Yellow WomanIntroduction: the concept of change and longevity of the fairy tale (or myth) is well illustrated in the story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. Not only is the story a modern explanation of a traditional Native American myth, but the style Silko uses to tell it evokes and adapts the oral communication style with which those ancient myths were passed down. The story is also very consciously aware of its place as a modern revision of a myth and makes many internal references to this aspect of it. “Yellow Woman” becomes, in effect, the modern version of a Native American myth or legend, and thus is a perfect example of the way old stories are made new. If you analyze “Yellow Woman,” you can see that Silko was attempting to explore the origins of these myths and their meaning in a modern context. The story's narrator talks about how her grandfather told her stories about the ka'tsina, or mountain spirits, and the Yellow Woman, who both seduced and kidnapped lonely travelers. These stories may have started out as cautionary tales, but Silko says they could be explanations for real-life kidnappings or seductions in the past. Silva, who claims to be a ka'tsina spirit, at one point responds to the narrator's disbelief that they are Ka'tsina and Yellow Woman by saying, "But one day they will talk about us and say, 'Those two are lived long ago, when such things happened. (431) Silko argues through Silva that these myths and legends could have had routine origins, as people sought answers about where their family members had gone when they disappeared left at home on the reservation turn the narrator's disappearance into a story to...... middle of paper ......n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. On the one hand it is a progression in the use of modern language, setting and style, but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on a thematic level. Furthermore, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author characterizes it as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes in myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have continually changed throughout history and, thanks to some strange transforming or enchanting power, have always remained the same. "Works Cited: Leslie Marmon Silko. “Yellow Woman”. The Seagull Reader: Stories, Second Edition. Ed. Giuseppe Kelly. New York: WW Norton & Company Inc., 2008. 427-437.