Sunday, November 20, 2011

Silko's "Yellow Woman"

1. Silko's "Yellow Woman" is a simple story of a young woman's brief romantic adventure with a handsome, mysterious stranger names Silva. Although the events may have actually taken place, the narrator only fantasizes that she is the Yellow Woman and that Silva is a ka'tsina (a spirit). If Silva was a ka'tsina, he wouldn't steal and kill the innocent rancher. The narrator only wanted to believe that she was the Yellow Woman. She obeys Silva even though she doesn't know him because she wanted to be a part of the Yellow Woman story. This portrays a theme of desire in the story because the narrator desired to be more than what she was. Silva also goes along with the story and makes her question her sense of what is real.

2. The characters in "Yellow Woman" possess both the roles of male and female archetypes. In Laguna Pueblo culture, the Yellow Woman was both heroic and sexual. Females are portrayed as courageous in the service of their people and usually achieve success through sexuality rather than destruction.  Yellow Woman tales embody male qualities with an aggressive sexuality but with a traditional object of female desire.

3. The story of "Yellow Woman" is about the narrator. Even though we as readers never learn her name, we get an insight to her thoughts that allows her character to develop. The story is about her struggle between a life of fantasy as the Yellow woman or a normal life as a mother and wife.

1 comment:

  1. i thought this story was very interesting but also very strange. even if we didn't get to know her name, by narrator, we knew what she was thinking and how she felt about everything around her.
    basically i thought all she wanted to was to get away from her family for a little while to have an affair. what confused me throughout the story was if there was a male to affair with or it was all imagination of herself.

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