Analysis Of Silko s Yellow Woman And Walker s Everyday Use

Heritage Have you ever been at Christmas dinner and you were so interested and intrigued by your grandmother s story that you wish you could place yourself in her shoes right then and there? Well these two stories that I am going to analyze will do just that. I will prove that Silko’s Yellow Woman and Walker’s Everyday Use are inherently drawn to traditions of the past. First, I will show how identity is a common factor in both stories and plays such a large role in connecting the main characters and their past traditions. Second, I will illustrate how both stories are linked to symbolism, which will give proof to my claim that they are inherently drawn to their past traditions. Finally, I will show that the use of irony plays a part in†¦show more content†¦An interesting note which I will bring up later to give proof to my claim, is that when Walker was 8 years old, she was shot in the eye with a BB gun. After the incident, she became very self-conscience and felt like she did not fit in with the world around her. This helped her find her calling in writing. As I noted in my thesis, I believe identity plays a very significant role in both of these short stories. Specifically, I believe identity is the primary theme which inherently draws the characters in these stories to traditions of their past. In Silko’s Yellow Woman, identity was the main internal conflict for the â€Å"yellow woman.† From the story we know that the yellow woman was a daughter, mother, and a wife. In addition, we see that the yellow woman makes references to the stories that her grandfather used to tell her. This clearly illustrates that her heritage, culture, and family play a huge role in her life. For example: â€Å"My old grandpa liked to tell those stories best. There is one about Badger and Coyote who went hunting and were gone all day, and when the sun was going down they found a house. There was a girl living there alone and she had light hair and eyes and she told them they could sleep with her. Coyote wanted to be with her all night so he sent Badger into a prairie-dog hole, telling him he thought he seen something in it. As soon as Badger crawled in, Coyote blocked