A Yellow Raft In Blue Water Analysis

Since biblical times, children have been taken in by families as though they were the couple's own child. They are treated as biological children are, with love and a care. As parents are not supposed to have favorites, biological children are not favored over the child that was taken in. In the novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, by Michael Dorris, Ida takes in Christine as her own child and loves her as one as well. When Ida has a biological child, Lee, she treats him no differently than she did Christine as a child. She does not treat Christine differently after Lee is born either. Though Christine is not Ida's biological child, Ida does not treat her any differently than she does Lee. Ida’s reaction to Christine’s and Lee’s births and …show more content…
At Lee's wake Aunt Ida does not show any visible unset. "She stood quick and straight" as if to not show weakness (208). Her feelings are hidden from everyone and she does not react outwardly to show her grief. When Lee is buried Ida shows affection when she uses her scarf to "sweep and clean every trace of dirt from the coffin" (211). She loved Lee and to be burying him was something that caused her to shut down her emotions and conceal them more than usual. When Ida discovers that Christine is ill she does not say anything to anyone, even Christine herself. Father Tom appears as Christine runs out of pills and produces "a big plastic bottle of white pills" (287). They were the same type she had been taking for the pain. "Ida only had one sample with her" when she went to Father Tom to get Christine the pills (287). When Ida went to Dayton's house for dinner, she stole a pill meaning that she knew about Christine's illness and did not say anything. She protected herself from her emotions by not saying anything to anyone about Christine being sick. Ida's stoic reactions to her discovery of Christine's illness and Lee's death are extremely