Silko's Legendary Essay On The Pueblo People

Silko’s legendary essay on the Pueblo people is quite the fantastic tale; mostly due to its well-built structure. The story draws you in from the beginning, and its excellent storytelling lures you out until finally actually getting to the point of the essay nearly at the end. The very beginning of the piece grabs you with its opening sentence: ‘From the time I was a small child, I was aware that I was different.’ How was she different? She goes on to explain she was of mixed blood; that a Caucasian man had married her great-grandmother. Then, she immediately switches to talking about her family; primarily her grandmother. She does this throughout the essay; changing topics to newer items close enough to be relevant, but different enough evolve a steady plot point. She goes from her grandmother as a jumping board to go to most old pueblo people, to the ‘unique’ (by western culture standards) traditions of those the elderly, to the stories behind those traditions.

However, most of all, they have this underlying building of grandeur. She starts small and simple; how her grandmother, a senior woman, is still quite active in her age, even chopping her wood. That moves on to the stories of the different traditions of the older persons of the Pueblo people; how often, real gender, and discrimination thereof is meaningless to them. A man can do woman’s work; a woman can do man’s work. At one point, she goes on to talk about a whole group of older woman who went and worked the walls and roof of a house. Then, she goes on to talk about the stories behind these traditions; the fact that many Pueblo legends spur Pueblo belief, like the story of the green bottle fly, a story of a heroic fly who saved the world. Because of that heroism, many older Pueblo people refuse to kill flies. At last, she gets to the titular Yellow Woman, who stories, in Silko’s opinion, are in the highest