The Yellow Woman In Leslie Silko's Evil Kachina

If you’ve read the story of the “Evil Kachina” from the Tales of the Cochiti Indians, you’ll notice that it begins with a focus on the Yellow Woman as the subject, “She was in a town. Then Yellow Woman went for water. With her jar Yellow Woman went for water. She reached the river”. Immediately, “she’s” being familiarized to you because, so far, she’s innocent. Then the evil Cuisi’nyinawa arrives and abducts her. You sympathize with her and label Cuisi’nyinawa as “bad” because he does abduct her after all. There is a distinct characterization in this story -- Yellow Woman as the innocent protagonist and Cuisi’nyinawa as the evil abductor. However, in Leslie Silko’s modern, more Americanized version of the story, “Yellow Woman”, the beginning sentence places less emphasis on the Yellow Woman as a subject and stresses intensity on her sensual expressions, “My thigh clung to his with dampness . . …show more content…
The small brown water birds . . . bathed in the river silently . . . I could hear the water, almost at our feet where the narrow fast channel bubbled and washed green ragged moss and fern leaves”. There is much imagery that powers the senses with colors and tactile stimulation. “Innocent” isn’t a term anywhere near your mind right now, rather, “Sensuality” bears presence as you read these descriptive terms. It is clear that the Yellow Woman in Silko’s version doesn’t feel abducted at all, although, there is constant, slight wonder throughout the story at if she’s to become like the other Yellow Woman in the tales that she is very well aware of. Silko dons a sense of empowerment to the Yellow Woman in her story, in contrast to the meek and helpless characterization of Yellow Woman in the “Evil Kachina”, by writing about Yellow Woman’s strong sexual attraction to Silva, showcasing her past sense of restlessness prior to meeting