Yellow Woman: Part Two Summary & Analysis

Once inside, the narrator takes in Silva’s living quarters that contain only an old stove, enamel coffee pot, worn Navajo blankets, a bedroll, and a cardboard box. She fries them potatoes to eat and he sits on the floor, watching her as she cooks. As they eat together, the narrator questions Silva about whether he has brought other women home and if he uses the ka’tsina trick on them, too. She again refuses to believe the Yellow Woman story could be about them. He tells her that someday others will tell their story.

After eating, the narrator walks around outside and explains feeling like she was standing in the sky. She sees the outlines of the surrounding mountains and wonders who else has walked through a landscape like this. From there, she cannot see her pueblo, but Silva claims that he can see the entire world. He points out the boundaries of Pueblo, Navajo, Texan, and Mexican lands.

When the narrator asks if he works for the cattle ranches, Silva confesses that he steals from them. They go back inside and the narrator continues pondering Silva’s identity. She tells him that he must be a Navajo, but he insists that she already knows who he is, and the Navajo people know him, too.

They climb under the blankets together and Silva kisses her face. The narrator asks him why he’s laughing and he tells her it’s because she is breathing so hard. She turns away from him, but he pulls her back, becoming forceful. He tells her that she will do what he wants. Yellow Woman feels afraid and recognizes that he is more powerful than she is. Later, though, her feelings switch to tenderness, and she kisses his face as he sleeps.

The narrator wakes the next morning to find that Silva has left. She recognizes this as an opportunity for her to return home but decides to eat something before starting her journey back down the mountain. She sits eating dried apricots and drifts off as she thinks about how, sitting there in silence, she doesn’t believe in highways, railroads, or cattle. When she wakes up from her drowsing, she sees ants at her feet and thinks of her family far down below her.

The narrator wonders how her family has reacted to her disappearance and knows her deceased grandfather would have understood that a ka’tsina had taken her into the mountain. She thinks about how her family would get along if she never returned, deciding that they all would simply move on.

The narrator thinks about the story her family would tell about her disappearance and remembers that she had never decided to go with Silva—she simply went, just as “moonflowers blossom in the sand hills before dawn.” As she wanders through the pine trees, she eventually ends up back at Silva’s house instead of going home as she had intended. Silva is dressing an animal carcass when she returns.

Silva asks her if she is coming with him to sell meat in a town called Marquez. As he prepares the horses for their trip, the narrator notices that he looks tall even next to the horses. She asks him again if he’s a Navajo, and he just shakes his head. Before they leave, Silva grabs his rifle, and the narrator asks if the people he steals from ever try to catch him. He says they don’t because they don’t know who he is.