Awareness of Life

For hundreds of years, women have struggled with unrealistic ideals imposed unremittingly upon them. In “Yellow Woman”, Silko scrutinizes the domination of women and their roles as viewed within society. The young Pueblo woman feels compelled to flee the security of her monotonous life. Her role as a traditional passive woman begins to redefine with a fortuitous encounter.

Our modern society believes only in ideas for which we have substantial evidence to support. Now that the young Pueblo woman is educated, she does not have faith that the story of Yellow Woman, as her grandfather had told, could be true for her. She thinks to herself, “Eventually I will see someone, and then I will be certain that he is only a man - some man from nearby - and I will be sure that I am not Yellow Woman” (Silko 189). When Silva says to her, “Last night you guessed my name, and you knew why I had come”, she begins to doubt her previous thoughts as to whether she may be Yellow Woman (Silko 188). Awareness slowly begins to link the past and present; she contemplates what is happening now to the way things happened in the stories long-ago. With this newfound realization, she begins to conquer the more traditional submissive roles and expand into a more assertive individual.

Now that she perceives herself more as the Yellow Woman, she recognizes that she can decide her own fate instead of the traditional roles society has given women. She does not feel compelled to leave with Silva but desires to be with him. Silko seems to portray the young Pueblo woman as being fearful of him at times, when this fear is actually displaced feelings of abandonment of her more traditional roles. As seen when she thinks to herself, “I was afraid because I understood that his strength could hurt me. I lay underneath him and I knew he could destroy me. But later, while he slept beside me, I touched his face and I had a feeling – the kind of feeling for him that overcame me that morning along the river” (Silko 191). She is not ashamed of the new reality she has grasped with this enigmatic stranger. She remembered that she meant to go home, “but that didn’t seem important anymore” (Silko 191).

As she comes to terms that she is more like Yellow Woman and has a broader range of opportunities than she realized, she begins to think less of her family and more of her recent distinction of herself. She has several chances to return home but each time she missies the chance and chooses to stay. “There are enough of them to handle things. My mother and grandmother will raise the baby…..Al will find someone else, and they will go on like before” thought the young Pueblo woman (Silko 191). From these thoughts came a realization that she is more than the social traditions of a mother and wife. When she finally sees the white rancher, she has her proof that Silva is not the ka’tsina spirit.

The woman is sad when she finally does leave Silva after the confrontation with the rancher. After coming to the fork in the road, she chooses the route back to her home thinking, “I went that way instead of uphill to the mountains because I thought it was safer” (Silko 193). When she is at the river, thoughts flooded back to her of Silva and she longed to return to the mountains to find him again. She has faith that “he will come back sometime and be waiting again by the river” (Silko 193). This faith allows her to reunite with her family and normal life, but she still has control over the decisions she makes in her life.

Sipiora, Phillip. “Yellow Woman.” Reading and Writing about Literature. Pearson Education, Inc, 2002. 187-193.