Summary: Chapter 10
The Vietnam War has begun, and Christine asks Dayton what
his draft classification is. Dayton has been classified a “4-A,”
which means that he cannot be drafted because his father is dead
and he is the only son left to his mother. Christine asks Lee what
he plans to do after his two years in the military, but he informs
her he is not going to enlist, and that he will dodge the draft
if he has to. Christine thinks Lee is being a coward and the two
get into an argument. The argument ends when Christine slaps Lee
across the face.
People wonder whether or not Lee will enlist. Christine
gets into an argument about it with Aunt Ida, who supports Lee.
One day Christine sees a poster publicizing the tribal elections
and knows that Lee will never be elected if he does not join the
army, which she explains to Dayton. Dayton and Lee had made plans
about Lee eventually running for election to the council, and Dayton
recognizes that Christine is right. As a draft-dodger, Lee would
never be elected. Dayton commits himself to persuading Lee to enlist.
Lee and Dayton disappear for a few weeks but return the
night of the mission’s Labor Day bazaar. Lee has cut his hair and
enlisted, and he starts hanging around with a new group of friends.
Soon Dayton cuts his hair as well, though he clings to his 4-A
classification. Christine begins to find the reservation too confining,
so she decides to join an employment program in Seattle. She bids
a civil farewell to Ida and has a rather drawn-out goodbye with
Lee. Lee ships out for boot camp soon after.
Christine makes plenty of new friends in Seattle but
her job bores her. She frequently switches jobs and apartments,
but never really finds anything she likes. Christine receives two
pieces of mail from Lee: a postcard from Hawaii and then a letter
from Vietnam. Several months later she gets a letter from Dayton.
Lee has been listed as MIA—missing in action. Christine is distraught
and dreads getting any more letters.
That night, feeling anxious about Lee, Christine stops
in a bar for a drink. It takes a minute for her to realize that
everyone in the bar is black. A man in uniform comes over and buys
Christine a drink. His name is Corporal Elgin A. Taylor. Christine
tells Elgin about Lee, and he puts his arm around her and tells
her not to worry. The two go back to Elgin’s hotel room together.
Being with Elgin is a whole new experience for Christine, and the
next morning she asks him never to leave her. He promises that he
will not.
Analysis: Chapter 10
The deference for the “red, white, and blue” Christine
mentions in the previous chapter makes another appearance here.
Only when we keep in mind the patriotism that pervades Christine’s
reservation can we properly understand the ramifications of Lee’s
desire to dodge the draft. Indeed, after Christine confronts Lee,
and the opinions of people on the reservation are split, we see
that Lee’s enemies claim that he will dodge and his friends claim
that he will not. This split gives us a fairly explicit indication
that avoiding the military would be poorly received by the entire
reservation.
It is unclear why Christine is so anxious to see Lee
enlist, and her reasons are in many ways selfish. Her first concern
when she learns that Lee may try to dodge the draft is what her
friends will say about her. Christine’s close association with Lee
is a large part of her identity, but we get the impression she enjoys
being his sister only when he is popular and well liked. However,
we also get the sense that Christine seems to want what is best
for Lee. Christine steps up her efforts to persuade Lee to enlist
only when she realizes that enlisting would greatly help Lee’s future
political career. This foresight shows some concern on her part
for Lee’s future. While Lee’s success would also improve Christine’s
reputation, Christine’s ultimate goal seems to be that they succeed
as a pair. Regardless of her true intentions, it is clear that Christine
ties her identity closely to Lee’s.
The wild life Christine lives after graduation is another
part of her search for identity. She experiences a switch in personalities from
a prudish girl obsessed with the alleged end of the world to a popular
social butterfly who never misses a party. This party-girl image
Christine adopts causes problems in her relationship with Ida, in
essence weakening Christine’s identity as a daughter. Christine
feels that there is something special waiting for her in the big city,
so she goes to Seattle to find it. The jobs she gets are unexciting, however,
and none of them provides her with a satisfactory identity to replace
the one she has left behind. Although she has shed the discipline
and restrictions of life on the reservation, Christine has also lost
the support her family provided, and her life feels empty because
she is unable to replace this love and support.
When Lee is reported as missing in action, Christine
loses one of her last bastions of family love and support. Soon
after receiving the news of Lee’s disappearance, however, she meets
Elgin. After they spend the night together, Christine makes Elgin
a part of her identity, a kind of replacement for Lee, who is far
away and possibly dead. Elgin becomes a new anchor for Christine,
someone who will stay with her, provide her comfort, and validate
her existence.
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