Jalen's World Lit Blog

     One important question that There, There examines is the idea of Indigenous individualism versus collectivism. Many characters in the novel have trouble reconciling their modern, urban lifestyle with that of their Native culture. Efforts like the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 are probably largely responsible for this, since they tried to assimilate Native peoples into more urban American society. You can see this struggle in a lot of characters, like Octavio, who do not 'feel' Native. There is a crisis of identity for a lot of the characters, since they cannot identify fully with Native culture, while also feeling that they are outside of urban culture in a sense, too, since they will always be viewed as Native.     The very land in which the characters call home represents this conflicting duality of identity. Oakland is their heritage. Many of them have ties to the land because of their Native ancestry. This conflicts with their urban identity in some way...

Spider legs are consistently mentioned in There, There . Less important than the literal meaning of the spider legs being found in Jacquie’s grandson's leg is what it means for the Indigenous people as they exist within modern society.  Jacquie’s thoughts on the spider, that its web is a “home and a trap” is important to understanding this symbol. She then compares the spider Veho to the white man, the people who stole her land and culture from her. The spider represents the struggle of Indigenous people, how their homeland has simultaneously become a trap for them because of the oppression they face. The spider legs, then, could represent her grandson’s maturity and how he is finally coming into understanding of the system in which he lives. Maybe they are spiders because they recognize that the web is a trap and try to maneuver through it. Jacquie also has a tattoo of spiderwebs on her feet. This could represent how she feels about the spiderweb dynamic that her home has. She kno...

       Microlecture #2 exposed me to a lot of new Indigenous art and literature that I had not yet seen. It is not often in our history classes that we discuss the actual culture of the Indigenous tribes that we learn about. Even when we do, it is more so about their religion and societal structure, from my experience, than any art or literature they actually produced, and what it may mean. The texts are very different from the books we use today, containing pictures drawn on animal hides and other materials. It was also neat to learn the cultural context behind some of the works, and what made them significant to the people that made them.      This tied into There, There in a few ways. I think the discussion of Indigenous stories and art has been mitigated and largely ignored by United States and the people that came to inhabit this land. There is a clear theme of story-telling being crucial in the novel. Dene Oxendende's commitment to telling his pe...

      My final project is going okay. I really have not had the most time recently, so I have not done a ton of research yet. My theme is rebellion and revolution and its portrayal within dramas and theatre, and, as such, I have several plays from different cultures lined up as research. I think the theme is specific enough that it is not too broad, but the themes like rebellion and the medium of theatre is honed-in enough that I will be able to pull out some valuable takeaways from the research and project in the end.     I do enjoy the multicultural aspect of this project (and class in general). So much of our education in literature and social studies deals in primarily Western works. To have this opportunity to explore not just literature from other cultures, but plays specifically, will certainly open a whole new world of literature to me, which is exciting within itself. It is nice to see the universal human experience- it adds a sense of relatability to o...