Yellow Raft

general notes
 TV as fantasy box. yellow raft is also fantasy space. isolated.
 multiple narratives so the reader must triangulate to find the “truth”. elusiveness of reality
 quest for identity thru remembering past
 isolation & self-sufficiency vs. inseparability of the 3 women. males are alienated
 extravagant fancy mixed with the mundane (real life vs. fantasy TV life)
 what’s with the red and white stripes? (Mom and Father Tom)
 Indian writing emerges from the oral and communal traditions of peoples resistant to Western ideas of
linear narrative and sequential time, not to mention emphasis on the individual
 Christine tries on a number of different identities

pre-reading: facts and stereotypes about Native Americans

• Read first page of Yellow Raft together (in 2/3, new students present)
• Come up w/questions to answer in the reading

oral presentations
 5 min. in front of the classroom. summary of what happened in the chapter, and Q & A session. 2
students assigned per chapter. Period 2/3: Chap 3 – 13. Period 4/5: Chap 3 – 18. for extra credit, do
something creative like a song/skit/drawing or sign up for more than one oral presentation slot.

Chapter 2 (Friday)
 read the video scene together (starting from top of 19 to middle of 20). teacher is the narrator. assign
the man, woman, and manager roles to students. offer the Best Actor Award (3 pts EC) to takers.
discuss the man, and how calculating, rational, and logical he is.
 if time permits, read the next part of the video scene together (21). assign manager and Mom roles to
students, offering Best Actor Award again. contrast mother’s irrational impulsiveness with the man.
 TV references: p.26 loneliness, p.30-31 old Western confrontation & reality
 p.32: desire for order, neatness, & perfection in a life and reality that’s blemished with imperfections
 her mom is beautiful (and her outlook on life is similarly colored by glamorous fancy) while Rayona is
plain (and her outlook on life is sober and sedate)
 “Video Village” – lack of community (only a virtual village)
 “I dated a guy who played an Indian in that movie.” constant role-playing, shifting identities. loss of
culture and identity.

Tuesday, Oct 15

Chapter 3
 review: mention Village Video
 vocab: begrudge (37, to envy (She begrudged him his youth), to give with reluctance (He begrudged
every penny he spent)), jamboree (a large gathering or assembly)
 Do Aunt Ida and Rayona enjoy each other’s company?
 p. 34: happy face magnets (the only friendly faces are fake – reinforces the feeling of isolation)
 p. 36-37: irony of Aunt Ida’s interactions with the TV and her attempts to give Rayona identity through
the “old language.” but the new language is the language of media images. p.45: more TV.
 discuss Father Tom, the priest, and Annabelle and Kennedy (Foxy) Cree
 p.47: Father Tom. p.49: Father Tom = pervert. How does she feel about his words?
Wednesday, Oct 16

silent journaling, 15 min. to work on the following topic: Who is your favorite TV character? Why do you
like this character? What makes her/his life interesting or exciting?

Assignment: for a 2-page story due Monday, pretend you are the action hero of a blockbuster movie. Give
your movie a title, and write out the most exciting scene from the movie.

writing workshop – brainstorming for the assignment: brainstorm for 3 minutes on your own, then share
with a partner for 5 minutes – your partner will be responsible for making a quick stick-figure sketch of the
scene – if you’re called on and you’re unprepared, both you and your partner receive reductions

Thursday, Oct 17

Pop quiz (checks if students have been completing their reading from Chap 3 through Chap 5):
1. How does Foxy Cree treat Rayona?
2. How does Father Tom feel about Rayona?
3. What is the Teens for Christ Jamboree?
4. Rayona’s father is actually a mailman, but she tells everyone that he is a _______.
5. What happens to Father Tom when he jumps into the lake?
6. Who is Sky?
7. What is Rayona’s new job?
8. Describe the letter that Rayona found in the park.

reading strategy - teach detecting tone of voice by looking at adjectives, adverbs, and images

Chapter 4
 p.52, 54: Father Tom’s sallow, affected appearance. a fake. cold.
 lying about her parents. makes her father larger-than-life, flying through the sky (a pilot)
 griminess (57) vs. cleanliness (59).
 how she feels about the lake: refreshment & exhiliration. cold of the lake and the heat of the sun
 Rayona w/Father Tom on the raft. “dream,” p.61
 p. 63-64: Indian identity is surface-level. Father Tom’s medallion – commodified tourist version of
Indian culture

Friday, Oct 18

silent journaling: Why do people work even though most people don’t even like to work?

Chapter 5
• p. 65 – the sign
• found by Sky – why such a strange name?
• Go over Rayona’s name (Rayon – artificial, synthetic fabric). (73) last name – Taylor – sounds like
“tailor”. P. 78, 3 – Rayona doesn’t fit in any of her clothes.
• Why did Sky go to Canada? (3 pts EC)
• What’s Evelyn like? – draw her.
• Pp. 77-78: cartoon Indians
• Pp. 80-81: read the letter. Wants to be someone else. Perhaps part of the reason we watch TV. Thinks
of her own mother.
Monday, Oct 21st

Journal topic: Describe the “normal” or “perfect” American family.

Essays are due. Workshop them. Explain revision techniques.

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Tuesday, Oct 22nd

Vocab: concoct, suspend, merge, mare, crag, lonesome

Chapter 6
 p.85-86: “Evelyn and Sky are people in my dream, moving underwater.” connect with raft in blue
water – the lake as dreamscape. her brain as TV on p.86. can’t differentiate between reality/dream.
 p.88: read about Evelyn & Rayona. a level of communication she never had w/her own mom.
 if time permits: p.88: “the day stretches in front of me like a long hollow log and I find I’m hoping for
trash.” Practice in interpreting images – why a “long hollow log”?
 p.89-90: Ellen DeMarco on the raft
 p. 93: more Ellen: mention previous day’s journal topic
 pp.97-98: her time living near the lake is saturated with the power of fantasy – further and further away
from reality
 p.103: the fantasy is shattered

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Wednesday, Oct 23rd

Chapter 7
 p.104: "launch," "trapdoor," "bull's eye." As the place where she was seduced and where she first saw
Ellen, her counterself, the raft is indeed a launch pad: because of what happens on it, Ray strikes out on
her own, finds herself cared for by Sky and Evelyn, shows her mettle at the rodeo, and finally settles in
with Dayton and her mother. Yet the raft is simultaneously a bull's eye--that which violently ends the
flight of missiles launched by the more primitive technology of Ray's Indian ancestors (and
contemporary Native Americans are in fact torn between a primitive past and a space-age present). The
raft is also a trapdoor, which can be a means of escape or the vehicle of sudden disappearance. It is at
once trap and door, something that arrests and denies freedom as well as the opening into fresh
experience. It is, in short, the end of the old Ray and the beginning of the new.
 p.104-106: earthiness (Sky & Earth – p. 159), cleanliness
 p.107: Evelyn’s approval of sky, p. 108: where sky and earth touch
 culture of rodeo and cowboy – inimical to Native Americans?
 the rodeo (compare to yellow raft scene). reading strategy = comparison
“I’m pinned between Babe and the boards” (118) “I want to… bore deep within the boards of the raft”
(60)
“My breath is squeezed out.” (118) “the air leaves my lungs” (60)
“our hips one on top of the other” (118) “His hips jerk against me” (60)
“my body fitted into her length” (119) “he… moves to line the length of his body against
me.” (60)
 p.119: reversal of Ray’s sexual role “Looks like he damn well wore out that wild mare” , “the
world is upside down”. Father Tom was also feminine – high voice, prances
 p.117: like a bird in the sky, weightless (“the sky” on p.59)
 p.119: “sea legs” “roll of waves” “walking on dry land was never the same again. It felt lifeless.”
 p.120: comparison to TV. TV = raft = rodeo
 p.121: taking Foxy’s identity.

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Thursday, Oct. 24

pre-pop quiz questions (used to justify the administering of the quiz)

1. Whose horse does Rayona ride?
2. How does Anabelle treat Rayona at the rodeo?
3. Which character appears on the news?

pop quiz on Chapters 6, 7, and 8:

1. How does Rayona get reunited with her Mom?
2. “I’m shocked at the idea that in Mom’s version of the story, I’m the guilty one.” Comment on this
quote.

Chapter 8
 p. 123: what’s the point of the first paragraph? what does it have to do with anything else?
 p. 130: playing a role. the only “real” family she had was Sky and Evelyn.
 p.131: TV

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Friday, Oct. 25

sky and water in Yellow Raft

 “The land of sky-blue waters” (39) – the lake connects the earth with the sky. however, the sky is just
an image, a reflection in the lake – not the real thing.
 p.59
 p.104-106: earthiness (Sky & Earth – p. 159), cleanliness
 p.107: Evelyn’s approval of sky, p. 108: where sky and earth touch
 p.117: like a bird in the sky, weightless (“the sky” on p.59)

Chapter 9
 p. 141, 142. TV: dominant culture vs. the one at the reservation. American vs. Indian. p.155: again,
TV life vs. life at reservation
 dominance of American culture: 156-157, 150
 Dayton & Christine: p. 151. sky & water, like the yellow raft.
 inadequacy of American culture: 152-153
 identity: American vs. Indian – pp.158-159

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Monday, Oct. 28

Acting
 Lee: Lee as an actor, and the viewers identifying with him. 143, 146, 153
Chapter 10
 Christine’s imitating others (172)
 significance of the black box? (173) airplanes, the sky.
 p.174. identity, clothing.
 p.177: Lee as actor

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Tuesday, Oct. 29
Chapter 11
 Elgin as Christine’s Ellen DeMarco. Ideal perfection, fantasy
 181: Christine wants to believe the fantasies Elgin feeds her. p.183; the background music.
 197: Christine forgiving Elgin. Christmas card image of perfect fam
 shifting perspectives
 book has 3 perspectives
 191: “I had never blamed those husband when they left her for a date with me.” “I saw myself
through his eyes. I was that fat, mean woman.” the other side of the looking glass. shifting
perspectives.
 Black box project
 186: my stomach as a black box. Represents secrets, memories, shames.
 Make a black box, worth 50 pts. Includes a letter addressed to you, conversation you had,
photograph (drawn) of a person/event in your life, and Burton diploma

If students fail to work diligently on the black box project, they will be assigned the following essay quiz:
Analyze Christine’s character. Guiding questions: Why did Christine want Lee to go to war? Why did
Dayton reject her? How does she feel about the Catholic church? Why did she fall in love with Elgin?
Etc. You should have a clear thesis and supporting arguments.

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Wednesday, Oct. 30
Chapter 12: Christine goes back to reservation for Lee’s funeral.
 p.201’s metaphor
 202-203: reaching for the sky
 204: foreshadowing
 206: Lee as actor again
 207: Aunt Ida’s secret relationships
 212-213: romantic tension between Christine and Dayton signaled thru music

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Thursday, Oct. 31
Chapter 13
 217: Purple Heart in garbage
 221: forgiving Elgin, forgetting the infuriating reality
 222: Elgin as storybook father, as dream
 222: roles. 223.
 230: compare Aunt Ida w/Evelyn.
 230: “It wasn’t fair that he was the one with his feelings hurt, that I was the one apologizing.” compare
to p.130.

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Friday, Nov 1st

 233: was Christine a good mom? according to her own account or Rayona’s account? “I never wished
she was anybody else but who she was.” but then why was she trying to tell her how to look? same as
when Aunt Ida told Christine how to dress up to meet Clara.

Chapter 14
• 244: Christine’s yellow raft (bull’s eye/arrow image)
• 246-247: Christine’s secrets revealed

assignment: compare/contrast the hospital scene. Rayona’s perspective (Chap 1) vs. Christine’s perspective
(Chap 14). 35 pts, 1 page table format. Due Tues., Nov. 5.

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Monday, Nov 4th
Pop quiz: what happens in Chapter 15? you may use your book.

vocab: gaff (A clumsy social error, A blatant mistake or misjudgment), emulate (To strive to equal or excel,
especially through imitation; To compete with successfully; approach or attain equality with)

Chapter 15
 Christine goes to Dayton’s house
 260-261: Dayton’s house as the yellow raft in blue water. whereas everything else in the book (the car,
the televisions, the living spaces) is grimy and run-down. newness – no indication of the past
 263: Christine finally feels like she has a family
 264-265: Dayton also has a past he wants to leave behind
 271: Aunt Ida, “I never wanted you!”

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Tuesday, Nov 5th

Chapter 16
 Christine and Dayton’s life together. Christine and Rayona reunited, reconciled.
 Happy fam
 276: imagining a happy family
 292: fit, real family over imaginary
 280: different perspectives, misunderstanding, in part due to the Percocet. Compare to p. 129.
 280, 281: Rayona as Lee

perpectives essay: write about a time when you thought you were right and someone else was wrong from
the other person’s perspective

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Wednesday-Thurs, Nov 6-7th

pop quiz: create a family tree using the following characters: Christine, Rayona, Aunt Ida, Elgin, Clara,
Pauline, Lee, Lecon, Aunt Ida’s Mama

today’s theme: fantasy & role-playing

Chapter 17
 themes of the book: 297
 298: how did Aunt Ida used to be?
 300: illusion of perfect family
 301: Clara as Ellen
 303-304: fantasizing about Willard Pretty Dog, about being Clara
 306: trying to be Clara (go back to 299, “it’s too small for you” – no fit)
 313: imagining the baby is inside of her
 the family is putting on a show. everyone is an actor, trying to hide a secret. go over each character –
who is acting as whom?

Academy Awards Project: students divide into groups of four. Each group will be assigned one character
(Father Tom, Rayona, Christine, Lee, Clara, Lecon, Aunt Ida). 2 Researchers, 1 Announcer, 1 Actor.
Researchers responsible for the following table regarding an actor, and each researcher must find at least 2
quotes to fill out the table:
[character] is acting as [character] really is
The Announcer is responsible for presenting the character with a Best Actor Award, and presents the
“acting as” column of the table. The Actor accepts the award and then presents the “really is” column of
the table. Worth 30 pts.

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Friday, Nov 8th

Chapter 18
 Clara and Ida with the nuns in Denver. Clara tries to take Christine, Ida stops her.
 314: fantasy
 319: the dream ends. Ida sees Clara as she is.
 emotional defenses in fear of betrayal: 325 (Christine, Father Hurlburt), 329 (the burn)

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Tues, Nov 12th

Vocab: discern (to perceive or recognize with the eyes or intellect, to recognize as being different or
distinct), abate (to lessen), waver, incredulous, plaited, laxity, quaver, unnerved, complicity, audacity
(fearless daring, bold or insolent)

Chapter 19
• Ida and Willard Pretty Dog
• 339, “He was the type who would have married white,” Ida’s imperfections
• 343, 344: Ida putting on a show, acting, for Willard

Chapter 20
• Aunt Ida growing up w/Lee and Christine. Christine tries on multiple identities, needs mystery.
• 368: dreamweaving, portrayal of Christianity. Dreams as bad.
• 372: dreams and dreaming as necessary. "As a man with cut hair": white man, since Native American
men have traditionally worn long hair