At the beginning of Part Three, Tommy Orange quotes James
Baldwin when he writes, “people are trapped in history and history is trapped
in them” (Orange 157). Throughout There There, the characters constantly
reference their history to describe the problems they deal with in the present
as described in the quote. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Jacquie Red
Feather are two of the characters that best exemplify this relationship. As
half-sisters, they share a similar past but have quite different lives in the
present.
Opal and Jacquie’s shared history is described in detail by
Opal in Part One. They are introduced in a house that is “the brightest but
smallest house on the block” (Orange 45). Their mother then forces them to rush
to Alcatraz during the Native American occupation. Opal describes her experience
there as “stay[ing] on the island because there was no other choice” (Orange
56). She also leaves her teddy bear out in the elements which weather it. She
leaves the teddy bear behind, symbolizing Opal leaving behind her Native
American culture. Jacquie gets along better than Opal at first, but Jacquie is
then assaulted by Harvey, a teenager on the island who is initially a part of
her friend group. She also is introduced to alcohol by Harvey, which is a problem
that sticks with her to the present.
In the present, Jacquie is trying to not let alcohol control
her life. She is introduced as sober for ten days, but to her “ten days is the
same as a year when you want to drink all the time” (Orange 99). She is now working
as a mental health and substance abuse counselor to help others that suffer the
same problems she does. Jacquie is attending a mental health conference when
she goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. At the meeting, she encounters
Harvey from Alcatraz, and he reveals that he has been sober since 1982. Their
shared past justifiably angers Jacquie, but she reluctantly allows herself to
go with Harvey to the Oakland powwow so she can visit her Opal and Jacquie’s grandchildren.
Opal is currently living in Oakland working as a mail
carrier for the USPS. She is quite superstitious; examples of this are not
stepping on cracks in the pavement and delivering the mail to the odd numbered
houses first. This superstition hearkens back to when she leaves Two Shoes out
on the Alcatraz coast and leaving her Native American culture behind. Despite
her best efforts, she still has certain aspects of Native American culture in
her life. The two main examples are the traditional garb Orvil discovers and
the “lump that’s been in [Orvil’s] leg for as long as he can remember” (Orange
125) that Opal also shares. This lump has spider legs in it, which is a Cheyenne
omen for a bad occurrence in the future. The history Opal and Jacquie share is
trapped in them through spider legs and alcoholism, proving the James Baldwin
quote true.
I think that I agree with what this post is saying, but I believe that it goes even further than what is stated here. Both Opal and Jackie experienced a very similar childhood, but one event caused them to represent two very common experiences that modern Native Americans have in their lives. But the lives of Opal and Jackie are only a small part of the larger story that their whole family tells. Because of the systematic oppression of Native Americans by European colonizers and their ancestors, many current day Native Americans are trapped in a cycle of drug abuse, suicide, poverty, and identity crisis.
ReplyDeleteDuring their childhood, Opal and Jackie had both moved around a lot with their mother, usually from one low-income neighborhood to another. The house they moved out of at the beginning of their story had carpets that “were too thin and smelled like dirt and smoke” (Orange 45). Their poor living conditions and low socioeconomic status also contributed to the death of their mother, who got cancer and couldn’t afford to get treatment.
Both Opal and Jackie also react very differently to their childhood like you mentioned in the post. Opal actively rejected her Native culture and Jackie found a job working with the culture centers. Unfortunately, Jackie became an alcoholic who felt trapped in a “spider’s web” of wanting to drink to avoid life, but not being able to drink (Orange 101).
Jackie’s grandson, Orvil, also experiences a very large part of Native American life as he tries to figure out what being Native means for him. He was not raised knowing anything about his history or culture, but desperately wants to reconnect with his culture, whatever that is.