What does there there mean

He secures a grant to record stories from Native people in Oakland, which he will make into a project that does not put a documentary spin on their stories; he envisions an honest account of daily life that would provide the Oakland Native community a sense of shared experience. In his interview before the grant board, he explains:.

Damage narratives do little good for Native communities; they favor deficiency over resilience in order to elicit sympathy from non-Native readers. Orange balances the need for holistic representation of hardship and hope together. There is value in recognizing human struggles as both human and also as tied to the history of peoples and places.

Polyvocality serves as a world-building component of There There , constructing a sense of community out of the lives of the people. There, there. Even though you broke up with her, you'll be fine. Improve this answer. The point of having Sheldon use the phrase is that it doesn't convey comfort. It's a platitude, but he's too socially awkward to come up with anything that might actually help Penny. In the case of Radiohead's song There There, makes sense.

We can fix your broken toy. BigBen BigBen 21 1 1 bronze badge. Featured on Meta. Tommy Orange was also raised in the Oakland area, and the author has said that he identifies with all 12 of his characters in one way or another. In this novel, Orange confronts themes important to contemporary Native Americans, such as generational trauma and life as a Native American in an urban setting.

In addition, the novel explores many other concepts: storytelling and its importance to Native American culture; coincidence, fate, and the interconnectedness of all things; violence; substance abuse and addiction; personal identity versus cultural identity; the concept of home.

The first character we meet, Tony Loneman, is the darkest, a year-old drifter affected by foetal alcohol syndrome. It is his determination to rob the Big Oakland Powwow that gives the book its central narrative, and builds to a violent and unsettling ending that reflects the way in which the exchange of bullets has remained part of American life.

Yet many of the other strands are lighter and more optimistic, encapsulating the breadth of human experience. The would-be documentarian Dene Oxendene is awarded a grant to film first-hand accounts of the Native American experience.