Conflict is readily apparent with visual structure of Rose's autobiographical essay. She utilizes the block text format to indicate the commentaries she has included. It is within these blocks of text she unveils her actual struggles. She relates her agony compositionally and seemingly unattached to the core of the essay and in turn herself.
             The first hint to her tension lies in the opening passage to the piece. It sets the tone to the block text format she has incorporated throughout the essay, "I hate it when other people write about my alienation and anger. It has crippled me, made me sick, made me out of balance. It has also been the source of my poetry." (95) It is evident through these words that she owns her alienation, anger, and hate; she uses it to fuel her work. In order to reconcile her alienation, anger and hate she must first delve into her. She has to find herself, where she came from, and where she is going. The journey she has taken to find herself is her journey, but the burden is not hers to bear alone.
             The idea of identity is what she grapples with. She examines her aloneness, and shares with us the pain of not knowing why she was made to be alone. She confronts the past of her memories of being made to think she was the cause of the disharmony between her parents she bore witness to as child. She cites her physical characteristics as being the culprit to her unhappiness. It was she who bore the Indian features that she did not share with her family. It was she who was less white looking. It was she who was responsible for who she was and who she was to become.
             Rose finds herself looking the part of Indian but not knowing what that was. She knew she was Indian but not knowing how to be one. She knew from where she must have come, but not knowing what that meant. She encountered the truths and the lies that she believed in, but not understanding them. She found herself y...