Peacefull nature
In the very beginning of the story, the narrator depicts an image of the natural world: “The small brown water birds came to the river and hopped across the mud, leaving brown scratches in the alkali-white crust. They bathed in the river silently. I could hear the water, almost at our feet where the narrow fast channel bubbled and washed green ragged moss and fern leaves”. The images give an impression of peace and happiness, it describes a place where a person feels secured.
Landscape change
As the Yellow woman and the Stranger were moving, the landscape around them began to change: “I watched the change from the cottonwood trees along the river to the junipers that brushed past us in the foothills and finally there were only pinons, and when I looked up at the rim of the mountain plateau I could see pine trees growing on the edge. Once I stopped to look down, but the pale sandstone had disappeared and the river was gone and the dark lava hills were all around”. This change is parallel to the change of feelings of Yellow Woman. She becomes more excited, but in a rather worried way, and this change is mirrored with her emotions – the nature around her becomes more blurry and of darker tints, and she as well becomes hungry and worried. Besides, she was thinking at the moment about her family, they must have already begun to worry about her as she was absent since yesterday afternoon.
Smelling smells of mountains
Along with the images that provoke visual pictures there are imagery that provokes senses of smelling in the story. “I smelled a mountain smell of pinch and buck brush”. This image proves that wood may be not only an object of admiration, but also that there are things that might make a person curl one’s mouth.
