Orvil Red Feather Character Analysis in There There

A fourteen-year-old Native boy. Though he is Jacquie Red Feather’s biological grandson, he and his younger brothers, Lony and Loother, are being raised by their great-aunt Opal after Jacquie found it too difficult and emotionally taxing to raise the boys her daughter Jamie left behind when she killed herself. Opal is not educating the boys in what it means to be Native, fearing there are too many risks associated with “Indianing.” Nevertheless, Orvil finds himself compelled to learn more about his people and his history, and he turns to the internet for guidance. There, Orvil learns traditional stories and dances through YouTube, and begins practicing in secret for the upcoming Big Oakland Powwow, where he hopes to enter as a dancer and win a large cash prize that could help his great-aunt work less. In the days leading up to the powwow, Orvil feels an itching sensation in a lump on his leg he’s had for years—when he scratches at it, spider legs emerge from it. This symbolic, magical happening suggests that Orvil is at last ready to emerge as a man in his culture, in spite of the ways in which he’s been held back or prevented from learning more traditionally about his heritage. Orvil is curious, smart, resourceful, and slightly mischievous, and he loves his brothers and his family fiercely.

Orvil Red Feather Quotes in There There

The There There quotes below are all either spoken by Orvil Red Feather or refer to Orvil Red Feather. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Cultural Identity vs. Personal Identity Theme Icon

But his leg. The lump that’s been in his leg for as long as he can remember, as of late it’s been itching. He hasn’t been able to stop scratching it.

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Page Number and Citation: 125

Explanation and Analysis:

Opal pulled three spider legs out of her leg the Sunday afternoon before she and Jacquie left the home, the house, the man they’d been left with after their mom left this world. There’d recently been blood from her first moon. Both the menstrual blood and the spider legs had made her feel the same kind of shame. Something was in her that came out, that seemed so creaturely, so grotesque yet magical, that the only readily available emotion she had for both occasions was shame, which led to secrecy in both cases.

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Page Number and Citation: 165

Explanation and Analysis:

“Now you young men in here, listen up. Don’t get too excited out there. That dance is your prayer. So don’t rush it, and don’t dance how you practice. There’s only one way for an Indian man to express himself. It's that dance that comes from all the way back there. All the way over there.”

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Page Number and Citation: 231

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Orvil Red Feather Character Timeline in There There

The timeline below shows where the character Orvil Red Feather appears in There There. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...tops of her feet. Jacquie’s phone vibrates with a text from Opal—the text states that Orvil, one of Jacquie’s grandsons, “found spider legs in his leg.” Opal says that the boys... (full context)

Orvil Red Feather stands in his great-aunt Opal’s room, using her full-length mirror to examine himself.... (full context)

Orvil knows that he and his brothers were the unwanted children of a heroin-addict mother, given... (full context)

Now, standing in the too-small, itchy regalia, Orvil feels out of place and underwhelmed. He has learned everything he’s learned about being Indian... (full context)

Orvil, Lony, and Loother stop at the Indian Center on their way to get Lony a... (full context)

Orvil and his brothers leave the Indian Center with a gift card for $200. As they... (full context)

...the brothers ride together down the streets of Oakland, listening to rap music even though Orvil’s favorite thing to listen to is powwow music. When they stop for a rest, they... (full context)

The day of the powwow, Orvil and his brothers sneak out of the house quickly to avoid confronting Opal about where... (full context)

...enough money to purchase Indian tacos—tacos made with fry bread—as a treat. At the entrance, Orvil realizes that Loother has forgotten to bring a bike lock, and so the boys hide... (full context)

...the things she’s seen throughout the years. She remembers one time, soon after she’d adopted Orvil and his brothers, Orvil became spooked by his own reflection in a department store, and... (full context)

Yesterday, a message from Orvil stating that he’d pulled spider legs out of a lump in his leg rattled Opal.... (full context)

...during one of her routine checks of all the boys’ smartphones, Opal found a video Orvil took of himself powwow dancing in his room. She was shocked to see how good... (full context)

Last night at dinner, Opal did not tell Orvil or the other boys about the time when she, as a young woman, pulled spider... (full context)

The coliseum is packed with people and vendors—the entire field is covered. Orvil and his brothers buy themselves some Indian tacos and go up into the stands to... (full context)

In the locker room, Orvil slowly and carefully puts on his regalia. One of the larger men in the room... (full context)

Out on the field for the Grand Entry dance—an unjudged portion of the competition—Orvil looks around at all the other men in regalia, he feels inspired and excited. He... (full context)

...old. Jacquie absentmindedly looks down a list of dance competitors, and freezes when she sees Orvil’s name on it. She takes out her phone and texts Opal. (full context)

Loother and Lony walk around the field looking for Orvil, bored of sitting up in the stands. Drawn to the sound of the singing in... (full context)

Orvil hears the shots as he is walking onto the field for another round of dancing,... (full context)

...stadium, Opal runs downstairs to the main level. She pulls her phone out and calls Orvil, but gets no answer. She calls Loother, and though she gets through, the reception is... (full context)

...of bullets, and sees lots of bodies on the ground. Jacquie is determined to find Orvil. She wonders briefly if what’s happening is a “performance-art piece”—all the still bodies on the... (full context)

...shooters, and then quickly scans the bodies all around her, looking for the colors of Orvil’s regalia. She spots it, and sees him lying on the ground—she walks towards him, even... (full context)

Opal tells herself, over and over, that Orvil is going to pull through and make it. As Opal looks over at her sister,... (full context)

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Orvil Red Feather Character Analysis

Orvil Red Feather Quotes in There There

Orvil Red Feather Character Timeline in There There

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