I’m going to focus on narration because the topic for the week is shifting strategies. There are a lot of narrators in There There. I lost count, tried to write them all down and still think I have the number wrong. What surprised me was not just the number of narrators but the shifts in perspective even among the same narrator’s chapters. Tony Loneman is the first character narrator after the prologue. His first chapter is told in first person. He talks about the drome, his propensity toward blackout violence, and we end the chapter with Loneman in regalia, “an Indian… a dancer” (26). Loneman’s second chapter comes late in the second part of the book, after the interlude. Loneman’s second chapter is in third person. Suddenly, the “I” has gone and we get “he,” what “he’ll” do. In Loneman’s first chapter, the reader is very much in his head, experiencing the world the way he does. But in the second chapter, it’s as though we are disembodied. We are no longer in Loneman’s head but watching him swing the socks full of bullets “under the moon, under the looming coliseum walls” (143). I love that Loneman ends the book. His perspective is the first and last that we read. His story seems to be the anchor of the book.
This shift in point of view happens with other characters, too. A similar pattern happens for Calvin Johnson. His first chapter is in first person; his second in third person. Same for Opal. Other characters don’t receive this treatment. For example, Dene Oxendene has two chapters in third person, as does Jacquie Red Feather. What’s compelling about these shifts for me is not just the narration. We’ve seen books that shift character perspectives to tell two sides of a story. The first one that comes to mind is Bury What We Cannot Take from last semester’s craft class. We got multiple character perspectives but always from the same point of view for the same character. Orange is doing something completely different: shifting characters and points of view. What I ask myself is to what end? What is the shifting doing to the reader or the narrative?
For me, the shifting perspectives and points of view served to disorient my reading experience. There were so many different voices throughout. It was difficult to focus on one alone. There isn’t a hero or heroine who emerges here, though a case could be made for Loneman emerging as a kind of heroic character in his last chapter. There There feels like an entirely communal story in which all the characters have a stake. I’m not entirely sure all the ways this perspective shifting is affecting the reading of the text, but I am super interested in diving into this book with everyone on Wednesday and in hearing what others’ perspectives were while reading this unique narrative.
I appreciate how you highlight the first-to-third person switches between Opal and Calvin. I absolutely missed out on this shift because I was absorbing other characters' perspectives in between. The third person actually felt closer for me, with Opal (when we find out she is a mail carrier and has an obsession with numbers and not stepping on sidewalk cracks). It allowed just enough "zooming out" to notice her actions, which brought me closer to her as a character.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting that you mention an absence of the heroine/hero in this piece (with maybe the exception of Loneman). I felt that Dene's project was the frame for the collection of all these perspectives, so to me, they all carried equal weight. The project Dene pitched involved the collective stories taking charge of the narrative, rather than he as the artist having any control. I think Orange mimics this with an absence of a hero/heroine.
It's like the characters are being explored by Orange in all they can offer to the narrative. I like this cataloging you've done since it was something I was aware of but not directly the when and the how. It's true that we get multiple perspectives even within each character, it's like he's trolling us with our attention spans. It works though! I found myself going back and checking "wait who is this guy again?" and it was immaterial whether it was 1st or 3rd, but interesting nonetheless. Orange was plumbing perspective with it, and it felt inventive in that way.
ReplyDeleteI like your points on the shifting comments and also wonder what the shifts in, not just perspectives, but also in points of view, accomplish for the reader. I too felt disoriented, and even when I returned to a chapter who I had thought to know because of the intimate perspective, only to be shaken up. The point of view from first to third created a distance between reader and character, possibly? It felt like Tommy Orange didn't want me to feel comfortable with one character and then sympathize with them above the rest, because everyone's story matters despite their actions because they are all affected by history.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you pointed out the perspective change among different chapters of the same character, I didn't notice that. I wish I had marked the start of each chapter with the character it belongs to so that I could flip back and forth between one character's chapters.
ReplyDeleteI like how you point to disorientation as an intended effect, I think that was a good way to keep the reader working and questioning while they read the book. I found I was more grounded in time with this book, the count down to the pow wow kept me focused and gave the book momentum while the different characters complicated and, sometimes, disoriented me.