This week your students will learn about Leslie Silko’s, The Yellow Woman. This story has an underlying theme about finding yourself and coming to terms with who you are. This is also seen in the Toy Story trilogy with Buzz Lightyear.

The main storyline is about Buzz coming to terms with the fact that he is a toy. Hesolidly rejects it from the beginning, similar to the way that she rejects the fact that she is the Yellow Woman that Silva continues to call her.

She struggles with coming to terms with where she is, only knowing where she has been. There are hints here and there that show that she carries her native roots with her – when she describes the moon being reflected in the water – but there is still a tension with nature as she goes from place to place.

In similar fashion, the more places Buzz ends up, the more aggravated he becomes, each new character trying to tell him that he is a toy, his past functions no longer working. It takes him throwing himself down the stairs in an attempt to fly to realize that maybe there isn’t anything wrong with being a toy.

Overall, both the Yellow Woman and Buzz Lightyear struggle with the fact that they are in a place that is different from their pasts and that this new identity that has been bestowed upon them isn’t the worst thing in the world.