A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Michael Dorris
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Plot: Family
- Time of Work: The 1960’s to the 1980’s
- Setting: Montana and Washington
- Principal Characters: Rayona, Christine, Aunt Ida, Dayton Nickles, Evelyn, Father Hurlburt, Father Tom Novak, Elgin
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Culture, Family or family life, Mothers, Parents and children, Biracial people, Friendship, Native Americans or American Indians, Multiculturalism, Women, Adoption or adopted children, Catholics or Catholic Church, Pacific Northwest, Terminal illness or terminally ill, Rodeos
- Locales: Northwest (U.S.)
The Novel
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water explores relationships among four generations of a Native American family. The novel is organized into three sections, each narrated by a woman of the family: the first section by Rayona, a girl of fifteen; the second, by Christine, her mother; and the third by Aunt Ida, generally supposed to be Christine’s mother. Moving backward through the three generations, the book gradually illuminates the origins of the tensions still poignantly felt by the characters.
Structurally, and perhaps thematically, Christine is at the...
[The entire page is 2685 words long]
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