A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

928 Words4 Pages
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water is especially noteworthy for the narrative technique that Dorris uses to tell the stories of the three female protagonists. Rather than narrate the history of these three women's lives in a linear fashion, in which one episode directly follows another, Dorris opts for a more Native-American narrative structure, in which the plot is circular rather than linear and no single episode or narrator is more important than any other. This circularity emphasizes the totality of experience rather than individual viewpoints, for only through the culmination of all experiences do we understand the history — and future — of the complete telling.Rayona's narrative section, which forms the first third of the novel, is the most stand-alone section of the novel, but Rayona discusses more than just her own history, as do the two narrative sections that follow hers. She begins her narration with the episode in which she's visiting her mother, Christine, in the hospital. Her narration then moves to her experiences at Bearpaw Lake State Park, then at the rodeo, and finally at Dayton's house. However, the episode at the hospital is again related in Chapter 14 by Christine, and we get a different, new perspective on the events that transpire. For example, whereas Rayona cannot understand why her mother cheats at cards, we learn in Christine's narration that Christine cheats because she wants to be caught. Even more revealing in terms of dual narrations of the same event is the episode in which Christine seems so determined to get a lifetime video membership for Rayona at a video rental store. Rayona cannot understand why her mother seems so obsessed with the video membership, but in Christine's narrative section, we learn that Christine thinks of the membership as an heirloom gift for Rayona, something that will remind Rayona of Christine and give Rayona a
Open Document