Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in There There, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Identity vs. Personal Identity
Storytelling
Interconnectedness, Coincidence, and Chance
Generational Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Blue and Edwin escape the coliseum and get all the way to Blue’s car. Edwin is out of breath and pale as they get into the car—he’s been shot. Blue straps him in and immediately begins driving to the hospital. Even though Edwin is slumped over in pain, Blue implores him to hold some spare powwow t-shirts against his stomach to stanch the bleeding. Edwin says he believes the bullet has gone through him and out his back.
Blue and Edwin stick together in the midst of all the chaos. Though Blue has recently half-realized that she and Edwin are kin, this new development doesn’t matter—before she knew the truth behind their connection, she supported and cared for him as if he were her own brother.
Themes
By the time Blue pulls up to the hospital, Edwin is unconscious. She runs inside to get someone to come out and help, and as she comes back out accompanied by an aide, she sees a car full of people pull up. The doors open, and Harvey, Jacquie, and several other people—one of them a wounded, unconscious teenager—pour out of the car. Jacquie places the boy in her arms on the stretcher, and Harvey helps Blue take Edwin out of the car. Together they help him inside, where two orderlies put Edwin on a gurney and rush him away.
The chaos at the hospital as everyone scrambles to ensure their loved ones are properly cared for shows just how desperate things are for marginalized people in situations like this one—their pain is so often overlooked that there is a mad dash to ensure that no one is left behind.
Themes
Blue sits next to Jacquie in the waiting area. She wishes she could say something to her, but has no idea what it could be. She looks at Harvey, and is amazed by how much Edwin and Harvey look alike. She wonders if Harvey and Jacquie are together—and if they are, whether Harvey is her father, too.
Blue is burning with questions about the people around her and how they’re all connected to her—but the trauma of the present moment keeps her silent, so close and yet so far from learning the full truth about herself she’s been seeking for years.
Themes
