Silko Paper

English Lit 0326

4/23/12

Silko’s Native American Characters Resistance

“A written speech or statement is highly suspect because the true feelings of the speaker remain hidden as he reads words that are detached from the occasion of the audience” (Silko 1560). This quote from “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective” shows not only Silko’s view, but all Pueblo people’s view on written word. Spoken word is what is most highly valued because it comes from the heart and is unpremeditated and unrehearsed. Silko admits it is a formidable challenge to tell her stories in English because of the different ways Pueblos tell their stories. In her stories, Silko’s characters have a resistance to the white man’s practices due to mistreatment and abuse from them on the Native American people. She uses this characteristic in each of her characters in the stories: “Yellow Woman”, “Storyteller”, and “Lullaby”.

In “Yellow Woman” we meet the ‘god’ Silva, and the Yellow Woman after the fact that they have already met at the river. Silva is an unknown character and is only described as a Ka’tsina or mountain spirit. The yellow woman is never given a name throughout the story, only that she is Pueblo and Silva is not. The day they meet the yellow woman is taken from her home by Silva and forced to stay with him. She knows that he can overpower and harm her so she stays with him. Silva insists that he is a god and refuses to admit his culture to the yellow woman. However, any god that reveals himself as such or says he is one is lying. She knows this and continues to think of Silva as the mountain spirit her Grandfather had always spoke of. Silva has a killer instinct and returns with meat to sell to the market. The mistreatment of the Native American characters isn’t very present until the characters run into the white man on the horse heading to the market. The white man is nervous because he is unarmed and stereotypically thinks that Silva, because he’s an...