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Leslie Silko's, Yellow Woman: An Old Myth Changed into a Modern Story

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Yellow Woman Introduction: The concept of the change and longevity of the fairy tale (or myth) is well illustrated in the story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. Not only is the story a modern explanation of a traditional Native American myth, but the style that Silko uses to tell it evokes and adapts the oral communication style that those old myths were passed down with. The story is also very self-consciously aware of its place as a modern revision of a myth, and makes many internal references to this aspect of itself. “Yellow Woman” becomes, in effect, the modern version of a Native American myth or legend, and therefore is a perfect example of the way in which old tales are made new. If one analyzes “Yellow Woman,” one can see that …show more content…

She’ll come home – they usually do.” (433) Silko laments the death of this tradition, but it is also clear that she is aware of the formation and evolution of new myths out of the old ones. Silva frequently mentions these old stories, but in a way that means to reinforce their validity. He refuses to tell her where he comes from, and he repeatedly calls her Yellow Woman as a way of invoking the old myths. He would have the narrator believe that she really is a modern Yellow Woman, just as he is an ancient mountain spirit. The narrator is not quite ready to believe this herself, though, and she frequently denies the possibility of her being Yellow Woman. At one point, she says that she cannot be Yellow Woman, “Because she is from out of time past and I live now and I’ve been to school and there are highways and pickup trucks that Yellow Woman never saw.” (430) She makes similar comments often, but it only serves to remind us how aware she is of the old myths, and how they influence her own thoughts and reactions to modern life. The narrator is constantly thinking about what it means if she is a new Yellow Woman, and thinks about how her situation might be similar to the women in the old stories. She even thinks about

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