A Yellow Raft on Blue Water Character Analysis Rayona, in Michael Dorris’ “A Yellow Raft of Blue Water”, is the perfect example of a fifteen-year-old girl. She is self conscious about her background (half black, half Native American), her height (too tall), her weight (too skinny), and her family (or what passes as one). In addition to her typical teenage conundrums, Rayona must endeavor to keep track of her alcoholic mother, Christine, who is constantly in the hospital for alcohol poisoning (3). Rayona gets no help from her father, Elgin. Elgin abandoned Christine when Rayona was a baby and only periodically checks in on them (5). Suffice it to say, Rayona has had a mentally draining fifteen years. She, as a teenager, needs someone to care …show more content…
She feels that she is too tall for a girl and too skinny, and believes that what she thinks about herself is what everyone else sees when they look at her: “I expect [my dad will] judge I’m too skinny.....And [there’s] a child, a too-tall girl” (Dorris 6-7). Rayona’s self-consciousness is evident in this quote. Because she feels that she is to thin and too tall, everyone else must surely think the same. In the two pages from which this quote is taken, she believes that three other people think of her as too thin or too tall …show more content…
We are stuck in a stable distance from each other, magnets connected by the stream of my words. I start my story in the middle and move in both directions. I tell her unimportant things, memories of little events that happened to me, clothes Mom wears and Dad’s funny mailman adventures. I tell her Aunt Ida’s favorite programs and I tell her about Father Tom and the yellow raft. I tell her, yes, Seattle, but the reservation too, and Mom somewhere with a man named Dayton and all her pills from Charlene. I tell her I wanted to trade places with Ellen. I tell her about my lifetime membership and I tell her about mom just walking off and leaving….I don’t hang for her to answer anymore. There’s a weight off me. I said it all out loud and the world didn’t come to an end. (Dorris 105-106)
Even when Evelyn tells Rayona explicitly that she does not have to say anything, that [Evelyn] can “forget” that Rayona has lied since she met Sky and Evelyn, Rayona tells the truth. Telling the truth would have been completely out of character for Rayona earlier in the novel. This is the first point in “A Yellow Raft on Blue Water” that the reader can clearly see a change in Rayona. Rayona told Evelyn the whole truth because she had enough confidence to believe Evelyn would not resent her for it. Evelyn and Sky gave Rayona the confidence she
After living at Camp Manzanar for four years, Jeanne is ready to finally leave but also nervous to reenter the outside world. At her new junior high school in Long Beach, her teacher tries her best to make her feel like she fits in. But after Jeanne reads a page in their reading book aloud, perfectly without any mistakes, another classmate’s reaction is not at all what she expected. “When I finished, a pretty blonde girl in front of me said, quite innocently, “Gee, I didn’t know you could speak English.” She was genuinely amazed.
Shannon’ s favorite place that she has ever vacationed was Highlands, North Carolina. This was her favorite vacation because of the people she was with. This trip was memorable because she drives a convertible and in order to get to the cabin she had to drive on dirt roads, so she had dirt on car the entire trip. This trip was also memorable because she slept on a swinging bed outside of the cabin. Some unusual things that we have in common are that we lived within 5 miles of each other, we both have the same Meyers Briggs personality type which is INFJ, we both have a past in American Sign Language, we both grew up with horses, and we both want to hike the Appalachian Trail in its
One mre struggle she went through was going through suicidal thoughts and depression. For example she said, “Tomaca is where i’ll complete my own circle”(Dorris 242) and she also said “Get out, I didn't want rayona with me when I found the cleared ground” (Dorris 245). This explains why in Rayona pov she was always running away because she had too many emotions going through
Every life knows tragedy. While some tragedies may be greater than others, it is tragedy all the same. In his book Night, Elis Wiesel brings light to one of the most tragic events in our history The Holocaust. Wiesel describes his torturous treatment in the concentration camps, a place which stole everything from him: his home, his family, and even his faith in God. After seeing people tortured, gassed, and burned, Wiesel states, “my eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in the world without God, without man.
Prolouge As I took a deep breath in, smoke entered my lungs and I could barely hear my mother saying, “Go. Go to America, get a job and send us money and one day” she coughs and when she can function, she continues, “ one day, we will join you.” he grabbed my trembling hands in her own soft, warm ones as I asked her, “ What about the kids, it’s not safe here for them?” She motioned for me to bend lower to her and she whispered gently into my ear, “They will be fine, I will protect them.
Aishah Abdul-matin Mr. J. Partin English 112-FON07 04/01/18 Annotated Bibliography Peled, Einat, et al. The meaning of running away for girls. Child abuse & neglect, vol. 33, no. 10, Oct. 2009, pp. 739-749 In this article, Einat Peled focuses on how run-away girls leave home and the meaning they attribute to it.
As a photographer myself, the theory of punctum is not unknown to me; however, the application of the concept of punctum towards the perfomativity of a photograph is unchartered territory. The photograph I chose to analyze is Dorothea Lange’s renowned portrait Migrant Mother, which is a Great Depression-era photograph featuring a migrant farmer, and is among the most famous photographs from this turbulent chapter of American history. The raw emotion in the mother’s face, paired with her body language and grimy appearance, captivates viewers; however, it is not the mother that makes this image so powerful to me, but rather, the turned away children framing their mother. This detail adds a new dimension to the portrait for me.
In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.
Ellen knows that she is not going to live with her abusive father forever, she believes that she will find a loving family that will take her in and a place to call home. When Ellen goes to Church she notices a foster mother with many children. “I went to church and figured that the woman with all the girls lined up by her had to be the new mama for me and then I looked up and thanked the lord for sending me that dress. I said I look like I am worth something today and she will notice the dress first and then me inside it and say to herself I sure would like to have a girl like her”.
In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.
The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie who is in the mist of her adolescent rebellion. She wants to prove her maturity to others and herself. In the story, Oates describes that Connie always lets her mind flow freely in between her daydream. She even creates and keeps dreaming about her ideal male figure in her mind to make her happy and satisfied. Oates allows the reader to step into Connie’s “dream world” through the appearance of Arnold Friend.
The main character in the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. This character appears to be a typical teenager who feels misunderstood by her family. The relationship with her family causes her to live two different lives “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home.” (86) Connie’s dual lifestyle and inability to communicate with her family will eventually lead to her demise.
An Incredible Outcome In the book The Color of Water by James McBride son shares the troubles he had to go through while he was growing up as he also, shares his shares his mother’s obstacles and triumphs. Ruth McBride happens to be an American Jewish woman born in the 1920’s who encounters struggles growing up in the U.S where she didn’t seem to belong. As Ruth begins to grow she finds her own path to her life without her family obligating her to do anything. This brings her to marrying her first husband Dennis McBride.
Connie’s Parents, neglectful and somewhat abusive throughout the story, by means of their apathy and resentful badgering drive her to seek escape away from home. This evidenced in Christina M. Gillis’s ““Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” : Seduction, Space, And A Fictional Mode” by the quote “Connie is then, constantly at odds with her family, ever looking forward to her excursions to the drive-in...” As a result of the constant parental neglect and verbal abuse Connie feels unsafe unloved and unwelcome at home forcing her to seek refuge and some semblance of being loved in her outings with friends to the mall, drive-in, and other local “hangouts”. Connie herself, capitulating to the pressures
She feels that she is “an ugly daughter” (Cisneros 88) and does not fit in. This feeling leads her to want a change for herself, something better than what her parents had. Someday she wants to “say goodbye to Mango. [She] is too