thought she’d closed off forever a long time ago (285). This reconnection to her culture brings back the part of her she’d closed off within Two Shoes when she left part of her identity on Alcatraz.
ReplyDeleteOpal's conversation with her bear symbolizes Opal's understanding of Native history. The conversation that occurs between the two of them is obviously fictitious, and serves to reflect her own personal thoughts. You very astutely analyze the similarities between the bear being named after Teddy Roosevelt and the Natives being named Indians by Columbus. The two historical figures, as you point out, still receive praise and historical recognition, despite horrific actions.
ReplyDeleteThe bear continues to describe the actions of Roosevelt and explains the truth about Roosevelt's "big stick". The big stick was used on both bears and Natives, used to drive Natives and bears from their lands. The juxtaposition of bears to Natives indicates that the American government treated the Natives in the same way they treat fearsome and dangerous animals.
You point out that two shoes tells Opal that she must know the history of her people. Interestingly, Opal does not have that opinion many years later. She refuses to teach her grandchildren about their Native history, claiming long hours of work as her excuse.