Leslie Marmon Silko

To sum up, the narrator in the story is able to fulfill her instinctual desires by becoming a Yellow Woman. She transforms through her dream-like journey into the person she longed to be. It was not until Silva became violent and she sees “something ancient and dark” in his eyes that she begins to snap back into reality. The story reaches out to all of its readers and allows them to relate to the narrator because we all have unfulfilled desires throughout our lives. The sensational descriptions that are given of the landscape as well as her sexual interactions with Silva make the narrator’s thoughts and feelings very easy to understand. In fact many of us who have read the story “Yellow Woman” have a feeling of jealousy that the woman was able to have her adventure and return home and resume her life as normal, without consequence.

Memories of the night before became a vivid memory in the recesses of his dimly lit mind, underneath the sunlight's intruding yet blissful gaze and the sensation of silk against his bare skin felt like a euphoria, a river of midnight encased his slender figure and with the scrunch of his refined nose and furrowed knit of his thin eyebrows, he rose from his slumber. Delicate fingertips leisurely danced across the silken sheets which lost its assuaging warmth only to discern that he was gone, Padding through the spacious house far too big for two alone to fill, and too much of a burden for one to find comfort in. To see his lover, clad in a suit that managed to take his breath away immediately

This essay compares two of Marilyn Dumont’s collection of poems, green girl dreams Mountains, particularly the section “City View”, and her earlier work, A Really Good Brown Girl. There are two key focuses in my essay; the first is that of Dumont’s representation of the self and identity within A Really Good Brown Girl and how it becomes transformative in green girl dreams Mountains, as Dumont is less concentrated on the self and rather on her observations in “City View”. I will also be focusing on the idea of shame; A Really Good Brown Girl is clearly representative of Dumont’s own struggles and emphasizes her marginalized status, whereas in green girl dreams Mountains she uses different socio-economic neighborhoods in order to illustrate the effects and consequences of spatial segregation. There is no lack of effectiveness in regards to the impact on the reader despite the different focuses of the works, one on self and one on the other. Both collections explore the idea of otherness, whether it is on a basis of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic standing.

As a result of beginning this piece with the phrase “where I come from,” Silko immediately begins to build her credibility. Furthermore, the phrase “among the Pueblo people” reveals to the audience that Silko has a Pueblo Indian background. This fact allows the audience to have confidence that Silko knows exactly what she is talking about, since she has had personal experience with the culture of the Pueblo Indians.

In Leslie Silko’s “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit”, Silko explains the true meaning of beauty in her perspective. She tells us about her personal experiences, her past, her family’s origin, expresses her feelings in a way many people could relate to, and the Pueblo traditions. She smoothly explains to us how she found herself among all of the hatred around her.

He waited until the night’s 11th hour. By now the Princess rested in the highest tower of the castle, locked away from the dangerous world, yet so oblivious to the dangers that which fated the rest of her life. Silently the peasant journeyed outside, where he stopped at the wall of the tower where she lay. He watched her in the darkness from below, lifting his face to her, letting the light rest on his every surface of darkness. The night was cloudless. The winds wailed between the motionless oak trees as its thin branches clawed out, ever so slightly disturbing the leaves with its hostile screeches. Not the thick moss of the trees nor the damp leaves squirming in his toes could distract the peasant from so enticing a scent. All that encircled him was the sweetness of lavender and rosewood, filling his entire being as he sunk into the grass, like sand washed over by the water, with every breeze passing

To achieve this goal, I have divided the poem into three parts in order to explain how they all relate to the first stanza and to paint a simple picture for understanding this great work. The first section represents a folktale styled intro, introduces us to the personality of the subject of the poem and her relationship to her environment as seen

The reader is first introduced to Silko, the author, of the Yellow Woman and a Beauty of The Spirit. As an outcast amongst the modern Laguna Pueblo people, who have unfortunately embraced the white man’s traditions. “I had sensed immediately that something about my appearance was not acceptable…” & “Younger people, people my parents’ age, seemed to look At the world in a more modern way.

A whole race of people changed their identity throughout time, while facing unspeakable difficulties they accomplished a change. Maya Angelou is a beautiful writer whose identity is wrapped inside of her literary accomplishments, but was shadowed by the color of her skin. In her piece “Graduation” she portrays the beauty of a race once

“You’ll make a lovely bouquet for my kitchen,” she whispered to the fragrant blossoms. Standing straight, she made her way to her home, looking over her shoulder at the dirt road passing along the side of it. It had been busy in the recent months, but today, it remained empty, stretching out into the horizon and into the small village below.

The air was crisp and clean, as it was a mild autumn day. Throughout the forest, the sounds of nature could be heard. Birds chirping, leaves falling off trees in the midday breeze. The calm sounds of the woods gave way to a new sound: the gentle humming of a young female wanderer, on a quest to visit her grandmother. She quite enjoyed the sounds and view of the forest, as it was her favorite thing to surround herself with as she was growing up in the village not far from the forest edge. As she strolled through the winding paths of the forest road, she thought of the wonderful experiences of the day ahead with her grandmother.

The idea of how someone’s identity defines their path in life has been going around for quite a while. There are all these stereotypes which sadly most of society has succumbed to, making limitations as to how far someone can go ahead in life. When focusing on their cultural, background, many of these ideas have limited many people in achieving far more than what they can do. But, as far as an idea can go, there are always those who dared to go against them. In Maya Angelou’s “New Directions” and Sandra Cisnero’s “Only Daughter”, both characters share a background in which they have to fulfill a certain cultural role.

Leslie Marmon Silko’s work is set apart due to her Native American Heritage. She writes through ‘Indian eyes’ which makes her stories very different from others. Silko is a Pueblo Indian and was educated in one of the governments’ BIA schools. She knows the culture of the white man, which is not uncommon for modern American Indians. Her work is powerful and educating at the same time.

Yellow is a central idea in this work and plays a major role, the protagonist calling it an “unclean” color and finding it to be absolutely “repellant.” To understand this story more, we must look into what the color means. To most people, when they think of the color yellow, they think of the sun; warmth and positivity. But when one looks into what the color means in the language of flowers, one meaning stands out; friendship. Platonic love is sweet and warm, something we would never associate with the word ‘revolting,’ which is just what the protagonist thinks of the color that covers her room.

My interests in research and creative practice have been extended into STEAM collaboration since 2010. In 2010, I was Co-PI and a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, where I received a five-year grant (Jan. 2010-May. 2016) for $1,045,130 from the National Science Foundation for UCF’s ICubed Initiative (Project Title 13: The UCF Community Embraces the Knowledge-Based Economy). This led to my participation in numerous STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) projects and incorporating STEAM ideas into my classroom curriculum. This grant also resulted in presentations at international and national conferences. For example, I presented the paper Enhancing Creativity through Mathematical Concept at the Arts in