Deck 46: Yellow Woman: Native-American Oral Myth in a Contemporary Context, Leslie Marmon Silko

Question 1

Like Claude Levi-Strauss, Leslie Marmon Silko believes that storytelling ______________________________.

A) is difficult for the nonexpert
B) brings people together
C) passes on important cultural information through generations
D) is best when it is oral

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Choose the statement that does NOT fit: Yellow Woman fits Joseph Campbell's definition of the quest of the hero because she ______________________________.

A) leaves home
B) travels to a distant or unfamiliar destination
C) falls under the influence of the stranger
D) returns home to be recognized by her family

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Navajo man in "Yellow Woman" might be considered a ka'tsina because he _______________________.

A) is Navajo
B) is a figure operating amorally at the edge of society
C) has a strange hold on the woman
D) kills the white man

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The man is portrayed as potentially dangerous because he ___________________.

A) is not from her tribe, therefore "other"
B) seems very selfish
C) is physically strong
D) calls her Yellow Woman

Question 5

The activity of the woman that fits the parameters of Proppian complicity is that she ____________________.

A) rides away on the horse
B) asks the man, "Who are you?"
C) returns to tell him she is leaving
D) asks him, "Will I come back?"

Question 6

The fact that her pueblo is just on the other side of the mesa ______________.

A) is irrelevant
B) shows that Yellow Woman maintains a hold on everyday reality
C) takes the tension out of the story
D) is a surprise to Silva

Question 7

This Yellow Woman character is a wife and mother living in a pueblo. Other Yellow Woman characters include all in the following list EXCEPT a _________________.

A) bride
B) witch
C) shaman
D) chief's daughter

Question 8

"I don't have to go. What they tell in the stories was real only then . . . " shows that the narrator _____________________________________.

A) doesn't believe she is Yellow Woman
B) doesn't believe the old stories
C) doesn't trust the storytellers
D) believes she is dreaming

Question 9

"[S]omeday they will talk about us, and they will say, 'Those two lived long ago when things like that happened.' " This shows that the narrator is _______________________________.

A) unable to face facts
B) aware of her situation, straddling both the real world and the mythological
C) irrational
D) trying to figure out where she is

Question 10

When Yellow Woman thinks, "Grandpa . . . would tell them what happened," she is referring to the fact that he _________________________________________.

A) would try to cover up for her indiscretion
B) was always making up stories
C) was a bit senile and liked to talk
D) knew the old stories and believed them

Question 11

Kochinako is the name for the _________________________ story in Silko's tradition.

Question 12

Because Yellow Woman is lured away by a mysterious figure, Silko's story could be classified under the Aarne-Thompson motif of __________________________.

Question 13

At first the woman gets up and leaves on horseback. Her next decision is ________________________________.

Question 14

In the traditional Yellow Woman story, she returns after a long time, bringing _______________________ with her.

Question 15

We might say that the narrator lives in two worlds, contemporary society and _______________________________________.

Question 16

In the traditional Yellow Woman story, she is gone a long time; in this version, she is away from her family for ________________________________.

Question 17

When the narrator asks Silva if he works for the ranchers and he replies, "I steal from them," he reveals himself as a __________________________ figure.

Question 18

When Yellow Woman returns from her walk on the second day, she finds Silva busy ___________________________________.

Question 19

An example of nature providing help in "Yellow Woman" is ________________________.

Question 20

"I decided to tell them that some Navajo had kidnapped me." The element of this statement that is apparently false is ____________________________.

Question 21

The wilted willow leaves on the river bank where she had first seen Silva are a clue for the reader that _________________________________________.