Ambiguity In Leslie Silko's Yellow Woman

In “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko, the story is suggested to be mythic in origin, and not about adultery. The narrator is not given a name which adds to the ambiguity of the story and raises the possibility of the unnamed narrator being Yellow Woman. The setting and time are ambiguous when Silva (or Whirlwind Man) and the narrator are in the mountains, highways, pick-up trucks, and Jell-O is all mentioned. Making it clear that it is the twentieth century and the unnamed narrator is living in modern times. Yet, when Silva and the narrator are in the mountains all these things disappear making the flow of time ambiguous. The unnamed narrator herself wonders if what is happening is part of the legends of “the ka’tsina spirit” and refuses to acknowledge it till the very end of the story. The narrator not having a name, the ambiguous setting and time, and the narrator herself wondering if she is the Yellow Woman is evidence to disprove that “Yellow Woman” is about adultery.
The

narrator does not have an identity in the “Yellow Woman” something that she can claim beyond the title of Yellow Woman. The narrator is a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. She has a husband, a child, and a home waiting for her. The narrator knows who she is and yet she is also the Yellow Woman. The unnamed narrator inhabits two identities at once, one where she is a wife and mother. Her other identity is part of a mythic tale where the narrator makes off with a mountain spirit. As a wife and mother, the narrator has an affair with Silva a cattle rustler in the mountains. The narrator wonders if the Yellow Woman knew who she was as well, “I was wondering if Yellow Woman had known who she was- if she had known she would become part of the stories. Maybe she had another name her husband and relatives called her so that only the ka’tsina and the storytellers would know her as Yellow Woman.” Silko doesn’t give us a name for the narrator the reader only has one title to call her, Yellow Woman. Without a name the tale of the Yellow Woman told for centuries in the Laguna Pueblo tribe can be occupied by any woman in the tribe. The Yellow Woman can appear anywhere and be anybody. That is why she has no name.
“Yellow Woman” is set along a river, on mountain trails, in Silva’s house on the mountain, and in the narrators Laguna pueblo.

The time the story is based in is the twentieth century which is apparent by the mentioning of highways, pick-up trucks, and Jell-O. While narrator and Silva are in the mountains or on the trails all evidence of modern times are gone. Yet, when the unnamed narrator returns home she sees, “…pale blue and full of thin clouds and fading vapor trails left by jets.” Silva and the unnamed narrator live in the twentieth century but as they travel the Arizona Mountains in this border region they are able to exist in the past and present. The Yellow Woman tale is from “time immemorial”, yet the narrator is experiencing the tale of the Yellow Woman. In the mountains where Silva (Whirlwind Man) lives time is frozen and it appears as though Silva and the narrator are in the past. While they are in the mountains it is like they are Whirlwind Man and Yellow Woman for that

time.
The unnamed narrator admits in the beginning of the story that she is the Yellow Woman when she and Silva were intimate. When Silva insists that she is indeed the Yellow Woman the narrator says: “…the old stories about the ka’tsina spirit and Yellow Woman can’t mean us.” The unnamed narrator is positive that she is not the Yellow Woman because the Yellow Woman is just a myth, it happened in time immemorial. The narrator convinces herself that if she sees another man then she will be positive that she is not Yellow Woman and that Silva is only a man. Yet, when Silva and the narrator meet the white rancher the unnamed narrator sees, “something ancient and dark – something I could feel in my stomach – in his eyes.” The encounter with the white man and the darkness she sees in Silva’s eyes seems to convince the narrator of who she is. At the end tells herself that Silva will come back to the river where they met, “because I believe it”. The narrator seems to believe that Silva will be back by the river. The narrator doesn’t know when Silva will return to the river but she knows he will because she believes it.
In conclusion, “Yellow Woman” is a short story about a myth taking place in present time, not adultery. Leslie Silko wrote a short story about the Yellow Woman which empowers the woman in her culture and showed how myths travel through time. In the text of “Yellow Woman,” there is no evidence to suggest that it is about adultery at all, even culturally. The narrator is not named in the text and therefore the reader gives the narrator the title Yellow Woman. The setting is ambiguous and moves through the time when Silva and the narrator are in the mountains which allow Silva and the unnamed narrator to travel through ‘time’. The unnamed narrator considers her role as the Yellow Woman and rejects the idea until she witnesses Silva sees something dark in his eyes, this convinces her that she could be Yellow Woman. The subject of adultery is not at the forefront of this story and is not the narrator’s main concern. The narrator’s main concern is her position as the Yellow Woman, it is about the myth of Yellow Woman.