Yellow Woman

“I felt hungry and followed the river south the way we had come the afternoon before, following our footprints that were already blurred by lizard tracks and bug trails.”

The narrator chooses to walk away from Silva at first, which shows she has a sense of agency and can make choices even though she does not follow through with her choice. The footprint image is blurred, reflecting the overarching ambiguity that colors the entire story.

“Last night you guessed my name, and you knew why I had come.”

Silva’s language suggests that the narrator has knowledge beyond her awareness. He exerts control, inciting the question of consent, but ultimately assigns the responsibility of the truth of the situation to the narrator.

“But I only said that you were him and that I was Yellow Woman—I’m not really her—I have my own name and I come from the pueblo on the other side of the mesa.”

The narrator’s attempt to reject the identity of Yellow Woman reveals her inner conflict as she struggles to determine who she is and which culture she belongs to. That she was the one who called herself Yellow Woman and also cast Silva as ka’tsina suggests the ambiguity in her identity originates in her storytelling.