The Yellow Raft In Blue Water Analysis

In the book “The Joy Luck Club”, by Amy Tan, Jing-Mei Woo is asked to take her mother’s place in the Joy Luck Club. As she settles in she finds more about her mom then she knew when she was alive. She finds out that her mother had two covert twin daughters that she left back in China. As the story develops Jing-Mei is egged to find a way to go meet her sisters and fulfill her mother’s lifelong dream. “The Yellow Raft in Blue Water” by Michael Dorris is about three generations of Indian women Rayona, Christine, and Ida. Rayona is a fifteen-year-old American-Indian searching for a way to find herself. Christine, her mother is consumed by tenderness and resentment toward those she loves. Finally, the curious Aunt Ida whose haunting secrets,

The mom showed her culture when she tells her daughter how Chinese mothers show their love for their children. “... Chinese mothers show their love for the children not through hugs and kisses but with stern offerings of steamed dumplings, duck, gizzards, and crab” ( 3 Tan, 4). In China, parents show their love for their children in other ways because that is apart of their culture. It is what they are used to and have grown up knowing. There are examples of culture in the Joy Luck Club as well as the Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Culture is shown in the Yellow Raft in Blue Water when Christine and Rayona travel to Aunt Ida’s who 's at the reservations so they can “dwell” there for a while. Rayone leaves a few days after her mom leaves with Dayton. Culture is clearly shown when Rayona and Christine are reunited at Dayton 's house after the bedlam rodeo. “ I called Charlene, everybody, even Elgin, but nobody knew a damn thing about you”( Dorris, 130). Christine was on a brink ever since she found out that Rayona left the reservation.The mom is displaying her love for her daughter differently than how the mom did for Jing-Mei Woo. Christine is showing that she is caring and is protective of her daughter. This shows culture because the mom is displaying how she protects her daughter in a cultural way. In both novels, culture plays a huge role in the mothers and daughters

In the Joy Luck club, family relationships are shown when the mom insists that Jing-Mei takes the better crab. “ I thought I was doing the right thing, taking the better crab with the missing leg. But my mother cried, “‘No! No! Big one, you eat it. I cannot finish”(3 Tan, 4). When the mom atoned Jing-Mei to take the better crab, the mom shows family relationships because she stopped her daughter from taking the bad crab because she doesn’t want her to have bad luck. She wants her to have a good life and be lucky which is how she is showing family relationships. Family relationships are not only shown in Joy Luck Club but in The Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Family relationships are shown when Ida stops Clara from taking her daughter, Christine. “ This paper says differently. This paper says what everyone on this reservation knows. That it was me, Ida, who had to leave in shame. That it was me, Ida, who came back here alone with a baby the image of my father. That it was me, Ida, who’s raised her every day”(Dorris, 336). Ida who is Christine’s sister wanted the best for her which is why she faked legal papers to solve the conundrum of Clara selling Christine to a rich family. Family relationships are shown here because she tried to protect her. That 's what family is for, there are there to look out for one another. No one cares about a person more than their