考试方式： ……太原理工大学 英语小说阅读 试卷 …… …适用专业： 英语专业 考试日期： 时间： 分钟 共 4 页 ……题 号 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 总 分 ……得 分 …… … THE Tragic Fate of Indian Women …线 Yellow woman --the epitome of the Indian women ……1. Introduction ……1.1 The author and his style …… Yellow woman was a masterpiece of Leslie Marmon Silko, one of the most prominent ……contemporary Native American poet and novelist. She grew up on the Laguna Pueblo ……reservation in New Mexico so that she was quite familiar with the tradition and myths from ……senior family members. One of the biggest character of her literary style is that she blend ……many Indian myths and factors into her stories and poems perfectly, so reading her works 封…can bring the readers kind of mystery feeling and often throw light on the factual life of the ……Native Americans. Yellow woman is one piece of this kind of fictions, through citing the ……ancient myth indicating the changes of times but also reflecting the perpetual tragic fate of ……the Indian women, thus forming a distinguished comparison. What's more, the fiction causes ……us to think over a profound question what is the identification of the Native American in the …密white culture society. ……1.2 The outline of the essay ……The same with the other works of Leslie Marmon Silko, in the story of yellow woman ……there appears a dilemma for the protagonist to make choice of where she should go or which ……kind of life she belong to. Facing with the new exciting life, what is the tragic point is that ……the pratogonist could not actually follow her heart, for the fixed and firm traditional concept ……in her mind that had been endowed from her senior families controls her mind and actions. ……In the end of the novel, the protagonist made a reasonable but somewhat unexpected …decision. Why does the yellow woman make such a decision? What the factors of the …structure of this novel and the frequently appearing natural descriptions? What the characters of the protagonist are like? How do they help promote the process of the story and 第 1 页 共 4 页 provide implications? Are there any other implications in the novel that predict the result for us? My essay will proceed around the above questions and the discussion of these questions will together reveal the theme of the novel.
2. The structure reveal the uneven fate of yellow woman 2.1 Attracting suspense hidden in the plot
The whole novel are divided into three parts, and the pictures shift in different scenes and flow under no certain time order. The novel present a undulation as a whole which indicate the uneven development of the story. The novel starts with a warm and sensual scene, but it immediately followed with a quite mysterious and odd description of the surroundings and a dialogue between them which make the readers confusing of the identifications of them and their relations. This is the first suspense of the novel-who are they? Instead of providing the answer directly, the writer tells an ancient myth of yellow woman. This seems to have answered our questions, but the woman's retort let us see the woman clear. She is not yellow woman as she claims that they live in different times and have different educational background. However, these differences between them do not make their positions different in the society. When they disappear for a long time, no family member pay any attention to them, so in some way the protagonist can be called a little yellow woman. She does not come with the real northern spirit but Silva, who let her feel loved for the first time. Silva is a mystery to the yellow woman, and he also treat the woman as the real yellow woman. He believes the woman was sent to him by the God and does not want her to leave him.
Then comes the second suspense, in such a crossroad where will the yellow woman decide to go for? The two choices for her are home or Silva. In the novel, the yellow woman has thought of her family for two times. For the first time, when she feels hungry, she begins to wonder what her families are doing then. For the second time, when she is alone on the mountain she sees a swarm of ants getting together for the smell of apricots, she thinks if her families are wondering about her. We can see that in yellow woman's heart her family took an important position as all the Native American Women do. This imply the final decision made by the yellow woman. On the other hand, she enjoys herself with Silva so much that she go back with him again after she has decided to flee away. At last, the suspense is unveiled that
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yellow woman chooses to go back home, but the situation in her family makes the readers …feel unexpected and pity for the yellow woman. ……2.2 The environmental description's functions ……There are many natural descriptions in this novel that adds marked Indian colour to it, ……and in the meanwhile it also has other special functions. ……In part one, when yellow woman follows Silva to the mountain, the splendid scenery ……shocks her very much and let her forget about everything at that moment. This first makes …the yellow woman change her mind as if she is no longer bound in the Native American …线world. She begins to see the outside world and tries to accept it. However the atmosphere is ……cold then, so she retreat back to the room. I think this is also an implication that the yellow ……woman is not accustomed to the new world. ……In part two, there are two pieces of descriptions of Silva's house and the surrounding ……environment that have obviously changed from the piece in part one. It seems more lovely ……and warm. It suggests that yellow woman has become accustomed to this new place and ……even fall in love with Silva. ……In part three, when yellow woman rides the horse into a dense forest, she saw the dark 封…green patches of tamaracks that grew along the river. This symbolizes her confusing mood ……at that moment. She was in a daze about if she should stay here. ……In part four, there appears a pavement in the woods which symbolize home. The yellow ……woman knows if she walks down the pavement, she would reach her home, and against the ……pavement is the forest which stands for her new life with Silva. The contrasts of the two …密environment is the reflection of the dilemma that the yellow woman is confronted with. …… ……3. The characters in the novel ……3.1 Yellow woman's wavering mind …… Yellow woman is a typical Indian American woman, but she comes with some new ……impact by chance. Therefore, her characters have changed gradually in the new environment. ……She we can say she was a round character or dynamic character of this novel. At first, she ……refuses to stay with Silva and insists on going back home. As time goes by, she is slowly ……attracted by this man and his life. She secretly changes her mind, and finally she even thinks her family can live quite well without her. However, at last, she fail to follow her heart to 第 3 页 共 4 页 stay but give in to the traditional concept. At the same time, the yellow woman is not the same woman in her mind, because she goes back home because she expects to meet Silva one day in the future again. In one word, the special experience may not ultimately change the yellow woman's life, but it changes her mind actually. The dilemma she faces is the main conflict of the novel-the conflict of the yearn for new life and the pine for native land. 3.2 Silva-the guard of forest
Silva is a very mysterious character in the novel. He lives alone in the forest and also inherits from his forefathers the ancient myths of the Indian culture. He cherishes the ancient myths and believed the woman on the road is yellow woman. He lives in his own way and does not want to change at all, so we can say he is a flat character which also impresses us a lot for his strong individuality. It is his strong personality that attracts yellow woman a lot and forms the dilemma for her.
3.3 The rancher-representative of the white culture
The rancher appears on the way Silva goes to the sell the stolen meat. He stands for the white men culture, so that the conflict between them reflects the second conflict of the novel-between the white man culture and Indian culture. It reflects the social background of that time: the Indian culture can not fuse with the white man culture and the Native American live a poor and backward life. Besides, his appearing makes Silva and yellow woman apart. He is like an alarm which wakes the yellow woman's dream and makes her reexamine her decision and finally decide to go back home.
4. Conclusion
Yellow woman reveals the two profound themes: the tragic fate of the Indian women; the conflict between the new culture and the backward traditional culture. The hope for the new life emerging in the Indian woman's heart has not defeated the deep beliefs of their traditional culture. The specially organized structure of the novel and two suspenses make the story interesting. The characters' special personalities and their mental conflict makes for the successful characterization of the novel. What's more, the environmental description not only add the native color to the novel but also symbolizes and implies much information. By and large, yellow woman is a masterpiece of the Native American novel.
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