Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

When I first began reading “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” it immediately reminded me of my time in Junior High School. Connie is superficial and concerned with her looks and also feels like she doesn’t live up to the standards that her older sister sets. I thought in similar ways when I was in junior high. I didn’t like telling my mom what I was up to or what was going on in my life. My sister seemed like the perfect child, hard working and always doing extremely well in school, and I saw myself as the “nothing special,” middle child.

On the other hand, I didn’t really like how the mother always treated Connie with such contempt. Even though Connie seems too mature and confident for her fifteen years, it’s always extremely difficult for a child or teenager to feel as if her mother dislikes her. A mother should look after her children and encourage them instead of treating them as if they are a burden and disappointment.

It seems that Connie feels isolated and left out from her family. This was especially clear when she was left alone at home after declining to attend the barbeque at her aunt’s house. Even though she chose to stay home alone, Connie seemed surrounded by her loneliness. Her loneliness was characterized by her need to drown out the silence at home with sounds from the radio. I believe that her self- awareness and confidence are a façade and that deep down she probably feels like a small and neglected child.

Her relationship with her family has caused Connie to become an irresponsible and naïve child. Connie’s carelessness finally caught up to her when the man from the night before basically revealed himself as her stalker. She was put in an intense and traumatic situation, a kind of situation that most girls her age still have to worry about. It really unsettled me how much he knew about Connie and her friends and family. He really started scaring me after a while, trying to take advantage of such a naïve girl. By the time I finished the story, I was so worried for the girl and her family. She was helpless and had no idea what to do. That man completely disgusted me.

Yellow Woman

I enjoyed reading “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. I was a little lost when I began reading the story and it took me a little while to figure out exactly what was going on and what happened. I thought it was interesting how the narrator and Silva continued to draw a connection to the Native American story of the Yellow Woman. On the other hand, I didn’t really like the narrator’s character. I believe she let this whole situation happen, and if she had never known the story of the Yellow Woman she never would have gotten seduced by him.

The narrator is very weak minded and lets herself be controlled by Silva because she believes he is stronger than she is. She seems to be a stereotypical adulterer. The narrator has a quiet and dull personality that reflects the lack of excitement in her life. She is probably unsatisfied by her life at home with her husband, children, and family, and therefore found herself vulnerable to the seductions of an unknown man. He was her one chance to feel the excitement and love that she was missing from her life, and she justified her actions by trying to convince herself of the story of the Yellow Woman. It seemed like the narrator possibly believed that if a woman became legendary for doing something similar to what she was doing, then her actions must not be extremely immoral.

On the other hand, Silva seems like the typical man who enjoys the physical pleasures of a woman instead of the love and compassion that one can offer. To put it simply, he is the generic “non-commitment” type. It seems like all that really happened in the story, underneath the tales of the Yellow Woman, was that Silva saw a pretty woman walking along the river and decided to “go for it.” My guess is that he has had experience with taking advantage of women, considering his knowledge of the old Native American tales. He misled the lonely woman to satisfy his physical needs. I realized this when he basically forced her to make love with her by holding her to the ground and declaring, “’You don’t understand, do you, little Yellow Woman? You will do what I want.’” At that point in the story, I understood that he probably cares more about satisfying himself than caring for the narrator. Silva is the epitome of a womanizer.

Once I got past the tale of the Yellow Woman, I realized that it was only an excuse and ploy for Silva to take advantage of a lonely woman. Underneath the tale, it became apparent that this was mainly a story of an unsatisfied, weak woman who was seduced by a womanizer.