Yellow Woman
| “Yellow Woman” | |
|---|---|
| Author | Leslie Marmon Silko |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Published in | The Man to Send Rain Clouds: Contemporary Stories by American Indians[1] |
| Publication type | Anthology |
| Publication date | 1874 |
"Yellow Woman" is a short story by Leslie Marmon Silko, originally published in the 1974 anthology The Man to Send Rain Clouds: Contemporary Stories by American Indians.
Summary
An unnamed woman has a sexual encounter with a man that lasts several days despite her having a husband and child.
Characters
Yellow Woman
Yellow Woman is a female who leaves her family to have a brief sexual encounter with a Navajo man. Yellow Woman is not her real name. She has been kidnapped by a stranger when she was near the river.
Silva
Silva is the Navajo man that Yellow Woman runs away with for a brief time. The story leads you to believe he is a cattle thief and maybe even a murderer. Silva is a man who has kidnapped the woman.
Grandfather
Grandfather is just a memory to Yellow Woman now because he is dead. He told her all the stories about Yellow Woman.
The Rancher
The Rancher is a fat white man who has a sour smell to him. He and his people have been looking for Silva for a long time because he's a thief who rustles their cattle for the meat.
Themes
• Traditional native values versus contemporary American values.
- The roles of wife and mother at odds with desire.
Works Cited
- Fajardo-Acosta, Fidel (2002). "Yellow Woman". Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta's World Literature Website. Retrieved 2021-09-01. Overview of themes and study questions.
- Silko, Leslie Marmon (2002). Yellow Woman. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 187–193].