The concept of a lack of true self-identity causing conflict in one’s life is apparent throughout the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris. The three main characters: Ida, Christine, and Rayona, search for their own sense of belonging and acceptance from within and amongst those around them. By carving the paths and influences of each story, Dorris outlines the divergence of each characters path to inner-strength and acceptance.
Aunt Ida is a very reserved and weak-willed character in the book. Ida gives up her life in order to please her role model, Clara, by taking and caring for Clara’s child, Christine. Ida’s need for acceptance by others shows her need of acceptance in herself. Ida realizes later on that she gave up her identity in order to gain popularity and acceptance with others, exemplified when she reflects “…if I could begin my life again, I would learn how to say ‘No’… ”. She ironically gave up her individuality, her self-acceptance, and her assertion into the world in order to gain a sense of belonging in her family. From the point when she took Christine, Ida never grasps who she is and who she wants to become because she doesn’t have the opportunity. Because Ida suffers the responsibility of teenage motherhood, she can never live her life the way she expected to. Willard Pretty Dog symbolizes the distinction between how Ida could have lived her life and how Ida does live her life. Willard’s appearance in Ida’s past as her teenage desire and her dreams to make Willard her lover exemplifies how Ida could have carried out her life knowing who she is and what she wants. When Ida encounters Willard Pretty Dog again, later on in her life, Ida takes comfort in his presence, though their relationship was based solely on pity and loyalty. Ida and Willard’s’ relationship symbolizes Ida’s loss of self identity because she struggles to assert herself and find her place of belonging with Willard. Instead she journeys on to occupy her mind with other people’s lives on dramatic television programs disregarding her search of her true identity. She obsesses over soap operas because she can find comfort in knowing every character’s role.