29 pages 58 minutes read

Leslie Marmon Silko

Yellow Woman

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1974

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“I felt hungry and followed the river south the way we had come the afternoon before, following our footprints that were already blurred by lizard tracks and bug trails.”


(Paragraph 2)

The narrator chooses to walk away from Silva at first, which shows she has a sense of agency and can make choices even though she does not follow through with her choice. The footprint image is blurred, reflecting the overarching ambiguity that colors the entire story.

Quotation Mark Icon

“Last night you guessed my name, and you knew why I had come.”


(Paragraph 14)

Silva’s language suggests that the narrator has knowledge beyond her awareness. He exerts control, inciting the question of consent, but ultimately assigns the responsibility of the truth of the situation to the narrator.

Quotation Mark Icon

“But I only said that you were him and that I was Yellow Woman—I’m not really her—I have my own name and I come from the pueblo on the other side of the mesa.”


(Paragraph 16)

The narrator’s attempt to reject the identity of Yellow Woman reveals her inner conflict as she struggles to determine who she is and which culture she belongs to. That she was the one who called herself Yellow Woman and also cast Silva as ka’tsina suggests the ambiguity in her identity originates in her storytelling.

Related Titles

By Leslie Marmon Silko

Study Guide

logo

Lullaby

Leslie Marmon Silko

Lullaby

Leslie Marmon Silko

Study Guide

logo

The Man to Send Rain Clouds

Leslie Marmon Silko

The Man to Send Rain Clouds: Contemporary Stories by American Indians

Leslie Marmon Silko

Study Guide

logo

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit

Leslie Marmon Silko

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit

Leslie Marmon Silko