This group of characters represents the power of redemption through human connection. Edwin introduces Blue to the woman, who instantly realizes that the young man she’s gotten to know as her intern and coworker is actually her half-brother. Blue knows the name of her birth mother, and when Edwin meets Harvey, Harvey introduces him to Jacquie. Blue and Edwin, unlikely siblings due to the sharp differences in their age and demeanors, nonetheless feel an uncanny sense of familiarity and connection with one another. She later goes on to take a job at the Oakland Indian Center in hopes of reconnecting with her heritage, where she meets Edwin Black-who has just reconnected with the father he never knew through Facebook, a man whose name is Harvey.

The child, Blue, is adopted by wealthy white Oakland residents and grows up in the lap of luxury.

Jacquie Red Feather, who gives birth to a child conceived on Alcatraz with the slightly older Harvey, gives that child up for adoption and never sees Harvey again. Through the various twists and turns of the narrative which both retroactively and in real time reveal unlikely connections between coworkers, strangers, and family members, Tommy Orange makes a larger comment on how interconnected not just the Native community but the world more largely is-and highlights the deeper importance of old adages that instruct people to love their neighbors and respect strangers as they love and respect themselves. The complicated connections between the characters of There, There at times seem too coincidental to be real. As the story builds towards a giant powwow, during which nearly all of his characters find themselves collected in the Oakland Coliseum, Orange argues that not only are people connected in ways they often can’t begin to imagine-but also that the connections which ripple through the world have the power to change lives for the better. As the story deepens, however, it becomes clear that all of the characters are interconnected-by their occupations, by chance, and even by blood. In the early pages of There There, it seems as if Orange’s hopping and skipping around through the perspectives of various Native Americans living in Oakland-Urban Indians, as they often call themselves-is highlighting disparate and isolated points of view. Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (5).

Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (4).Part IV: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (3).Part III: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (2).Part I: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (1).

Tony loneman there there