April Raintree

Cheryl Raintree was an amazing character in the novel, April Raintree. Despite the difficulty of her childhood, she had dreams, goals and the ability to make people laugh and feel good about themselves. Unfortunately towards the end of the novel we see a change in Cheryl’s character. We see the corruption and uncertainty that the influence of alcohol can have on a person and its devastating effects.
Cheryl Raintree was a very outgoing person. She had the ability to make people laugh and feel good about themselves. We see this character trait developed from a very early age. When Cheryl, April, and their parents got together for their early family meetings, it was Cheryl that was able to lighten up the mood and make her family able to relax. She stood up for herself and others and wouldn’t tolerate letting other people put her down or boss her around. We see this side of her outgoing nature when we look at the time Cheryl spent with the DeRosier children. She refused to let them boss her around or pick on her. She also would talk back and stand up for herself on the bus rides on the way to school. Cheryl was not afraid to get out into the world and make new friends. We see this both during her time at university as well as when she began to volunteer at the Friendship Centre. Cheryl made many new friends including Nancy. These are some things that Cheryl did to demonstrate that she was a very outgoing person.
Cheryl was also very proud of who she was. She was not ashamed of being a Métis and looked up to her heritage with both pride and respect. She demonstrated this in her keen interest in the history of the Métis and the Indians. She wrote many papers and read many books about the history from which she came. Cheryl also demonstrated her pride for the Métis during history class while living with the DeRosiers. She felt that the history book they were studying only portrayed the white people’s point of view. She stood up for the Métis people and wouldn’t back