60 pages • 2 hours read
Leslie Marmon SilkoYellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Stories
Stories are an integral aspect of these essays, both the ancient stories and the more recent familial and personal stories Silkoincludes. Silko argues that “Language is story” (50), implying that her essays are inextricable from the stories she tells in them. Silko also identifies individual words as stories within stories, believing that the words themselves are shaped by experience and identity.
Silko gleans this understanding of language from Pueblo culture at large. It is something that she learned growing up by listening to oral storytelling:“The oral narrative, or story, became the medium through which the complex of Pueblo knowledge and belief was maintained” (30). In this way, there is no difference between the ways in which Silko tells creation stories/myths and her retelling of personal experiences.
This similarity has the effect of likening human experience to that of the divine, as everything is understood within the sacred context of knowledge. In Pueblo communities, therefore, it would seem as though both knowledge and stories are considered sacred. The communal aspect of storytelling also substantiates the Pueblo belief in the interconnectivity of all things, as stories link everything to one another. Similarly, this belief in interconnectivity leads to a concept of communal responsibility, as everyone is responsible for ensuring the passing of knowledge between generations.
These stories are also inherently connected to the land itself, as they are connected to all things, both living and not: “Our stories are so much a part of these places that it is impossible for future generations to lose them—there is a story connected with every place, every object in the landscape” (58). The transmission of knowledge is therefore inherently connected to the land through these stories. Each piece of the landscape has a story attached to it, furthering the connection the Pueblo people feel to the land. At the root of these land-centered stories, therefore, is also the trauma associated with the loss of land at the hands of the American government, a theme Silko expands upon in many of the book’s essays.
While these stories explain the significance and connection the Pueblo people feel to the land, they also expand upon notions of the Pueblo identity at large. These stories are inherently connected to Pueblo identity, serving as a medium through which the younger generations are able to understand their place within Pueblo society:
The storytelling had the effect of placing an incident in the wider context of Pueblo history so that individual loss or failure was less personalized and became part of the village’s eternal narratives about loss and failure, narratives that identify the village and tell the people who they are (91).
In this way, the individual can be free of emotions—such as embarrassment or arrogance—that are detrimental to the community. These stories serve as a method by which the Pueblo people are able to understand their relationship to the community, fostering the Pueblo ideals of harmony and interconnectedness. Stories free individuals from the pain or trauma associated with their past and imbue them with a positive understanding of how their actions can affect the community. More than that, these stories serve as a lifeline for understanding Pueblo history: “the stories are alive; the stories are our ancestors” (152).
Harmony
Harmony is an integral aspect of Pueblo culture and closely relates to the interconnectivity of all things. Silko repeatedly stresses the importance of harmony in her book. Specifically, she discusses the ideal of harmony as something that the old-time folks taught her and younger generations was necessary for Pueblo survival:
The old folks used to tell us kids not to disturb the Earth unnecessarily. All things as they were created exist already in harmony with one another as long as we do not disturb them […] In this universe, there is no absolute good or absolute bad; there are only balances and harmonies that ebb and flow (64).
Within Pueblo culture, there is an emphasis placed upon the natural balance of all things, as the world was created in perfect harmony. Therefore, it is the Pueblo belief that individuals should seek to continue this harmony through their actions or, at the very least, not disrupt this harmony.
Humans are an integral part of the harmony of the universe, according to Pueblo belief. However, Silko acknowledges that there is disharmony among all the peoples of the earth, which she believes is mostly a result of the Anglo invasion and colonization of the Americas:“Human beings also are the natural forces of the earth. There will be no peace in the Americas until there is justice for the earth and her children” (151).
Due to the actions of the US government and other Anglo governments and colonizers, there is substantial disharmony within the Pueblo community and globally. Many injustices, including the theft/kidnapping of land, were perpetrated by Anglo colonizers, causing disharmony in the Americas. Silko believes that all disharmony within the Americas stems from these injustices. As such, she predicts that harmony cannot be reached until the disenfranchised and the earth receive justice for the crimes perpetrated against them.
Identity
Many of the essays concern identity, both the identity of Silko as an individual and the identity of the Pueblo community. The Pueblo concept of individual identity is highly dynamic; the Pueblo people do not believe in static definitions of identity. However, the Pueblo concept of identity is stabilized by the communal concept of identity, which is static and inherently tied to the land. This difference in the construction of individual identity and communal identity affords Pueblo individuals great liberty while also maintaining the ideal of community interconnectivity.
Silko also struggles with her identity as a person of mixed race. She sees herself as both separate from and a part of the Pueblo communal identity. Growing up within the Pueblo community, it was not until she was faced with outsidersthat she understood the difference in others’ perception of her identity. An incident with a tourist telling Silko to get out of a picture because she didn’t look like a Native American caused her a certain amount of internal disharmony, which is reflected in the repetition of this incident throughout many of the essays. Eventually, Silko begins to understand her own identity in relation to those within her community:“It was not so easy for me to learn where we Marmons belonged, but gradually I understood that we of mixed ancestry belonged on the outer edge of the circle between the world of the Pueblo and the outside world” (102).
Through many of these essays, Silko uses stories to understand where she fits within the Pueblo culture. In this way, these essays and the stories within them serve as a means for her to gather knowledge about herself through the interrogation of her own conception of identity.
Freedom
Because Silko’s identity—and the identity of the Pueblo people—is so inherently tied to the land, Silko is greatly troubled by the restriction of her and her people from free travel throughout it. She harshly criticizes the Border Patrol and the US government for its restriction of free travel, which she feels is inherent to American identity:
We citizens of the United States grew up believing this freedom of the open road to be our inalienable right. The freedom of the open road meant we could travel freely from state to state without special papers or threat of detainment; this was a ‘right’ citizens of Communist and totalitarian governments did not possess. That wide open highway was what told us we were US citizens. Indeed, some say, this freedom to travel is an integral part of American identity (114).
Silko conflates ideas of identity with ideas of freedom. She argues that American identity is synonymous with freedom, especially the freedom to travel. However, although this may be the ideal, she presents the reality as far from this ideal. In reality, the American people—especially non-Anglo Americans—are not free to travel throughout the land. Rather, they are subjected to the laws and biases of other people and civic entities.
Repetition
Throughout her essays, Silko uses repetition to reinforce ideas. She repeats stories in different formats and within different contexts in order to connect these stories to one another, weaving a spider web of information throughout her essays. She also repeats specific quotations, such as “Humans desecrate only themselves” (125) within the contexts of various stories and different essays, placing these quotations in different parts of the essays as well. In this way, the narrator uses the language to connect these ideas to one another. She mimics the repetition found in the Pueblo tradition of storytelling within her written work, cementing the link between her essays and oral narratives. Silko makes repetition serve as a reminder that her essays are a continuation of Pueblo tradition, an evolution of the knowledge garnered by the Pueblo people for thousands of years. This repetition serves to bolster her identification with the Pueblo community, solidifying her identity as Pueblo.
Related Titles
By Leslie Marmon Silko
