Examples Of Foreshadowing In Tommy Orange's There

Molly Vanden Bos
Voice
Modern America is built upon the bones of the Natives and yet their song is silenced. While history classes elaborate in detail on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the stories and history of the original people of America are often overlooked, ignored, and silenced until they are removed almost entirely from the history books. Tommy Orange’s There There reveals the story of Native people today, all united through an Oakland powwow and a common fight to celebrate self in a colonized culture. Orange does not focus on one main protagonist to tell this story, but rather incorporates a cast of characters whose connections are slowly revealed as the Oakland powwow approaches, allowing for the author to explore the various

This shooting is a reflection of Native history, which is hinted at in the interlude in a passage with rich imagery about bullets, where Orange writes “A bullet… moves clean through a body, makes a hole, tears, burns, exits, goes on, hungry, or it remains, cools, lodges, poi-sons” (141). The listing emphasizes the damage of the bullets, and the repetition of the pain it causes foreshadows the shooting of the powwow, and heightens the sense of tragedy long before the tragedy becomes actualized. Orange continued by writing “A stray bullet, like a stray dog, might…bite anyone anywhere, just because its teeth were made to bite… tear through meat…made to eat through as much as it can” (141). Personalizing the bullet and using simile to compare it to an animal heightens the sense of powerlessness, as it could “tear through meat” by chance. The word “meat” dehumanizes the victims and accentuates Orange’s idea that it could be anyone. In the prologue, Orange emphasizes that Native’s shouldn’t be defined by their tragedy, and yet, in a way, all the characters end up being defined by the tragic shooting anyways. The diversity of their identities and experiences that drew them to the pow wow ended up being

In Hamlet, Hamlet says “-Horatio, I am dead. Thou livest; report me and my cause aright…” (Shakespeare 5.2 370-371). By using second person to address Horatio, Shakespeare is also calling the audience's attention. In the play, Shakespeare breaks the fourth wall to address the audience, to ask what defines a man after death. By asking to “report his cause”, Shakespeare is highlighting the importance of history, of having a people’s voice remembered. In There There, Orange is using this novel to tell the Native story so it is remembered. For example, Orange writes “...If you have the option to not think about or even consider history…you know you’re on board the ship that serves hors d’oeuvres and fluffs your pillows, while others are out at sea, swimming or drowning…” (137-138). Orange is calling the oppressors accountable for their ignorance, and thus is demonstrating the importance of history. The comparison of privilege to a ship that “fluffs your pillows” while others are “drowning” acknowledges that ignorance is a gift, and thus is a call to action to the reader to look past the singular identity that has defined Natives for so