The author depicts Lena’s sense of disconnection from mainstream society, portraying her distress throughout internal juxtaposition as she struggles to conform to the society which encompasses her.
Fundamentally, the metaphorical concept of a blue-doored house encompassed within a community of white-doored homes drives the underlying conflict of the story; Lena’s feelings of detachment from the society that surrounds her. Her constant questioning of her father’s rationale as to blue paint of the door further cements her desires to blend in rather than stick out and as a result, Lena refers to her house as her mothers rather than her fathers.
Another implicit nod towards her internal conflict is illustrated by her contemptuous views towards the environment around her home, “She had hated this dirt road and the mud in the spring and the dust in the summer, the ruts in the fall and the ungraded snow in the winter.”, embodies her belief that her problems can be upended by moving to a more cosmopolitan place.
Her desires to conform grows to overshadows her intrinsic family values, ultimately taking the better of her as she departs from her reserve to the city.
Lena’s arrival in the city scene marks a dramatic shift in her life, an event the author uses to foster Lena’s epiphany as it dawns on her that a lifestyle different from her community doesn’t necessarily ensure her a sense of belonging.
The arrival of the city marks the climax of Lena’s story, a major component of her desire to conform to a society during her life in the reserve.
In light of being accepted into mainstream society, Lena enters the city to the warm feelings of being “totally alone as she walked down a narrow hallway”, kindling a sense of overwhelming remorse within Lena as she drowns in an urban society. Portrayed by the coyote of whom Lena remembered had ” run in the city…ridden to the top of the elevator and ran around crazily”. Lena had too ridden a metaphorical elevator of which is her trip to the city only to be overwhelmed by the flashing strobes lights of a city life. Her secret knowledge of what drove the coyote to suicide as “the lonely ride to the top” is an anecdotal depiction that shows how she can relate through her face to face experience with loneliness during her own trip. Just as nobody wants coyotes to be in the city, Lena feels unwanted and friendless. Life in the city proliferates quickly to become blank and meaningless, portrayed by her feelings of “”dizziness as she saw how many doors there were” and the “blank patches of sky” behind them.
After a festering internal conflict, the life in the city ultimately causes Lena to grow as a character, enabling her to see past the delusions of fitting in with society whilst empowering her to see the overarching value of family and intrinsic culture.
Lena’s trip home speaks volumes in terms of character development. Her feelings of being “light, weightless and somewhat insubstantial” reflects how living in the homogenized city had stripped her sense of character and culture. The sight of the redundant beaten road temporarily lapses Lena back into her old self as she is tempted to “turn back and bolt to the bus”. Her walk home is paired with the tattling of a crow, a symbol that serves as her father. The tattling of the crow infuriates Lena, synonymous with her frustration from her father’s preaching of being divergent. Instead of arguing back however, Lena finds herself at a loss for words and in tears from a flashback to the city, illustrating the fact that she has realized her father had been right all along about her experience with the metropolitan area. As she reaches the blue door, she reflects upon the time she has spent away from the land and realizes the white freeway line ends right at the door, a symbolic shift to entrench her reunification with her family.
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