In Chapters 8-14 of In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier, the protagonist April Raintree experiences adulthood and searches for her identity.

Below are my connections for these chapters:

Text to Self

When reading Chapters 8-14 of In Search of April Raintree, I was reminded of the struggles of young adulthood. As a young adult myself, I know how complicated it can be trying to figure out your identity. Personally, trying to understand who I am and what I want in life is a goal of mine at the moment. One of the largest struggles April faces in these chapters is her search for her sense of self and her search for purpose.

I drew this picture to represent my own search for identity and April’s. In my journey of learning who I am I have found that the most important thing in understanding your self is to first love who you are. After you learn to love yourself, you begin to understand how other influences in your life make up who you are.

Text to Text

In Chapters 8-14 of In Search of April Raintree, April struggles with her sense of self and development/understanding of her identity. She is torn between her cultural identity and her social identity that she has created.

When April becomes an adult, she hides that she is Metis from those around her. This is because as she was growing up she was taught that being Indigenous was something to be shameful of. Cheryl’s experience growing up with the McAdams contrasts April’s experiences because the McAdam’s taught Cheryl to take pride in her Metis identity and educated her. Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) write about the influence adults have on the formation of identity in children, “The significant adults in children’s lives play a major role in helping children feel either proud, shamed, or conflicted about their identities and about their attitudes toward human differences,” (p. 26). The people in April’s life taught her to be ashamed of her Metis identity so that when she became an adult she chose to hide it. In contrast, the adults in Cheryl’s life taught her to be proud of being Metis so that when Cheryl became an adult she worked to help other people like her.

Similarly, due to the prejudices April has towards Indigenous people because of her upbringing she is distinctly aware of racialized identities. Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) write about racial identity and how it influences an individual’s life, “Race is not the same thing as ethnicity or culture or nationality…Yet, in modern society, everyone is presumed to be a member of a racial group, so everyone’s identity becomes racialized. Individuals do not choose their racialized identity. However, they can choose how to live their identity,” (p. 34). This idea of choosing how to live your racial identity is represented in the novel.

April refuses her Metis identity and therefore chooses to live like a white person, ignoring the hardships of indigenous people and adopting prejudices. Since April spends her time not accepting who she is she feels unhappy.

Cheryl has connected with her racial identity and takes pride in who she is. She lives in a way that honors her racial identity and as long as she works toward her goals she feels happiness. However, when Cheryl’s sense of self is disrupted during the period that Cheryl and April lose connection, she feels unhappy because what she thought to be true affects her view of herself and her culture.

Text to Others

Once again, In search of April Raintree can be interpreted in many different ways. After discussing the novel with my peers, I came to the conclusion that self-exploration is a common theme in life. For chapters 8-14 of the novel my self and my peers connected with this portion of the novel by relating our personal self-exploration to April Raintree’s self-exploration.

References

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. St Paul: Redleaf. (chapter 2).