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
Edwin hands Blue her coffee, and together they walk excitedly to the car. Edwin thinks about the “countless hours” he, Blue, and the rest of the committee have put in as they’ve worked towards the powwow. The committee has been more than a job for Edwin—it has become a “new life.”
When readers first met Edwin, he was a total recluse cut off from the world and engaging in many unhealthy behaviors. His connection to his culture and community has enlivened him and helped him to feel more confidence in who he is.
Themes
On the drive to the coliseum, Edwin begins telling Blue about the new story he’s writing about a Native guy who lives in a nice big apartment in downtown Oakland which gradually becomes overtaken by squatters, the friends of a white guy whom the main character has become friends with. After Edwin finishes relaying the plot he becomes embarrassed, and tells Blue the story sounded better in his own head. Blue assures Edwin that the story sounds good and true to life—she says that white people’s culture is “taking over.”
Edwin’s story is a modern take on the ways in which white people invade, commodify, and erase indigenous peoples and culture. Though Edwin knows these patterns to be true, he’s still nervous to share his worldview—but Blue confirms that Edwin is telling a story that is worthy and important.
Themes
At the coliseum, Edwin and Blue set up their booth. Once it’s finished, Blue asks Edwin whether they should get out the safe full of Visa gift card prizes now or later. Edwin says they should get it now, so that it’s not a hassle later in the chaos of all the prize-winning. Edwin and Blue go together to Blue’s car to retrieve the heavy safe. Blue worries, as they carry it back inside, that the gift cards are a little too “flashy,” but Edwin points out that “powwows are all about flash.”
Blue and Edwin are, in this passage, making a pivotal decision which will alter the course of many lives—though they don’t yet know how this decision is connected to the plans and divisions of others.
Themes
