There By Tommy Orange Essay

Two different people, who have bonded through an unexpected death. Will they survive this heartbreak? Daniel Gonzalez and Octavio Gomez experience the death of a brother, Manny. This tragic death brought Daniel and Octavio closer. Could it then backfire? Will this make or break their friendship? In the novel There There, author Tommy Orange uses characters Octavio Gomez and Daniel Gonzales to explore the central idea of power as it relates to death, generational trauma and past experiences. Ocatvio Gomez, a former drug dealer who worked for Tony and Charles. He is also related to Daniel, as they are cousins. Throughout Octavio's life, he has been through distressing amounts of events. Such as the death of his father, getting into the drug game at such a young age,

This quote depicts Daniel's home life, which Octavio was aware of but had never witnessed first hand. The fighting between Daniel and his father, the arguments and disagreement between him and his mother. The main idea of power from both characters is tied into one. The shared generational trauma, the death of fathers, friends, and brothers. Throughout the book we watched these characters grow: “Not that we talked. Mostly we played video games together in the basement.and it turns out that who you spend time with ends up mattering more than what you do with that time” (Orange 175). This quote connects to my main idea of power because it talks about the death of Manny which holds so much power over both Octavio and Daniels heads, they all became so close as the quote states, “Like brothers.” So when Manny was gone and Octavio kept coming around it was good and bad. It was nice for Daniel to know someone cared that much and was able to stay after a loss like that, but at the same time Octavio was a constant reminder of