A theme is a common idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature. There are several themes that are depicted in the story of a yellow woman.
The theme of ambiguity and identity. Just like any other contemporary Native American story, “Yellow Woman” is apprehensive with liminality. This can be described as existing in two worlds. According to the Native American worldview, “nature” comprises spirits, animals, and people who occupy the earth. The narrator in the “Yellow Woman” discovers herself between two worlds of her daily life and that of the mythological past of her people. Also, it is evident that Silko does not state the narrator of the story which adds ambiguity to the story.
The theme of storytelling, Transience, and Transcendence. The theme of storytelling has been depicted all over the story as the narrator tells talks about the community’s history. Silko writes about the Native American cultures including Lugana and also the favourite stories are repeated all over. The narrator also tells the story of the Navaho who had kidnapped her. She can notice the resemblance of her own experience to that of a yellow woman.
Also, the themes of Transgression, sexuality, and power. In numerous ways “Yellow Woman” is all about power, sexuality, and transgression. This is evident when the narrator abandons her husband AI and child and goes to Silva. Though she married with many roles, her engagement with the river primes her to abandon her initial life for a second thought.
Also, the theme of nature is evident in the narrative. The narrator had lived in a time-bound historical world before her experience with Silva. Her grandfather narrated stories that gave her a link to the past through her grandmother lived mainly in the present.
Also evident in the story is the theme of reality and myth. For the bigger part of the story, the narrator is in a dream-like state, observing carefully her surroundings though still doubting her senses. Myth and mysticism are evident when she was spending her time with Silva where reality blends imprecisely. She chooses to tell her family the truth that she was not kidnapped by a mountain spirit but rather by the Navajo. Silko blurs the boundary between reality and myth and put forward that no such limit really exists by making the narrative of realism and mythology. Additionally, the narrator’s senses at some point in the story contest to form her present reality. The picture in her mind of who she is in her home of the mesa conflict with her sense as Yellow Woman linking with the mountain spirit. Again, her closeness to definite spaces appears to sway her insight into reality.
Also, evident is the theme of prophecy. For the storyteller, the Yellow Woman stories seem to be like a prophecy that predicts her present and the future in a way that, even if she decides not to trust her position in the narrative, she is ineffective against the story’s unbending impact. The storyteller proposes that if she is truly the Yellow Woman from the mythologies that suggest she is also certain of the Yellow Woman’s fate. As she gets involved in love affairs with Silva, the alleged ka’tsina mountain spirit, her past stories about the yellow Woman that her grandfather told her about relate well with her current experiences. The Yellow Woman myths interrupt the narrative so that the tales that occurred supposedly a long time ago are dishevelled with the present narrative.
References
Silko, L. M. (1993). Yellow woman. Rutgers University Press.
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