Comparing Christine and Ida in A Yellow Raft In Blue Water Essay

Compare and Contrast: Christine and Ida

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water shows the effectiveness of a braid, and each of the three strands of hair represents a different section of the novel; therefore, a different character. Of the three characters, Christine and Ida seem to have the most unusual relationship. The gap they both have from each other is as wide as the Grand Canyon. Christine is Idas daughter but they never get along well. Even though Christine and Ida have many similarities and differences, their past influences their behaviors, but also instructs them to change their present lives.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water shows the effectiveness of a braid, and Aunt Ida is the linchpin that connects all three narrative sections in Dorris' novel. Of all the female characters in the novel, Ida is the most stable, strong, and self-determined. For example, she fights Clara for the right to raise Christine as her own, legal child even though she knows that she's giving up her life's independence. Even more, she intentionally rejects Willard Pretty Dog as a lover after she learns that she's pregnant with his child. Aside from her self-determined inner human, Ida is known to be very stubborn. Manipulated and betrayed by people she trusted, Ida commits herself to withdrawing from the world and refuses to interact except on her own terms. Her silence creates confusion and misunderstanding in the lives of the children she raises, and this confusion and misunderstanding are in turn passed on to Rayona. Ida is primarily a static character, unlike Christine, Ida does not grow and change. As she herself puts it, I never grew up, but I got old. (Dorris, pg. 297) Ida is an old woman, but her emotions have never grown or evolved. Ida spends every day in the same routine of chores. She improves her house and adds television to her schedule, but for the most part does the same thing every day. At the very end of the novel, the image of Ida braiding her long black hair is a powerful symbol, because the braiding symbolizes the narrative strands that together make up the novel. The braid is branched off into the three section of the book. Separately, each woman struggles, but when united, they form a bond that gives strength, power, and validation to their stories. Ida, as the last narrative weaver in the novel, is the foundation on which both Rayona and Christine build their own life stories.

Throughout Christines story, she faces the stunning reality that she's dying and that no one believes her. Only now, at the end of her life, does she reflect on the destructive path that her life has taken. Although Christine doesn't know it, Ida is not her biological mother, although Ida certainly is her emotional mother. Christine's mother is actually Clara, Ida's aunt and therefore Christine's great-aunt. This unconventional genealogy symbolizes the reckless, and imprudent life that Christine leads. As a teenager, Christine revolts from Ida and begins drinking and partying heavily. Whom she sleeps with is not essential to her. As long as she feels important to the men in her life, at least during her teen years, she doesn't care what other people think about her. After her brother, Lee, is born, Christine defines herself through him. For example, she mothers him as though she, not Ida, were his mother. Later in life, when Lee faces enlistment in the military and the threat of fighting in the Vietnam War, Christine again defines herself in terms of him, but her actions are ultimately destructive, both to herself and him. Afraid that men won't be attracted to her because her brother is a draft dodger, Christine emotionally blackmails Lee into enlisting in the military, which he ultimately does. However, her guilt in Lee's enlisting is overwhelming later when she learns that he has been killed in the war. She must face the fact that she played a role in Lee's death by manipulating him to enlist and that she now faces total rejection from Ida, who idealized Lee. Christine's personal search for identity reaches its climax with her moving in with Lee's best friend, Dayton, on the Montana reservation. As she notes at the beginning of Chapter 16, "Dayton and I settled into the routine of an old married couple." The stability that she finds at Dayton's is ironic given that she fought Dayton emotionally and mentally over who would influence Lee's decision about whether to enlist or not; Dayton changes Christine's outlook on life. Before moving in with him, Christine had never found the life that she so desperately wanted with a man. For example, her unconventional married life with Elgin, Rayona's father, was anything but ideal. But with Dayton, she discovers the stable relationship that she's always wanted. At the end of her narrative section, Christine finally seems at peace with the many relationships in her life. Dayton remains the bedrock on which Christine depends, not only because she's living in his house but also emotionally; by building a greater understanding between them, Christine is finally able to face the destructive role that she played in Lee's death. And concerning Ida, Christine acknowledges that they will always have a contentious relationship. Such conflict, however, can become something to rely on because they will always judge each other's actions but learn to accept each other.

Aunt Ida and Christine have limited similarities which eventually make their relationship stronger. Both of them get misinterpreted. Ida gets misinterpreted for her lack of interest and interaction with people, while Christine gets misinterpreted for the path her life has taken and her morals. Both have legitimate reasons for acting the way they do. Their past is the culprit who scarred their present lives. Idas whole life has been filled with lies and she has been manipulated and betrayed by the people she deeply trusted. And Christine chose the wrong past from the early teenage years of her life. She was irresponsible and reckless, but throughout the story, Christine is being viewed from the eyes of Rayona. Later on in the novel, the reader discovers the true feeling that Christine has for everyone; they were just being masked by the choices she made. Both Christine and Ida have grown up in an unhealthy environment. Idas past has been addressed with taking care of her family to such an extent that she didnt care as much about herself, and then being abandoned and betrayed by them. And Christine grew up in an environment with drugs and alcohol all in a big city. Ida is the one known for being a caring person, but when Christine and Ida put their differences apart, they both realize how important a mother-daughter relationship is. Both have had troubled pasts, which shaped the foundation of their lives.

Ida and Christine differ in many ways, and this is why there is a seemingly unclosable gap between them. While Ida is more of the self-restrained and caring person, Christine is known for her inattentive and outgoing behavior (which later changes). Ida makes sacrifices for her family, for example when she fights Clara for the right to raise Christine as her own, legal child even though she knows that she's giving up her life's independence. On the contrary, Christine has almost no feeling toward her family, and is concerned more about enjoying her own life than raising her kids in a healthy environment. A significant difference between Ida and Christine is that while Christine learns from her past and tries to make the necessary improvements to build better relationships with her peers and family, Ida remains as a static character. As she herself puts it, I never grew up, but I got old. (Dorris, pg. 297) Ida is an old woman, but her emotions have never grown or evolved. This shows the determination of Christine to change her past, while Ida is still living in her past and is too stubborn to try to escape it.

Both Ida and Christine symbolize important factors in the novel. While Ida is the third strand of hair in the braid, she is the foundation of what Christine and Rayona built their lives upon. And Christine is the bridge between old and new in the novel. She is responsible for Rayonas knowledge of the world, but her own misunderstandings are compounded as they are passed on to her daughter. She is connected both to the city and to the reservation, and both places shape her personality. She represents a transition from old to new, during the difficult period when old problems have yet to fully heal but new ones are already beginning. Even though Christine and Ida have many similarities and differences, their past influences their behaviors, but also instructs them to change their present lives. While both Christine and Ida had troubled pasts, their personalities and behaviors are characterized through the environment that they grew up in. Christine developed changes in order to alter her past, while Ida was a static character and remained stubborn enough not even to try to change herself. So throughout the novel, Christine seemed as reckless and careless as ever, but in the end, she was the one who ultimately was determined enough to erase her past, and start a better life.