A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER By: Michael Dorris

 A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER

By: Michael Dorris

 A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER  By: Michael Dorris

Book Summary

A Yellow Raft on Blue Water is the story of the lives of three women, three narrative threads that, intertwined, form the narrative story of the lives of Ida, her daughter Christine, and Christine's daughter Radiated. Divided into three distinct but interconnected sections, each narrated by one of the female leads, Dorris's novel explores the perceptions and misperceptions that define each woman's quest for identity.

Also read :Analysis of "Middlemarch" by George Eliot Introduction

If counted linearly, Dorris's text would read as follows. Ida, a young Indian girl raised on a reservation in Montana, faces a crisis in her life and that of her family when Clara, her mother's sister and therefore Ida's aunt, has a sexual affair with her brother-in-law, Lecon, her mother's husband and Ida's father. Clara becomes pregnant with Lecon's child, and to cover up the illicit affair, Ida agrees to accept Clara and Lecon's child as her own.

When the child, named Christine, is born, Ida takes full responsibility for raising him. She even obtains a legal decree declaring that Christine is legally hers. Four years after Christine's birth, Ida has a brief sexual relationship with Willard Pretty Dog and becomes pregnant with her child, whom she names Lee. Christine and Lee have a very close sister-brother relationship, each leaning on one another for emotional support. However, as young adults, Christine emotionally blackmails Lee into enlisting in the Army during the Vietnam War; Lee's best friend and Christine's rival for Lee's attention, Dayton, opposes Lee's enlistment.

Also read :George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda"

Christine moves out of Ida's house and books her to Seattle, moving from one menial job to another. She is devastated when she receives a letter from Dayton saying that Lee is missing. To console herself, she goes to a bar, where she meets a black soldier named Elgin. The two hit it off immediately and move in together, despite Elgin being away from home due to his military duties at the base. When Elgin is discharged from the military, he and Christine begin what at first glance seems like a meaningful life together. However, Christine gets pregnant, she and Elgin get married, and then Elgin starts staying up late after work and often doesn't even come home at night. He is having an affair and Christine knows it. They both decide that their on-and-off relationship works better after deciding to live apart.

Also read :Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Christine gives birth to a girl, whom she names Rayona, immediately after learning from another letter from Dayton that her brother, Lee, was killed in Vietnam. Devastated by this news, she and Rayona return to the reservation for Lee's funeral. She and Ida, who has always demanded that her children call her Aunt Ida, argue bitterly, as they did when Christine was growing up. After Christine and Rayona return to Seattle, Christine decides that her life is worthless and she determines that Rayona would have a better chance of being happy if she lived with Aunt Ida. Christine and Rayona go to Ida's house on the reservation again, where Christine essentially abandons Rayona at Aunt Ida's. Christine moves in with Dayton, and the two assume an existence as "an elderly married couple".

Meanwhile, Rayona decides that she hates living with her grandmother, Aunt Ida, and leaves for Seattle, but not before a Catholic priest on the reservation, Father Tom, sexually assaults her. Rayona takes refuge in Bearpaw Lake, a park where she works as a garbage collector. At Bearpaw Lake, she meets Evelyn and Sky, a married couple who welcome Rayona into her home and accept her for who she is without question. But Evelyn and Sky eventually find out about Rayona's past and her strained relationship with her mother. To her credit, Rayona is taken to a rodeo held near the Montana reservation where Ida and now Christine live. At the rodeo, Rayona plucks up her courage and rides a wild horse, which is owned by Dayton.

Also read :George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"

After the rodeo, Rayona says goodbye to Evelyn and Sky and returns home to Dayton, where she once again confronts her mother, Christine. Rayona and Christine come to understand each other better than ever, symbolized by Christine giving Rayona one of her favorite rings. Also, although Dorris doesn't say so explicitly, Christine and Aunt Ida also understand each other better.

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