ENGL 2210 World Literature II
"Yellow Woman": Study Guide
- Main Issues
- Personal identity
- Marriage and adultery
- Duty and desire
- Crossing of moral and social boundaries
- Laguna Pueblo spirituality
- Relationship between myth and reality
- How did the two characters meet?
- What kind of an adventure is this? Romantic, purely sexual, mythological?
- Why do you think does the narrator follow Silva and accept the role of the Yellow Woman?
- Does she resist Silva? Why, or why not?
- How does the woman try to assure herself that she is not Yellow Woman?
- Does the narrator feel guilty about what has happened?
- Do you think the narrator was seduced? What does it mean to be "seduced"?
- How does the narrator describe the sexual experience with Silva? What does he find appealing about him?
- How is the issue of personal identity dealt with in the story? The narrator is not sure whether she is or is not Yellow Woman.
- How does the narrator feel after leaving Silva? Why?
- Why do you think the narrator believes that Silva will come back?
- Do you think by following Silva the narrator is simply breaking free from social oppression, or is there something more to it?
- What story will the narrator tell her family as to what happened to her?
- Why does the narrator wish that he grandfather were alive to hear her story?
- What do the Yellow Woman stories suggest concerning human desire?
- What is the story's view of adultery and of the narrator abandoning her family to follow Silva?
- List examples in the story where the narrator suggests that the experience with Silva is purely physical.
- List examples in the story where the narrator suggests that the experience with Silva is NOT purely physical.
- Why do you think the narrator is unsure if she is "Yellow Woman"?