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Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
There There is set in and throughout Oakland, California. The novel's title comes from the famous Gertrude Stein quotation about Oakland from her 1937 memoir Everybody's Autobiography: "there's no there there." This line describes the common belief that Oakland, like many major cities, has changed so much over the decades that any original core of the city is gone. Orange's novel argues that there is a "there there" in Oakland by depicting its Native residents, as well as those just native to Oakland.
Given the novel's many characters and stories, there are a variety of settings that appear within Oakland. Tony Loneman lives in a small apartment but travels all over town, "from West to East to Deep East and back," by bike, bus, or BART train. Opal and Jacquie spend weeks on Alcatraz, an island in San Francisco Bay, during the Native occupation of its famous prison in 1969. Bill Davis works the Oakland Coliseum, an important city landmark once home to the city's sports teams. Calvin Johnson works at the large Indian Center, which hosts the (fictional) Big Oakland Powwow, which is the scene for most of Part IV. In addition to these urban locations, the novel visits many different homes in various levels of familial and personal dysfunction. These range from Daniel Gonzales's strained relationship with his mother after the death of his brother Manny and Edwin Black's messy room caused by his lack of motivation and internet addiction. These many different settings serve to advance the novel's description of the various lives experienced by Native Americans in Oakland.
The novel seems to be set in the late 2000s or early 2010s, though the timeframe is not specific. There are two musical references at the beginning of the novel: the songs "Rhinestone Cowboy" by MF Doom from the album Madvillainy (2004) and "There, There" by Radiohead from the album Hail to the Thief (2003). This would indicate the novel might be set sometime around the early 2000s. However, high-quality at-home plastic 3D printing, a major plot point in the novel, was only available in the early 2010s. Opal's age in the later chapters is never specified, but given that she was 12 in 1969, this also aligns with an approximate early 2000s timeline. Generally, the historical setting is not especially relevant: the Native stories told throughout, as well as the violence at the novel's conclusion, have been common features of American society for decades, if not centuries.
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