There There by Tommy Orange Analysis Essay Example

In the book There There by Tommy Orange, the different, yet interconnected stories of multiple Native Americans arriving at the Big Oakland powwow are told. One such story was Jacquie’s story. She was born into a poor family and had a younger sister named Opal. After experiencing one tragedy after another, Jacquie gave up and became addicted to alcohol. Many years later, she decided to go to the powwow so she could get her life back together. Jacquie’s trauma and her journey toward the powwow convey the truth of Fina’s simile: “a . . . curse is like a bullet fired from far off.”

The “curse … fired from far off” that led Jacquie to the shooting at the powwow was the generational trauma experienced by the Native Americans 400 years ago. This trauma came from a long history of betrayal and death, where “land-deal meal[s] … meant to symbolize eternal friendship” between the Natives and colonists ended with “... Indians [dropping] dead that night from an unknown poison.” (Orange, 4) These traumas the Native Americans carried continued to be passed down from generation to generation and were eventually inherited by Vicky, Jacquie’s mom. As a result of her indigenous heritage, Vicky was left with nothing other than two children to care for. Consequently, she was evicted out of her house and forced to move to Alcatraz, which was an island occupied by Native Americans at the time. Jacquie and her family made friends and were somewhat happy there, but this came to an abrupt end when Jacquie revealed she was raped by Harvey, another teen on the island, when she told Opal, her sister, “I’m pregnant … Fucking piece of shit Harvey …” (Orange 60) Since Jacquie couldn’t support the child, she gave it up for adoption. Eventually, Jacquie would give birth to another child named Jamie. She tried taking care of Jamie; however, Jamie later committed suicide by shooting herself in the head. Devastated, Jacquie reverted to being an alcoholic to relieve her depression. Because of her addiction, Jacquie attended an Alcohol Addiction meeting to share her experiences, but when she got there, “the guy in the cowboy hat introduced himself to the group as Harvey.” (Orange 108) The same Harvey that raped her on Alcatraz. At first, Jacquie was very angry at Harvey for getting her pregnant, but in the end, she decided to go with him to Oakland to reconnect with her grandchildren and sister. When Harvey and Jacquie got to Oakland, they attended the Big Oakland Powwow, which was the same powwow that Octavio, Fina’s grandson, was going to rob for the prize money. Suddenly, “[Jacquie] can hear the bullets, the boom and the whizzing. It’s close.” (Orange 279) All of this pain Jacquie experienced led her to become desperate. Desperate for a way out of her suffering. Desperation was what drove her to alcohol when she got raped. It was what led her to the powwow when her life was in shambles. Because of Jacquie’s desperation and the pain she inherited from her Native heritage, she experienced trauma after trauma, which led her to the curse fired from far off.

The trauma that Jacquie inherited from her ancestors as well as the continuous cycle of tragedies that Jacquie has to bear clearly confirms the truth of Fina’s simile, “a . . . curse is like a bullet fired from far off,” and shows the impact of generational trauma on the modern-day Native American community.