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Calvin Johnson
A fourteen-year-old Native boy. Though he is Jacquie Red Feather’s biological grandson, he and his younger brothers, Lony and Loother, are being raised by their great-aunt Opal after Jacquie found it too difficult and emotionally taxing to raise the boys her daughter Jamie left behind when she killed herself. Opal is not educating the boys in what it means to be Native, fearing there are too many risks associated with “Indianing.” Nevertheless, Orvil finds himself compelled to learn more about his people and his history, and he turns to the internet for guidance. There, Orvil learns traditional stories and dances through YouTube, and begins practicing in secret for the upcoming Big Oakland Powwow, where he hopes to enter as a dancer and win a large cash prize that could help his great-aunt work less. In the days leading up to the powwow, Orvil feels an itching sensation in a lump on his leg he’s had for years—when he scratches at it, spider legs emerge from it. This symbolic, magical happening suggests that Orvil is at last ready to emerge as a man in his culture, in spite of the ways in which he’s been held back or prevented from learning more traditionally about his heritage. Orvil is curious, smart, resourceful, and slightly mischievous, and he loves his brothers and his family fiercely.
Orvil Red Feather Quotes in There There
The There There quotes below are all either spoken by Orvil Red Feather or refer to Orvil Red Feather. 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: Orvil Red Feather (1)
Quotes
But his leg. The lump that’s been in his leg for as long as he can remember, as of late it’s been itching. He hasn’t been able to stop scratching it.
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Part III: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (2)
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Opal pulled three spider legs out of her leg the Sunday afternoon before she and Jacquie left the home, the house, the man they’d been left with after their mom left this world. There’d recently been blood from her first moon. Both the menstrual blood and the spider legs had made her feel the same kind of shame. Something was in her that came out, that seemed so creaturely, so grotesque yet magical, that the only readily available emotion she had for both occasions was shame, which led to secrecy in both cases.
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Part IV: Orvil Red Feather (2)
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“Now you young men in here, listen up. Don’t get too excited out there. That dance is your prayer. So don’t rush it, and don’t dance how you practice. There’s only one way for an Indian man to express himself. It's that dance that comes from all the way back there. All the way over there.”
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Orvil Red Feather Quotes in There There
The There There quotes below are all either spoken by Orvil Red Feather or refer to Orvil Red Feather. 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: Orvil Red Feather (1)
Quotes
But his leg. The lump that’s been in his leg for as long as he can remember, as of late it’s been itching. He hasn’t been able to stop scratching it.
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Part III: Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield (2)
Quotes
Opal pulled three spider legs out of her leg the Sunday afternoon before she and Jacquie left the home, the house, the man they’d been left with after their mom left this world. There’d recently been blood from her first moon. Both the menstrual blood and the spider legs had made her feel the same kind of shame. Something was in her that came out, that seemed so creaturely, so grotesque yet magical, that the only readily available emotion she had for both occasions was shame, which led to secrecy in both cases.
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Part IV: Orvil Red Feather (2)
Quotes
“Now you young men in here, listen up. Don’t get too excited out there. That dance is your prayer. So don’t rush it, and don’t dance how you practice. There’s only one way for an Indian man to express himself. It's that dance that comes from all the way back there. All the way over there.”
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