Abigail BaldwinJose AlamoKathy TranKatie Tran

Michael Dorris

A Yellow Raft in Blue

Water

RayonaRayona’s alertness and capacity for observation, cause her to draw conclusions about people based solely on their actions, without taking situations into account. Rayona is constantly trying to find her place in the world. It is more difficult since she lacks information of her heritage. Since she has little sense of self, and forms opinion of herself based on what others think of her. She wants to find a functional family, such as the one on the letter she found.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Christine To Rayona, Christine appears to be irrational and

irresponsible. But in Christine’s part of the story, her behavior is more understandable.

Her main problem in relations is her ability to translate her feelings into actions. Another reason she has is a problem with Rayona. Christine passes through different stages: brave and bold, then very religious and finally reckless.

Since Christine doesn’t make a good transition from being the life of a party to being a mother she doesn’t, fulfill the role of a mother that Rayona expects.

Ones Christine finds out she will die, she starts acting like a mother.

Both the city and reservation shape her personality.

Aunt IdaMost mysterious of the novel.Christine and Rayona both know of the world she’s created

for them, but nothing of the family before.Commits herself to withdrawing from the world, and refuses

to interact (except on her own terms), due to such betrayal by the people she trusted.

Her silence creates confusion & misunderstanding in the lives of her children.

Ida is an old woman, but her emotions have never grown/changed with her. She states herself, “I never grew up, but I got old.”

She spends everyday doing the same things and doesn’t want to be emotionally attached to anyone.

To understand Christine and Rayona’s stories, we must read Aunt Ida’s.

Other Characters• Lecon – Ida’s father, who has an affair with Clara

and results in the birth of Christine.• Clara – Christine's biological mom, but also Ida’s

aunt.• Dayton – Lee’s bestfriend• Lee – Ida’s actual son she had with Willard.• Sky – The owner of a gas station that helps

Rayona• Evelyn – Skys wife and cook at Bearpaw lake.• Elgin Taylor – Christine’s husband and Rayonas

father

Rayona’s PartStarts in the hospital: Rayona visiting her mother

Christine, then Elgin comes and gets in an argument with Christine.

Christine says she’s going to crash the car so Rayona can collect the life insurance.

Rayona and Christine decide drive to the reservation where Christine grew up in Montana to see Aunt Ida.

Aunt Ida wasn’t happy to see Christine so she abandoned Rayona there.

Rayona doesn’t enjoy the reservation, only place Rayona gets attention is from the local mission where Father Tom persuades her to join the God Squad.

PLOT

She goes to a Religious Jamboree with Father tom, but before they go swimming and Father Tom tries to get closer to her, and embarrassed decides they should leave.

Rayona persuades him to let her go to Seattle, she doesn’t. Meets Sky and his wife Evelyn, gives her a job at Bearpaw Lake State park.

She ends up staying for the summer with them, and makes up family history, but once Evelyn finds out she is lying, she tells her story. They immediately wan to take her back to the reservation but they go to a local rodeo.

At the rodeo she takes Roxy Cree's place in riding since he's too drunk. She wins an award for her persistence.

The horse she rode was Dayton's, who takes her home to Christine and they argue right away. Next morning they make up and she tells Rayona her story of when she thought the world would end.

Tw Cen MT (Body)

ChristineChristine’s story begins after the night the world

did not end.Christine is very daring, until one day she loses

her nerve attempting to cross a natural bridge.A boy named Dayton moves to the reservation

and follows Lee around, Christine decides she likes him and tries to get at him, but Dayton rejects her because he thinks of her as a sister.

After high school, she works in the tribal council and goes out with many boys. She goes to live with Ida’s sister Pauline because she got in an argument with Ida.

ChristineDraft for the Vietnam war begins, she persuades

Dayton to persuade Lee to enroll because it will hurt her reputation and his chance to be the leader of the reservation.

She leaves to Seattle, goes through many jobs.Meets Elgin at a bar, and begins a relationship with

him. Later she is pregnant and gets married to Elgin. After marriage they grow further apart.

Right before Rayona was born, she was informed Lee was confirmed dead.

At the funeral, everyone blames her for Lee’s death.Christine returns to Seattle, and her doctor informed

her she had 6 months to live.Then the scene with Rayona starts again. She acts

normal.

Ida’s Part• Starts as Ida as a young girl. Mother becomes sick and her aunt Clara comes and helps

around the house.• One day, Ida comes home to see her mother arguing with Clara. Clara is pregnant with Lecon.• Lecon worries about the shame it will bring, so they take her to the motherhouse in Denver

and Ida will claim it.• Ida takes care of Christine for a while, Clara wants to take her away for adoption but Ida

refuses and legally adopts her.• Ida’s mother dies, her father runs off, and her sister gets married so she’s left alone.• Ida’s crush Willard Pretty Dog returns from World War II. His face is disfigured because of a

land mine. They end up living together in a relationship.• Willards surgery bring back his good looks. His mother tells him to leave Ida now that he can

get any girl he wants.• Ida leaves him after she hears him say that although she is not pretty nor smart, she is loyal.• Ida is pregnant with Willards baby. When the baby is born it’s named Lee.• One day Lee comes bragging home that he saved Christine as she attempted to cross a

natural bridge.• When the prediction that the world would end on new years of 1960, Ida humors Christine and

follows her instructions in preparing for the apocalypse.• New years morning, Father Hulbert stops by and the two go upstairs, and Ida begins to braid

her hair.

Ellen’s Letter: It become Rayona’s symbol of the perfect family. She threw it away when she was at dinner with her mother weeks later, a sign that she has finally found peace in her family

Braids: references to braids are made though out the novel. They symbolize the lives of different family’s members. (Different parts of the story can overlap and form a more complete picture.)

SYMBOLS

Finding a true identityFinding ones place in life is a crucial element of growing up. Growing up is a part of each persons story, and all three women in this story struggled to belong.

THEME

“If you had told me, three years before, that at twenty-five I’d be living in Tacoma, engaged to a black veteran, carrying his child of my own will, ready to settle down-I’d have laughed in your face. And if you told me that nine months later in the Seattle HIS hospital I’d give birth, married, halfway deserted, and near broke, to a slim, dark girl, as unlike me as a baby could be, I wouldn’t have believed it. (pg. 185)”

AUTHOR’S STYLE

When comparing A Yellow Raft in Blue Water to the book Fences, you see many similarities in their family conflicts.

Christine grew up without a loving mother, and in turn treated her daughter Rayona poorly, causing another generation of family problems.

Troy also grew up without a loving father, and took out his anger on his son Cory, leaving Cory emotionally scarred and unable to do what he truly wanted to in life.

In both stories, the family conflicts grew larger as issues were not addressed properly.

OUTSIDE CONNECTIONS