Yellow Woman

Unlike much of Silko’s work, “Yellow Woman” is more concerned with the individual choices and identity of the narrator than with wider reaching political activism. The repeated instances of ambiguity throughout the story, especially tied to names and memory, reflect the internal conflict of the narrator: She must choose whether to stay in the mountains and fully become Yellow Woman or return to the Pueblo and her family, solidifying herself as a modern woman. There is, in her indecision, a sense of Cultural Alienation from her Indigenous roots. The consistent natural imagery connected to Silva and his way of life in the mountains reflects another element of her choice—Tradition Versus Progress.

The ambiguity of names and the dreamlike quality of the story both serve to illuminate the narrator’s sense of indecision. The question of consent connected to her romantic engagement with Silva also highlights the importance of the narrator’s Female Power and Sexuality. The end of the story is steeped in ambiguity, raising and yet refusing to answer the question of whether Yellow Woman returns to modernity because she is violently forced, or because she makes a conscious choice.