Please answer two of the questions below about There, There:


3)  Why does Tony decide to turn against the other members of the robbery? Be specific and make references to the text.

  Tony turning on the other members of the robbery happens over two chapters, but there is somewhat of a buildup throughout the novel. We can see right from the start of the book, in Tony's first chapter, that despite all the challenges that he faces and the complexity of his situation, he seems to make an effort to be a good person. He mentions his fetal alcohol syndrome, drome, which most likely affects his ability to hold down a stable job, and it's hard to imagine he is in a good financial situation, mentioning that he has been selling weed since he was 13 years old. When Tony mentions, "No matter how many times Maxine moved me from schools I got suspended from for getting in fights, it's always the same. I get mad then I don't know anything" it seems to me that he regrets getting in these fights, or at least Orange is painting him to be a sympathetic character. He also makes an eerie prediction, "Maybe I'm'a do something one day, and everybody's gonna know about me." Based on all this when Tony, who's supposed to be the one doing the robbing at the powwow, turns around last second, it's not that surprising to the reader. Tony simply backs out of the robbery, and it is very important to note that he is not the first member of the group to turn on the others, in my opinion. 
  Octavio steps up instinctually, but this is where things go wrong, and the horror starts to unfold. Charles turns on Octavio, wanting the take the money for himself, and as Octavio throws him the bag of gift cards, he shoots Charles, and bullets start flying from every direction. Tony sees, "a kid in regalia get shot behind Charles" we know this is Orvil; this is when Tony turns against the other members. Even though he has been painted as a "low intelligence" character throughout the whole novel, he is the only one who thinks about how the bullets Charles is firing are hitting innocent people. In an act I thought was extremely heroic and moving, Tony charges through gunfire at Charles, tackles him, and shoots him in the head, preventing him from hurting more innocent people. At the beginning of the book, Tony mentions, "My face heats up and hardens like it's made of metal... I'm a big guy. And I'm strong" as he is dying in a callback to this and the foreshadowing, I mentioned earlier he says, "We're made of metal, made hard, able to take it. We were made to transform. So if you get a chance to die, to save someone else, you take it. Every time." Although this quote comes from him playing with an Optimus Prime action figure in the bathtub, it's still very powerful, and it connects to the exact moment he decides to turn on Charles, "Charles keeps shooting at him and missing. Tony knows this means he might be hitting other people behind him, and his face gets hot. A kind of hardening is happening all over his body. Tony knows this feeling." To me, it felt more like Tony realized that innocent people were getting hurt, and he acted out of instinct to save them; he didn’t decide to turn on the group members; he just acted and did something heroic.


4)  The final section of the novel is told mostly through short chapters, switching from character to character as the tragedy at the pow wow is revealed. What effect does the shortness of the chapters have and why did Orange continue to change the perspective by narrating the events through the eyes of different characters, some who do not survive? Be specific and make references to the text.

  The shortness of the chapters in the final section of the novel allow for the reader to feel like they're in the middle of the chaos unfolding at the powwow, as well as allow the reader to keep track of what each character is doing in the moments leading up to and during the shooting. Since the events that day seemed to all happen very quickly it makes sense that these chapters are short. Orange is able to create a lot of suspense switching perspectives, for instance Orvil is already under a lot of pressure with his dance as well as Blue, Edwin, Jacquie, and Harvey who are all about to have a very unplanned family reunion. Characters like these are all about to have their lives perspectives changed in brief moments, even if hypothetically the shooting wasn't about to happen. This is all the while the reader is aware that something horrible is about to go down, and as people start getting gunned down we see it from the innocent bystanders perspective first and we are left wondering what happened to our 'villain' characters plan and how it went so wrong. The first evidence we see that something is going wrong is when Thomas notices people yelling, then Loother and Lony notice it too. We then go back in time a little bit as there is already a lot of suspense that something has not gone right with the robbery, Cutting back to Blue's perspective she says, "These guys keep getting closer to the table. Kind of creeping up. She ask herself again: Who would rob a powwow?"
  Now we have the information that something has not gone to plan with the robbery based on people screaming, and then we find out that Blue noticed people are creeping up toward the safe. Orange creates suspense by giving us just enough info to infer danger, making us wonder what happened, and then goes back in time to illuminate the situation further. The sense of wonder he is able to create made me read these chapters very quickly, and by keeping them short the reader is able to keep track of details more carefully as we are not being overloaded with information. He does this multiple times, as what happens next is "A bullet whizzes through the booth" Dene is in, and "Orvil breaks out into a run when he hears a boom that fills his body with a sound so low it pulls him to the ground." Following this we get to Calvin's chapter where we begin to get a really good picture of what exactly went wrong. Again we are back in time, "he's standing behind Blue and Edwin" Orange is filling in the blank spaces left in Blue's chapter, "Calvin sees a kid in regalia go down ten or so feet behind Charles" he then fills in the blank spaces left in Orvil's chapter. This is a very effective way to create suspense and keep the reader engaged, and even in this chapter where everything is beginning to become clear he leaves us with a cliffhanger concerning Tony.

