Female Stories in There There

 Something I think about in There There is how it diminishes the use of Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie’s idea of a single story. There are so many perspectives that it allows multiple perspectives. However, as I am writing this I am remembering that Tommy Orange said that he infused the characters with elements of himself. So it really is not a collection of stories, just a plethora of his own accounts. Hmm. Maybe it is a single story then. But this does not even matter because any Native American story needs to be heard, because there are so few of them. We need them as much as he, as a writer, needs an audience. Another thing I just thought about is how Tommy Orange writes about the lives of female Native Americans. How can he know what it is like to live as a female in an environment like the one depicted in the novel? I mean sure, people can tell him stories but it is not the same as living it for yourself. I wish he acknowledged this at some point, maybe stating that the perspectives he writes about are subjective to his own view, and not the end all be all Native American story. That being said, as I previously mentioned it is important to have any story at all to show the greater population what life is like for Native Americans. So, I am still in full support of this novel. I just am a little wary as to its all encompassing nature. 


Comments

  1. Avery PiersonNovember 21, 2021 at 8:02 PM

    I think it can still be considered multiple perspectives even though all of the characters are based off of Orange, but I see your point on how it is still technically a "single story." I have also wondered how he went about portraying and understanding the female characters.

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  2. Bailey BlackNovember 21, 2021 at 11:05 PM

    This is definitely a good argument for reading books by a wide variety of authors, and not taking the stories of a single book as canon.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 23, 2021 at 8:35 PM

    That is a good point on how can he encapsulate the female experience because the 2 perspectives cannot be considered the same and there are some differences a woman might see as compared to a man.

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  4. Isabella FernandezNovember 27, 2021 at 10:52 AM

    Great points, Jojo! While the interview with Tommy Orange made it seem as though all the information we are getting from the book comes from one perspective, I would argue that it still came from multiple perspective. I do not think that Tommy Orange experienced everything that he depicted in the book (at least I hope he didn't). He uses stories that he heard from his family and people that he met when working within the Indigenous communities. It also shows you that you cannot rely on a single novel to give you all the information you need to know about a certain minorities. Everyone has different stories, different experiences, and different upbringings and we need to read from multiple perspective/books to just barely begin to understand their experiences.

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