Summary Of Yellow Woman And A Beauty Of The Spirit

The concepts of change and identity are problematic for the characters within Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Tayo’s hybridity represents all that the Laguna people fear. The coming of change and meshing of cultures has brought an impending threat of ruin to Native American traditions. Although they reject him for his mixed heritage, Tayo’s journey is not his own but a continuation of the storytelling tradition that embodies Native American culture. Through tradition he learns to use his white and Mexican heritage to identify himself without abandoning his Native American practices.

In her book, “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit”, the author clearly tells about how the culture of the Laguna Pueblo Indians were so different from that of the Western culture. For example, in Laguna Pueblo, there is no different class or social status. I find this very interesting. They also do not place too much value on one’s outward beauty as well. Instead, women were more attractive if they are strong, even stout, which is a great contrast to today's –Western definition: skinny and thin, flawless face etc. They are more interested in beauty within. How one is at peace with nature, his or her surroundings. It is more of having a good character, being selfless, and courageous at any age.

In the essay of Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, Leslie Marmon Silko uses flashbacks, reflection, and details to enhance the points and to make the clear and convincing. An example of structure, though reflection is how Silko switches between the non-recent and recent past to give the reader an engaging experience. Therefore, Silko is able to use structure ti make her points clear, convincing, and engaging.

To sum up, the narrator in the story is able to fulfill her instinctual desires by becoming a Yellow Woman. She transforms through her dream-like journey into the person she longed to be. It was not until Silva became violent and she sees “something ancient and dark” in his eyes that she begins to snap back into reality. The story reaches out to all of its readers and allows them to relate to the narrator because we all have unfulfilled desires throughout our lives. The sensational descriptions that are given of the landscape as well as her sexual interactions with Silva make the narrator’s thoughts and feelings very easy to understand. In fact many of us who have read the story “Yellow Woman” have a feeling of jealousy that the woman was able to have her adventure and return home and resume her life as normal, without consequence.

Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely

As a result of beginning this piece with the phrase “where I come from,” Silko immediately begins to build her credibility. Furthermore, the phrase “among the Pueblo people” reveals to the audience that Silko has a Pueblo Indian background. This fact allows the audience to have confidence that Silko knows exactly what she is talking about, since she has had personal experience with the culture of the Pueblo Indians.

This shines light upon her Native American roots and how it can be an inspiration for her Century Quilt, each square representing her family’s racial diversity and mixed roots. It is quite difficult to learn of all the harsh animosity they were enduring, such as Meema and her yellow sisters whose “grandfather’s white family nodding at them when they met” (24-27). The hostility is clear as the white relatives only register their presence; no “hello” or warm embrace as if they didn’t acknowledge them as true family. However, with descriptive imagery, the speaker’s sense of pride for having the best of both worlds is still present as she understands Meema’s past experiences and embraces her family’s complexity wholeheartedly; animosity and all.

As I read “Real Women Have Curves” by Josefina Lopez I was reminded of what it is like to be raised in Chicanx household and the beliefs that come with it . I was touched on a very personal level I felt many of the characters in the play reminded me of my own mother and the older women in my family. In much of the play Josefina Lopez brings to life the issues that Chicanx women face in our everyday lives.

In the short story “Yellow Woman”, Leslie Marmon Silko uses characterization and symbolism to address personal and cultural identity.

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist symbolizes the effect of the oppression of women in society in the Nineteenth Century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author reveals the narrator is torn between hate and love, but emotion is difficult to determine. The effects are produced by the use of complex themes used in the story, which assisted her oppression and reflected on her self-expression.

Finding my voice as a woman in the world has led me to have a greater appreciation of my Mexican-American culture. Although the women in Galang’s book are of a different cultural background I was able to understand and connect with the struggles they went through trying to balance those varying cultures and the difficulty they had in finally accepting it. The story that most exemplifies the two spectrums of acceptance of one’s culture is “Rose Colored”. While going through elementary, middle, and a small portion of high school I could identify mostly as Rose because I hadn’t yet accepted the culture I was from. I was ashamed of being part Mexican and thought people would automatically stereotype and not like me. I saw my curly hair as something that should be hidden, always in braids because it wasn’t straight like all the others and also avoided talking about my home life for fear of being cast out as different. As I grew up into a young woman I began reading more and more about my culture and researching what it meant to be a true Mexican-American. I learned to appreciate all the beauty my culture has to offer and realized that being from two different cultures was not about picking one over the over but combining both at the same time. After reaching this sudden realization I was able to

Setting and characters go hand in hand in The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. With Each new setting there is at least one new character development. A new setting in each part of the story makes for diverse settings and characters. From a train leaving San Antonio to around the corner in a small town in Texas, a drunken gunslinger to negro waiters, this story has it all.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a deep, twisted play by Martin McDonagh, is a symbolic work of art. The symbols within this play, powerful as they may be, do not jump out at the reader. They are instead embedded into the simplest objects and the relationship of the main characters. Martin McDonagh portrays his symbols with such an ironic eloquence; the dark, powerful symbols are inextricably linked in such a beautiful way, that once the reader makes the connections, the entire aura of the play changes. From symbols as simple as hot oil and a rocking chair to the mother-daughter relationship of Mag and Maureen, the reader learns more and more about Ireland during its time of troubles.