The future, brimming with potential, flourishes on the soil of the past and the nourishment of the present. In Yellow Raft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris manipulates the reader’s ability of judgement, forcing them to reevaluate their initial responses of characters. Rayona, Ida, and Christine incorporate their perspectives of each of their own lives in order to provide a better understanding of Yellow Raft In Blue Water in a conclusive sense, like pieces to a puzzle. To begin, Rayona resonates and utilizes her youthful perspective, its graceful moments, and it’s not-so-graceful moments. The struggle to find a common ground between child and mother highlights the troubles attached to a teenger’s coming of age, much like the annoying pricks …show more content…
From her adolescence and through her early twenties, Christine falls under the “party girl” category, living only for the rush of sex, drinks, and rich bachelors. However, like many quality characters, Christine also possesses some contrasting qualities such as her innate, maternal instinct which applies to Lee, and eventually Rayona. The begin of her chapter establishes Christine as the by-the-book church kid who develops into the archetypical wild child. Dorris also notes Christine’s patriotism, despite her traditional customs lack thereof. Christine symbolizes the black sheep of the family, the void within the yang, the blanche within the yin. Her point of view expresses the waywardness of teens who never truly mature. Feeling disregarded by Ida and abandoned by Lee, Christine walks the dirt rather than the cobblestone and adopts the American culture. Her inability to face a new reality and mature postpones her coming-of-age and stunts her prime until she understands the toils of motherhood and learns to ascend to this higher level of maturity where she currently stands, even if she still acts somewhat immature and impulsive