Yellow Woman

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Kenyatta University *

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MISC

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Arts Humanities

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Nov 24, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by PrivateOxide20005

Yellow Woman In her evocative short story "Yellow Woman," Leslie Silko crafts a profound exploration of Indigenous identity and the enduring impacts of colonialism. Through the character of Yellow Woman, a young Laguna Pueblo woman, Silko navigates the dual pressures Native peoples face —the restrictive nature of traditional gender norms and cultural expectations and the coercive forces of imposed assimilation. This analysis examines how Silko employs lyrical prose and symbolic representations to critique these intersecting forms of control and cultural erosion. Central to this exploration is the idea that "Yellow Woman" represents the confined agency Native peoples experienced within their communities as well as the deep-seated confusion wrought by colonial domination over generations. I will briefly discuss Leslie Silko's Laguna Pueblo heritage and the socio-historical backdrop she wrote against to contextualize the reading. The analysis will then delve into Silko's adept use of literary devices like metaphor, symbolism, and selective third-person perspective to convey the complexity of Yellow Woman's journey. Additional insights from secondary sources will augment our discussion by positioning "Yellow Woman" within the broader discourse of Indigenous literature and postcolonial theory. While engaging fruitfully with alternative readings, our thesis maintains that Silko critiques the dual pressures of tradition and colonialism through the Yellow Woman's symbolic representation. Ultimately, this examination seeks to unpack the rich cultural allegories and enduring relevance of Silko's succinct yet powerful narrative. Contextual Background

Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and raised on the Laguna Pueblo reservation, giving her a deep understanding of the Laguna language and traditions ("Leslie Marmon Silko"). Silko's heritage as a Laguna woman shapes her writings as insightful reflections on Indigenous experiences. Silko wrote "Yellow Woman" in the late 1970s, a cultural and political awakening for Native American communities. The Civil Rights Movement increased the visibility of sovereignty issues and treaty rights violations faced by tribes. The American Indian Movement (AIM) led high-profile protests demanding self-determination, like the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee. Against this backdrop of activism and cultural pride, Silko's story offered a nuanced perspective on colonial legacies. Published in 1981, "Yellow Woman" was among the first contemporary works presenting an Indigenous female protagonist's journey after colonization (Allen 242). The Laguna Pueblo community's matrilineal traditions and connection to ancestral homelands also informed Silko's emphasis on cultural identities shaped through multigenerational female relationships to land. Literary Devices Leslie Silko employs a range of strategic literary devices that deepen her critique of colonialism's enduring impacts on Indigenous identities, gender roles, and cultural autonomy. Through the artful use of symbolism, metaphor, and selective third-person perspective focused on the Yellow Woman, Silko crafts a subtly powerful representation of the dual pressures Native communities face. Symbolism and Cultural Allegory

Silko densely imbues mundane details with symbolic resonance that metaphorically convey colonial violation and cultural fracturing. For example, scholars note landscape descriptions symbolic of disrupted Native relationships with transformed territories. However, Silko amplifies this symbolism through additional cultural allegories. Yellow Woman's failure to learn Laguna's healing practices as a girl symbolizes the erosion of Indigenous autonomy and knowledge transmission regarding botanical remedies (Sneider). This declining connection to cultural identity intensifies as colonizers commodity ancestral lands as exploitable property. Silko represents how modifying ecologies targets sovereignty reliant on the multigenerational stewardship of territories (Cajete 45). Landscape changes mirroring Yellow Woman's disconnection metaphorically convey colonialism’s attacks on place-based Indigenous worldviews. Silko imbues settings with nuanced symbolism, critiquing the disruption of ecologies and knowledge’s underlying Native resilience. Metaphors of Colonial Imposition Yellow Woman is a multilayered metaphor representing the intersecting restraints of tradition and imposed assimilation. She emerges as a symbolic vessel for critiquing the restrictive nature of Laguna gender norms (Allen). However, her subjection to patriarchal domestic abuse amplifies metaphorical representations of colonial systems violently co-opting Indigenous autonomy. Yellow Woman's experiences navigating gender-based oppression in two distinct societies metaphorically convey continued struggles for self-determination amid interwoven internal and external patriarchal violence (Cobb). Her inability to prevent rejecting assimilation represents the metaphorical fracturing of multigenerational belonging. Silko imbues Yellow Woman with

polyvalent symbolic resonances that deepen her nuanced representations of dual pressures constraining Indigenous agency. Selective Third-Person Perspective While strategically maintaining a third-person limited perspective, Silko ensures the narrative remains uncompromisingly focused on Yellow Woman's perceptions and losses. This selective perspective refuses notions of progress through imposed assimilation by illuminating its traumatic rupturing of familial and cultural continuity from an insider Indigenous female viewpoint (Raheja ). Maintaining this selective lens centered on an Indigenous woman's subjectivity strategically amplifies Silko's critique of the silencing of Native female narratives and priorities under colonial frameworks. Strategic Allusions and Imagery Silko makes strategic allusions to Laguna's cultural knowledge and practices that add richness without explanation. When Yellow Woman is unable to heal herself as an abused wife, this subtle reference to lost herbal teachings alludes to the colonial disruption of intergenerational transmission integral to well-being. Vegetation is also changed through imagery: "I watched the change from the cottonwood trees along the river to the junipers that brushed past us in the foothills, and finally there were only pinons, and when I looked up at the rim of the mountain plateau I could see pine trees growing on the edge. Once, I stopped to look down, but the pale sandstone had disappeared, the river was gone, and the dark lava hills were all around". This change is parallel to the change of feelings of the Yellow Woman. The changing vegetation - from cottonwoods to junipers to pinions - as Yellow Woman journeys up the mountain represents the shifting of her cultural

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