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.