Essay Questions

How does the narrator struggle with identity throughout her ordeal with Silka?

Throughout this text, the narrator never reveals her true name. Though she admits to having one, she never permits the readers to know it, which perhaps suggests that the narrator does not identify with her name. As the narrator spends time with Silka, she experiences two parallel struggles of identity—one in which she fails to identify with herself and one in which she fails to identify with her situation. The Yellow Woman cannot determine what around her is real and what is myth and, as such, she is very distrustful of her own ability to perceive the experiences around her. In short, the narrator adopts the Yellow Woman persona upon herself because she, herself, has not yet determined her own sense of identity.

Why does the narrator wish her grandfather was still alive at the conclusion of the story?

During her ordeal in the mountains, the narrator reveals that her grandfather told her the story of the Yellow Woman myth when she was a child. Though most people view the Yellow Woman myth as just that—a myth—the narrator’s grandfather suspected that there is some truth to the story. As such, when the woman returns to her family at the conclusion of the story and when they did not even appear to notice her absence, the narrator ultimately makes the decision to withhold her experience from her family. She chooses to willingly lie to them about Silka and the mythical experiences she had just gone through. As the narrator makes the decision, however, and returns to her ‘normal’ life, she longs deeply to tell her grandfather the truth of her experience, for she knew that he would be more likely to believe her tale.

Why does the narrator ultimately choose to tell her family that she was kidnapped by Navajos?

Throughout her entire ordeal in the mountains with Silka, the narrator is constantly doubting her experiences. She struggles to believe her own eyes and senses—even as she descended the mountain and returned to her family. Though the woman had essentially projected herself into the Yellow Woman persona and found solace in her, she doubts that her family would understand how deeply the experience had moved her, let alone that it had occurred at all. The narrator also doubts the validity of her own experiences and continues to wonder if she imagined the whole ordeal. This self-doubt, combined with the narrator’s own lack of confidence in her identity, ultimately encouraged her to lie to her family about the mythical truth. In the end, the narrator chose her family that she was kidnapped by Navajos because she did not feel that her family would be able to comprehend her experience and/or help her to parse through it.