Symbolism In A Yellow Raft In Blue Water

In the initial chapters of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, there is no reference to the novel’s title. However, as the plot progresses, both the yellow raft and the color yellow become integral symbols for both Rayona and Christine. For Rayona, the color yellow and the yellow raft are a symbol for peace, security, escape, and perfection. Rayona leaves Father Tom on the shore, swims out to the raft and suns herself. The raft is said to broaden her universe, one which contains racism and a feeling of not fitting in. “I pull myself over the side and lie on the sun-warmed dry boards, panting and soaking up the heat. The silence is wide as the sky,” (59). Still, the peace that Rayona comes to know on the raft is destroyed by Father Tom’s arrival.

After Father Tom’s sexual assault, Rayona realizes the raft deceived her into feeling safe. “I roll onto my back. It’s still the same day and the sky is blue.” (61). The same sky which brought Rayona peace, did not prevent Father Tom from disrupting it. Father Tom’s advances represent how the raft is deceptive; it provides false security, as she is just as vulnerable on the raft as anywhere else.

The yellow raft also represents an escape in Rayona’s eyes. When she initially sees Ellen Demarco diving from the raft, she begins to emulate Ellen’s life as her own. This, however, proves unhealthy for Rayona. She finds shelter in an imaginary world where she leads the perfect life she wants to live; the life she believes Ellen has. “She hoists herself onto the yellow boards in one smooth, strong motion. Her hair is black and long, and shines like a seal’s fur in the sun. Her skin is tan and her suit clings to every curve and movement of her body.” (89). Ellen on the raft represents perfection, which Rayona falls short of. Rayona fears looking too long, as she might find an imperfection. “I’m afraid to see anything more, something out of place, something to ruin the picture. . . . In that moment she’s everything I’m not but ought to be.” (89). The raft represents everything she wishes to be but is not. Rayona’s poor self-image is harmful for her and the yellow raft reinforces that attribute.

Rayona also uses the color yellow when depicting her ‘perfect family’ in her mind when she reads the discarded scrap of Ellen’s letter.

“She wears her yellow sleeveless top that I gave her for her birthday last year.” (103.) Even when Rayona dreams of her perfect life, it includes her mother and the people she loves. Rayona does not wish for a perfect family to appear for her, she wants her family to become perfect. Even as she tries to imagine Ellen’s family in the roles of the letter she cannot, she can only imagine her own family. “I try to picture Mrs. DeMarco using a green felt-tipped pen at the kitchen table in their house wherever it was. I look through her eyes out the door and try to see Mr. DeMarco in his blue suit and tie, cutting the grass. And I can’t. They don’t fit the letter that I’ve heard again and again in my Mom’s voice, It’s Mom I’ve imagined.” (103). Yellow represents her dream for the family she does not

have.

The false security the yellow raft provided for Rayona continues to deteriorate at the beginning of Chapter Seven when Rayona confronts the false life she created. At the beginning of the chapter she tells Evelyn her true story. Revealing who she is makes her life a reality for herself. Even before she tells Evelyn her true story though, Rayona tries to deny who she is one last time, relying on the yellow raft to help her. "I'm stopped, halfway down the trail, with my eyes fixed on the empty yellow raft floating in the blue waters of Bearpaw Lake. Somewhere in my mind I've decided that if I stare at it hard enough it will launch me out of my present troubles."(104) The yellow raft is a trap for Rayona, it represents an illusion to her that isn't real. By telling Evelyn her story she is able to finally accept her reality.

The color yellow is initially associated with failure for Christine but near the end of her narrative portion, it represents peace which she eventually finds in her own self and the rest of the world. During Christine's childhood she must endure the difficulty of crossing a natural stone bridge which is yellow, something she dares her self to do. "I laughed at him and thought it was an easy thing, but once I climbed I saw that the yellow rock was so thin and cracked it could break in a fast wind." (147). She is unable to cross the bridge all by herself, so her brother Lee comes to her side to help her. This was the first time she felt failure and from this point forward she began to lead a more reckless life.

However at the end of her narrative portion, after Christine rebuilds her relationships with Ida, Dayton, Rayona, and the memory of Lee, The color yellow begins to symbolize the peace of mind Christine longed for throughout her entire life. Reunited with her daughter, the two return home to Dayton's after having a meal. During lunch, Christine privately acknowledges her errors and the hurt she has caused those she cares for. After she gives Rayona her turtle ring, Christine puts on a pair of yellow tinted sunglasses on the ride home. “When I put them on, they turn the world as yellow as an old photograph." (293). The phrase "old photograph" represents Christine coming to terms with her past and letting it go. It represents peace but not in the way that the yellow raft represented peace for Rayona. The peace Christine feels is authentic, a peace that means from here on out everything will work out for the better.

Theme One: understanding different perspectives

A common pattern in the novel is misunderstanding between each of the primary characters. The author, Michael Dorris, puts his readers in the unusual position of understanding both sides of many arguments throughout the book because of the unique style it’s written in. The three different storylines, Rayona’s, Christine’s, and Ida’s, often report on the same events, but from different perspectives. The misunderstandings that result can be remarkably dramatic, altering their course of life at times. The striking difference in perspective first occurs in the initial chapters of the novel when Rayona is visiting Christine in the hospital. “I don’t react enough to suit Mom, so she sticks her face right under mine and yells up at me. "It's common knowledge. She's hanging off him in every bar in this town. He might as well take me out and shoot me and get it over with."" (11). From Rayona's perspective, Christine's actions seem irresponsible, irrational, and melodramatic. However, when Christine describes the same situation and her portion of the novel, her reaction becomes more understandable. Learning she has six months to live, Christine feels hurt by the lack of support from both her ex-husband and her daughter. ""He killed me!" I yelled into Rayona's face, but of course she still didn't get it. She thought I was unbalanced, off the deep end. I tried to see it from her side, but I couldn't. I had hit bottom and found myself alone. You had to have lived my life to understand it." (242). Christine understands that it must be difficult for Rayona to comprehend Christine's actions, but she cannot articulate to Rayona the motivations behind her actions are.

The misunderstandings of different perspectives also affect how Ida is believed to be. In both Christine and Rayona's eyes, Ida comes off as a very resentful and cold woman; Ida herself admits that this is an apt description. If Rayona and Christine were to understand Ida's history, then they would understand where her coldness originates from and likely be much more understanding. Dorris chooses to depict the events which define the characters lives and decide what their personalities will be in the novel. In the case of both Ida and Christine, they both choose to keep these events secret, leading to resentment and misunderstanding between the three women. Only when readers understand all three perspectives of the novel can they fully understand all of the characters actions and motivations in the story.

Theme two: The effect of events on later generations

While A Yellow Raft in Blue Water concludes with the strong message of a family being a strong support system, the book suggests that often conflicts can be passed from one generation to the next. Each of the three women symbolize a different generation of the same bloodline, with each generation feeling the effects of those who came before them. The numerous secrets in Ida's life are what spawn many of the misunderstanding's in both Rayona and Christine's lives. Rayona and Christine have no knowledge of the occurrences which affect them, leading to confusion between all three women. This concept is best depicted by the circumstances surrounding Christine's birth. "If I were to live my life differently, I would start with the word no: first to him, my father; to Clara, then to Willard, before they left me; to Lee, to save his life." (297).

The events Ida experienced as a child affected how she raised Christine, there by affecting how Christine raised Rayona. "That was the one day we celebrated, Mother's Day. Every year I made her give me a frilly card, even if I had to pick it up and buy it myself." (222). Christine is meticulous and her parenting here because it represents what she lacked in her own childhood being raised by "Aunt Ida". Aunt Ida's actions in raising Christine there by affected how Christine raised Rayona, changing who Rayona came to be.

Theme 3: Finding a true identity
An integral part of growing up is finding one's identity and because the story is centered around three women coming-of-age, finding true identity plays a huge role throughout the novel.

Each of the three women has a unique struggle and finding her place in the world. Ida struggles to find her own identity, as much of her identity is chosen for her with the circumstances of her childhood and Clara's pregnancy."I was 15 in the new rush of my awareness, too naive to recognize a point of deciding, when Mama conceded her long fight to be well, and called for her baby sister, Clara." (298). Rather then Ida's teenage years allowing her to explore who she wanted to be, at 15 Clara's pregnancy decided who Ida was going to be. Even as Ida attempts to come to peace with these events, she still is

resentful.

Christine has many more opportunities to explore her own identity than Ida did, and she takes full advantage of all of them. She tries on all different personalities from being the daring girl who's afraid of nothing, then to religious, then the party girl who is somewhat promiscuous. This search for identity continues through Christine's life but nothing ever seems to be permanent. Whether the comfort comes from being Lee's younger sister or being with her husband Elgin, nothing seems to stick. "I never knew what next, I never got used to any of them long enough to forget my likes and dislikes or to expect they'd be around next week." (221). Only when Rayona is born does Christine find her true and only place. "Rayona gave me something to be, made me like other women with children. I was nobody's regular daughter, nobody sister, usually nobody's wife, but I was her mother full-time." (222). Rayona gives meaning to Christine's life and while Christine continues to live her party life, she knows that ultimately each of her choices she must make for Rayona.

Rayona never feels a sense of stability or belonging in her life due to both her family life situation, her mixed-race and her constant movement in the world. Her father is absent from her life and Christine does not provide what Rayona thinks is motherly figure. In longing for the perfect family, she tries to emulate the life she finds described in a discarded letter when working at Bearpaw Lake. "I keep staring at the letter, and now it's mom reading in my head, like in the movies or on TV when the voice of the person who wrote something comes out of nowhere so the audience will know what it says and who it's from." (81). However, upon discarding the letter, readers understand that Rayona has accepted her own identity and has become comfortable with her mother.

Symbol one: braids

In the novel, braids represent how three different narratives overlap to become one complete story. Braids are briefly mentioned at the beginning of Rayona's narrative portion and at the end of Christine's, but the most prominent of these references has to do with Ida's interactions with Father Huburt on the roof."As a man with cut hair, he did not identify the rhythm of three strands, the whispers of coming and going, of twisting and tying and blending, of catching and letting go, of Braiding ." (372). The author closes with this image to capitalize on the fact that the novel cannot be fully appreciated unless all three perspectives are woven together as three locks of hair are woven in a braid. The braid is also representative of how the three women had an effect on each other throughout their lifetimes.

Symbol 2: Videos
The videos Christine rents for Rayona while initially described as "Rayona's inheritance" become more meaningful than just a physical gift as the novel progresses. The titles Christine selects are stories of determination and that show the kind of tough that Christine hopes Rayona sees in her. With Christine gone, Rayona still carries the videos with her everywhere she goes, symbolizing Christine's presence even when she is not there physically. "But I do throw in The Little Man and Christine tapes mom drops during her escape, in case they have a VCR at this Catholic jamboree. Afterward I can sell them for bus fare, or maybe I'll return them to Village video if I go back to Seattle." (54). The act of Rayona, Christine, Ida and Dayton all watching the movies together at the end of Rayona's narrative represents a stand of unity and harmony for Rayona's family at last. "Dayton and I watched from the couch, him sitting with my feet in his lap, and me stretched out to the bed pillow behind my head. Ray lay on her stomach on the floor and made popcorn while Dayton rewound the first movie." (283). The videos represent the point at which Rayona has the family she wishes.

Motif: Faith

Each protagonist confronts the issue of faith in the novel, however for each of the three women the experience is very different. When Breonna feels abandoned by both her parents and aunt Ida she turns to faith with her relationship with Father Tom. Unfortunately this relationship is based on father Tom's advances rather than faith itself. ""Rayona, we have experience in occasion of sin." He doesn't look at me as he speaks. "What would your parents think? I could be your father. I have taken vows."" (61). After Father Tom's sexual assault Rayona realizes that the only place she can find true security is with her mother, not faith.

Ida finds meaningful security and comfort in faith, particularly in her relationship with Father Hulbert. ""I think it's best you do leave." Father Hulbert's voice was steady, less young. It carried a new tone of authority, of the unseen power of his secrets."" (337). Father Hulbert it is not only a religious figure for Ida, but also a friend who protects her and Christine during times of hardship.
Christine's religious faith varies over the course of her lifetime. She is very religious and her early life but once a critical part of her face is proven wrong Christine turns her back on religion entirely. Ever we see highlights of her own personal faith and ideals particularly in her visions of Lee. "Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a flight of golden stairsteps, and halfway up Lee was waiting, holding out his hand for me to take." (202). Well Christine may have lost her religious faith as a child she still clearly has strong spiritual beliefs.

Allusion: war
The topic of war plays a minor role in the novel only appearing in Christine's narrative portion of the novel. However, the war has a great impact on Christine's growing up and how she loses Lee. The nationalism so frequently commented on in her narrative portion is alludes to what will be Lee's death.

Character development: Christine
In Rayona's narrative portion of the novel, Christine comes off as very coldhearted and selfish. She appears to not care for her daughter but only herself. However, as her narrative unfolds, Christine's actions seem much more justified considering her circumstances. Throughout the novel Christine undergoes a search for her identity going through phases of being religious, daring, and promiscuous. She only truly finds herself after having Rayona and understanding what it means to be a mother.

Open ended questions:

What is Dorris' ultimate message about family and it's support system?

Why did Dorris choose to construct the novel with three different narratives depicting different perspectives? What purpose does that serve?

In light of the novel's common misunderstanding, is it difficult to pass doubt on Clara's actions in Ida's portion of the novel?

Why do you think Doris chose to have Father Tom sexually assault Rayona?