In “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit”, Silko uses several techniques in her writing to make clear her viewpoints on beauty, harmony, and the differences between modern and Pueblo societies. She writes about recollections of lessons taught to her in the past such as teachings and stories from her grandmother and aunts. Silko uses flashbacks of impacting events to make the reader fully realize the large difference between modern and Pueblo society. The stories of Yellow Woman offer Silko a unique means of educating the reader about the Pueblo’s views on harmony and the beauty of others.
As a child, Silko became aware at an early age that younger generations of people would judge her for her skin color as opposed to who she was as a person. This is evident when Silko says: “I had sensed immediately that something about my appearance was not acceptable to some people, White and Indian. But I did not see any signs of that strain or anxiety in the face of my beloved Grandma A’mooh.” From this Silko learns that old-time people, like her grandmother, payed attention to one’s character, as opposed to looks or material wealth. It is also here in the third paragraph where she learns from her family about how “…the Puritans arrived
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Two of these stories specifically, Yellow Woman’s flings with Buffalo and Whirlwind Man, show how her different, and powerful personality results in positive effects for her community as a whole. These stories emphasis how beauty is not necessarily found in physical appearance, but the strength of one’s character. These stories picked by Silko help to convey another message; that a woman’s strong personality adds to her personal beauty and that a powerful personality is not something to be ashamed of, but to embrace, like Yellow Woman does in her
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
Listening is an important skill that many people take for granted. Listening empathelicay means putting oneself in “someone else’s shoes”. Listening only to get information takes away much of what the speaker is saying, by being able to empathize with someone one is on the same wavelength. In this world, there exist many different cultures and subcultures. In Graciela Limon’s novel, Song of the Hummingbird, Huitzitzilin tells her story as Father Benito listens. She tells Father Benito the native view of what has happened- she tells him things that he has never heard of from his people. Huitzitzilin and Father Benito are products of two different cultures: Aztecs and Spaniards, respectively. Limon portrayed that the Spaniards didn’t even try to understand the Aztecs ways. Limon uses the literary elements of characterization, point of view, and internal conflict to show that in order to understand another culture, one must be able to treat his/her’s history with the same compassion and understanding as if it was their own's.
Much of life results from choices we make. How we meet every circumstance, and also how we allow those circumstances to affect us dictates our life. In Marian Minus’s short story, “Girl, Colored," we are given a chance to take a look inside two characters not unlike ourselves. As we are given insight into these two people, their character and environment unfolds, presenting us with people we can relate to and sympathize with. Even if we fail to grasp the fullness of a feeling or circumstance, we are still touched on our own level, evidencing the brilliance of Minus’s writing.
Sometimes people are judged by their looks, and preferences will be made towards the more beautiful people before the less beautiful people. What individuals don’t put into account is that the person’s personality is part of their beauty. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel, The Samurai’s Garden, through the characterization of Sachi’s personality and adversities, Gail Tsukiyama conveys the message that beauty is deeper than just the outside and this message is important because one shouldn’t judge someone just by their looks.
“Yellow Woman” written by Leslie Marmon Silko is a short story based on a Native American Legend story. In this Legend story, a woman has been taken away from her family for a period of time. The Yellow Woman are taken by a Ka’tisna spirit which is better known as a mountain spirit. Throughout the story, the reader learns that the narrator is in an overarching battle with her personal identity as a Pueblo Indian Woman. On top of the narrator's battle with understanding her personal identity she is in a constant battle with trying to understand what events are happening in real life as well as what events are remnants of this legend story told by her grandfather. In sum, the struggle that the narrator has is the common theme occurring throughout.
I would like to investigate the many struggles of women, whether it be race that differentiates them or an event that any woman could experience that brings them together. Beauty is not easily defined, and women everywhere struggle to not only please the people around them, but themselves. Wanting to describe themselves and feel beautiful is one of the many struggles women experience throughout their lives. “Las Rubias” by Diana Garca from Fire and Ink represents a common example of what women of color experience while comparing themselves to the “beauty” of white women. The poem is divided into eight numbered sections, each containing their own experience or thought.
story points out that beauty has its cost as well, the power of being beautiful holds a great
Deborah Gray Whites Ar’n’t I a Woman? Explores what it was like to be a female slave. Deborah Gray White provides numerous detailed accounts and anecdotes throughout the book. The whole book seeks to answer the question asked by African American slaves, Ar’n’t I a Woman? In Sojourner Truths speech held in 1851 in Akron, Ohio at the women’s rights convention, she explains her own experience with being a female slave in the plantation south. She, like most black women of the time, plowed, planted and hoed, did as much work as a man, endured the brutal punishment meted out by slaveholders and their overseers, and also fulfilled her ordained role of motherhood.” Moreover, women were still seen as inferior to men. Women were subjected to worse treatment than that of men and this book proves to describe the many ways that women in particular were mistreated. This books main purpose is to educate its readers about the onerous burdens that females suffered directly resulting from slavery. Ar’n’t I a woman was the first book of its kind to accurately assess the females’ perspective of slavery.
From reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper various opinions can be made about the novella and what it is portrayed to represent. Perhaps the simplest opinion could be that John, the husband of the main character, was married to an insane wife. This interpretation would not be false at all, in fact, it is indeed true however, the deeper meaning of this text lies between words and emotions that you feel coming from the character that Charlotte Perkins Gilman had created. The character that allows you to see that deeper meaning would be the wife of the husband John. Through her writings in the story she portrays a woman who is held captive by not only a house and society but she is also held captive by her spouse. These things
In a world where the vast majority of cultures are patriarchal, in response to traditional structures, women often find themselves at war in their minds, hearts and in their own actions. 'Yellow woman' and 'The story of an hour' are examples of how women struggle in a male domintaed society. In these two stories, the women fnd themselves wrestling with thoughts and emotions that our society consider unacceptable. The following statements ,ay be asked and considered of these women:
As this poem characterizes the view of a native woman expressing feelings of passion relating to her culture, it also criticizes society, in particular Christianity, as the speaker is experiencing feelings of discontent with the outcome of residential schools. It does not directly criticize the faith, but through the use of a heavy native dialect and implications to the Christian faith it becomes simple to read the speakers emotions.
the nineteen hundreds. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no different in the way that the females are treated in society within this time period. The narrator is treated as less then equal. Through out the story the narrator is belittled and reduced as a woman. With such belittlement within the story of women, the discussion of gender mistreatment is brought forth within the novel.
In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient woman, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty, emotionless shell. In men’s eyes, this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
Julia Alvarez was an example of how a Latina writer identified herself in a new culture outside of her comfort zone. She, as a Dominican Diaspora, had to reinvent herself as she migrated into a new scenario. Her assimilation into the United States culture allowed her to understand and relate to the reader’s needs and points of interests. After all the effort, Alvarez kept in mind that she could not comfort to all the reality that she lived in, so she re-reinvented herself all over again to process her thoughts and beliefs into her life. She put her perspective on her writing so that the new wave of readers, even if they did not understand, could relate in some way and appreciate the differences. The sole purpose of her writings was for everyone to change their perspective from “walk to the other side of the street in order to avoid sharing the same sidewalk” to “I do not know them, but I do not avoid them because I do not know them”. She instilled in her reader’s mind how ordinary events were viewed differently through other cultures’ eyes. Her story Snow was a great example of how she portrayed her technique.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.