What is
the significance of the narrator's romantic adventure with Silva?
Is Silva a spirit? Is the narrator "Yellow Woman"?
Is it significant that the word "silva" means "forest"
or "jungle"? What does that suggest? What does he
represent? Why does the narrator follow Silva and accept the
role of Yellow Woman? Are the old stories about the ka'tsina
spirit and Yellow Woman relevant to Silva and the narrator?
What do the stories make possible? What do they suggest concerning
human desire and human society? How do they make the love relationship
possible? How do such stories fit in with other values and social
and moral considerations? How does the story view the issue
of adultery and of the narrator abandoning her family to follow
Silva? Is she judged or condemned for it? Does she feel guilty
about it?
How does
the narrator describe her experience of Silva' body? What is
the significance of the frequent mention of warmth and dampness?
How about the experience of riding the horse? Why does she repeatedly
say she feels hungry? How are sensory and bodily perceptions
treated in the story? What do they suggest concerning the significance
of the situation and the experiences of the narrator?
What does
Pueblo mythology seem to suggest regarding human identity and
social roles? Is personal identity in the story always the same
and always stable? Can a person have more than one identity?
Why? How? What forces determine those identities? How or why
does identity change? What are the causes, implications, and
effects of changes of role or identity?
What is
the significance of geographical spaces and directions (north,
south, etc) and movement in those directions? How does physical
space function in the story? What is its meaning? How are boundaries
established? What is the significance of the crossing or transgression
of boundaries? Why does Silva say, "from here I can see
the world"? What kind of a perception is that? What is
his point of view? Is it significant that he mentions the boundaries
and areas occupied by the Navajos, the Pueblo people, the Texans,
and the Mexicans? What issues do such divisions suggest? How
do Silva's perceptions alter or subvert that cultural geography?
Why does
Silva say he steals from others? What does he steal? Is his
stealing significant in any way? How is it connected to the
issues of boundaries and divisions? What does his stealing accomplish
or suggest? How does he look at private property? What kind
of a statement does Silva make through his stealing (including
the stealing of Yellow Woman)? Is she too someone's property?
Why does
the narrator give in to Silva's desires? Are they also her desires?
In what way? What does her lack of resistance suggest? What
does Silva have to offer her?
What is
the significance of their encounter with the fat, white man?
How is the man characterized? What does he say to Silva? What
happens then? Does Silva kill him? What does that suggest?
Why is the
narrator sad at leaving Silva? Why does she want to go back
to him and kiss and touch him? Why does she believe he will
come back?
What is
the significance of the narrator's wish that her grandfather
could be alive to hear her story? How is storytelling connected
to the ideas and issues brought up in the story?
How are
gender issues treated in this story? Is Silko a feminist or
is she merely reinforcing patriarchal stereotypes? Is the narrator
breaking free from oppression or merely giving in to a new oppressor?
How about
cultural and social norms? How are they viewed? Are they criticized
or upheld? From what point of view? Are some cultures seen as
more or less valuable than others? Is Silko suggesting the existence
of truths or forces that transcend culture and society? What
might those be?
How does
this story define spirituality? How is that spirituality connected
to the relations between individuals and between different cultures?
How is spirituality connected to the relations between human
beings and the natural world? What roles do Silva and the narrator
play in the definition of that spirituality?
How is myth
employed in the critique of a given social and cultural order?
Can myth and fiction play a role in the transformation of the
real world? What does the story suggest?