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Edwin Black
A native man on the powwow committee at the local Indian Center in Oakland. Calvin is living with his sister, Maggie, and his niece, Sonny, when his brother, Charles, comes to him for help—Charles is in over his head with some drug dealers, and hopes that getting Calvin involved will take the pressure off of him. Calvin, too, soon finds himself dealing with more than he bargained for when he becomes part of Charles’s dealer Octavio’s plot to rob the Big Oakland Powwow. Calvin provides the group with essential information about the powwow’s setup and how the cash prizes are being stored. He betrays his own people in hopes of helping his family and indeed himself, and is ultimately wounded—perhaps even killed—when the scheme at the powwow takes a terrible turn. Calvin represents the cyclical nature of trauma and violence, and the ways in which oppression and desperation lead people to betray the ones they should stand with, and do horrible things in the process.
Calvin Johnson Quotes in There There
The There There quotes below are all either spoken by Calvin Johnson or refer to Calvin Johnson. 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:
).
Part II: Calvin Johnson (2)
Quotes
Dene starts to say something about storytelling, some real heady shit, so Calvin tunes out. He doesn’t know what he’s gonna say when it comes around to him. He’d been put in charge of finding younger vendors, to support young Native artists and entrepreneurs. But he hadn’t done shit.
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Part IV: Dene Oxendene (4)
Quotes
He crawls out through the black curtains. For a second the brightness of the day blinds him. He rubs his eyes and sees across from him something that doesn’t make any sense for more than one reason. Calvin Johnson, from the powwow committee, is firing a white gun at a guy on the ground, and two other guys are shooting on his left and right. One of them is in regalia. Dene gets on his stomach. He should have stayed under his collapsed booth.
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Part IV: Calvin Johnson (4)
Quotes
[Calvin] looks over to Tony, who’s bouncing a little—he’s light on his feet like he’s ready to dance. Tony’s supposed to do the actual robbing. The rest of them are there in case anything goes wrong. Octavio never explained why he wants Tony in regalia, and why he should be the one to take the money. Calvin assumes it’s because someone in regalia would be harder to identify, and ultimately harder to investigate.
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Get the entire There There LitChart as a printable PDF.
Calvin Johnson Quotes in There There
The There There quotes below are all either spoken by Calvin Johnson or refer to Calvin Johnson. 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:
).
Part II: Calvin Johnson (2)
Quotes
Dene starts to say something about storytelling, some real heady shit, so Calvin tunes out. He doesn’t know what he’s gonna say when it comes around to him. He’d been put in charge of finding younger vendors, to support young Native artists and entrepreneurs. But he hadn’t done shit.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV: Dene Oxendene (4)
Quotes
He crawls out through the black curtains. For a second the brightness of the day blinds him. He rubs his eyes and sees across from him something that doesn’t make any sense for more than one reason. Calvin Johnson, from the powwow committee, is firing a white gun at a guy on the ground, and two other guys are shooting on his left and right. One of them is in regalia. Dene gets on his stomach. He should have stayed under his collapsed booth.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV: Calvin Johnson (4)
Quotes
[Calvin] looks over to Tony, who’s bouncing a little—he’s light on his feet like he’s ready to dance. Tony’s supposed to do the actual robbing. The rest of them are there in case anything goes wrong. Octavio never explained why he wants Tony in regalia, and why he should be the one to take the money. Calvin assumes it’s because someone in regalia would be harder to identify, and ultimately harder to investigate.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
