1. In Silko’s “Yellow Woman,’ what do the stolen beef and the Jell-o have in common? How do these elements break the prevailing mood?

It would seem to me that in Silko’s “Yellow Woman” the stolen beef and Jell-o both are used to represent ages both modern and long past. The beef represents a time without modern conveniences, while the Jell-o represents the modern age full of convenience and luxuries.  I believe the use of both of these separates the tale from being either a folksy story or a modern tale. Both the stolen meat and the Jell-o play important roles in differentiating the past from the present.

2. After reading Saadawi’s “In Camera,’ how do you feel about Leila Al-Fargani’s father? Upon what evidence do you base your judgement?

It is hard to make a judgment on a father who is acting in society norms I do not understand or have not experienced. Although I will say I do believe that a father would not let the things that happened in this story happen to their daughter. Her father seems to be conforming to the norms of his society, overall it seemed he loved his daughter but not more than the fear of dishonor that drove his existence.

3. What is the importance of the title of the story “Death Constant Beyond Love’? What does it tell us about the stories central thematic concerns?

Explained in the opening text the title is a play on the title of the poem “Love Constant Beyond Death”, the play on words is used to convey that death is constant above all even love. In the story the Senator is diagnosed terminal and is faced with death, and finds that love is fleeting and death will still be there. A sad tale but realistic, loves may come and go, but in the end death waits for us all. So love as much as you want and prepare to die only once.

In Silko’s “Yellow Woman’ what do the stolen beef & the jell-o have in common? How do these elements break the prevailing mood?

After reading this story and growing up in North Dakota, one thing I hear a lot about is how the Native Americans lived “naturally”,  Both the stolen beef and jell-o are the exact opposite of this way of life. Natives, in this story and in life, normally would have eaten some sort of wild game for meat and natural vegetables that they probably grew themselves.  The prevailing mood in all this is broken because neither the beef or the jell-o is a food that is considered natural.  The beef which is not only stolen, is a domesticated animal and the jell-o is something that is completely processed and would not have been eaten by the Native Americans back then.

After reading Saadawi’s “In Camera,’ how do you feel about Leila Al-Fargani’s father? Upon what evidence do you base your judgement?

After reading “In Camera” I really feel like Leila’s father is kind of a jerk. The guy is really full of himself and is not afraid of looking like an idiot.  I feel like during his daughters trial, he was saying a lot of stuff to make  himself seem good and get respect even though what was going on had nothing to do with him at all.  It kind of seemed like he was so stuck in his ways that he made his daughter his daughter stray away from the norm and this seemed really arrogant.

3. What is the importance of the title of the story “Death Constant Beyond Love’? What does it tell us about the stories central thematic concerns?

I think that the story “Death Constant Beyond Love” tells us that love is the only thing that can last longer then death.  I think it tells us that no matter how bad things seem in life, love will outlast them in the long run.

1) I believe the stolen beef and then the Jell-O back at her pueblo at the end of the story signify the present state of existence of the woman as the “Yellow Woman” and then her normal persona. After she parted ways with Silva, she kicked the horse loose near the river and watched him disappear in the distance with the sacks of stolen meat swinging back and forth. The fact that she was also essentially stolen from her normal world by the ka’tsina bears significance here, for as the stolen meat goes, so does the Yellow Woman. She returns to her home and her normal family which is busy preparing the Jell-O upon her return.

2) Based on Arab-Islamic culture, the Al-Fargani father was a part of a world that was driven by male power brokers and had no real place for women outside the household. In this culture a man cannot live after his honor has been removed because no man will respect him. In this type of culture, it is regular practice to put one’s daughter or sister to death when she has been with another man outside of marriage. Her father tried to warn Leila beforehand that it was not her place to enter politics for these reasons but he was unable to sway her. It appears as though the whole stigma of the situation had gotten the better of him, and he was not able to take a power stance against the situation in order to attempt to bring about change.

3) What I believe is meant here is that the senator felt vulnerable as his death was slowly nearing. As he was forced to deal with this all-too-real reality, he became struck by the beauty of Laura Farina and resolved to embrace her love. This would prove to be at the cost of his own political reputation which became tarnished upon the revelation of his affair with her. But he cared more for her than he did about this reputation. The irony of the senator’s death is that he was not able to leave behind a name that was rendered in keepsake with the people because of the affair, and despite his indulgence he was not any less prone to his impending death.

1. In Silko’s “Yellow Woman,’ what do the stolen beef and the Jell-o have in common? How do these elements break the prevailing mood?

The concept of the story has a tone of a woman who does not feel a part of anything important, thus opening up her gullibility when the man informed her she is in fact a “yellow woman,” adding much desired intrigue in herself. She wants to believe the self proclaimed spirit (Silvia), but has some doubts, although all the events the spirit is telling her match the yellow woman myth she learned so perfectly. There were many “prevailing mood changers, such as Stolen Beef which was a major turning point in the story because the spirit tells her he is a cattle rustler and later Silvia is preparing cow meat to sell in town, only on the way to town a rancher claims Silvia stole the meat and a gun battle ensued. Shots rang out in the background as the “yellow woman” rode her horse off to town, not knowing who was the certain victor. This is the turning point where the woman decides to go home and not stay with the spirit any longer, almost like she was under a spell which had been broken. Maybe adding some validity to the the spirit, if he was killed during the shooting resulting in the spells disintegration. Her grandmother was making Jello when the woman returned home from her spiritual affair, which could first appear as a mundane activity. For me this acted as a symbol of plainness, because now that she has left her mythical experience behind her she is returning to her “regular” lifestyle. I found the story pretty culture based, because there was a lot of cultural folklore entwined in it and an apparent battle between modern and ancient life experiences.

2. After reading Saadawi’s “In Camera,’ how do you feel about Leila Al-Fargani’s father? Upon what evidence do you base your judgement?

Well, from my own viewpoint on what is right or wrong I feel like her father was pretty uncaring throughout the whole fiasco. Although because of the cultural norms they were a part of, his reactions seem just that, normal. Because Leila voiced her opinion, especially against the president’s intelligence, she was criminally charged. This story brings about multiple of touchy subjects in today’s “politically correct” movement. Because the issue in this story was primarily of ancient religious practices, which minimize a females role in society, especially as far as opinions are concerned perhaps that would be the root of the culture shock from the readers. Which brings us back to the father, because culturally he was acting as was expected with such anti-religious (rules) and political outspokenness. He wishes his daughter and himself would die instead of becoming so shamed in the eyes of society. There were many subjects in the story about the horrible abuse towards women being the norm, and those who abused them seemed to have a high degree of duty in those horrific actions. Truly a sad subject matter, saddest most is that it is reality for many women in today’s “modern” societies. For example, if a woman is raped in Dubai and reports it to the police, it is she who becomes imprisoned, not those who committed the crime. So at that I will conclude that I really hope those sorts of traditions will be weeded out, but until then, her father acted culturally correct and unfortunately in their society, it was Leila who was the criminal.

3. What is the importance of the title of the story “Death Constant Beyond Love’? What does it tell us about the stories central thematic concerns?

The title seems to be saying two things, fist death is constant and the second is that there is nothing beyond love. The senator discovers his imminent death, or should I say more extreme immediacy of his death, because death is always imminent. The central theme seems to be the senator trying to find peace, only not with his family but with someone else, a woman named Laura Farina. I got a vibe from the senator character that he lost interest in all responsibility or, for good reason future consequences. Therefore he came to terms with the fact that he was going to lose everyone he loved when he died so he would rather find love in the now, which is what drove him to become so obsessed with Laura. I almost feel like he wanted to love someone he did not know very well, because he knew he was going to die soon and didn’t want his wife or children to “ruin” his mood, so to say. Thus the only way for him to be happy and his family to avoid sadness, was for him to love someone and die with what comfort he could get from his brief affair. The main premise of the story is that we will all die and when we are dead all love dies with us, so we may as well be happy and love while we are still alive (a hippyesque mentality).

1.

“Yellow Woman’ is a story of two worlds. The young woman lives in the modern world with tv’s and cars but often hears stories of the old times. The young woman has an experience with Silva that is reminiscent of earlier times and seems to be from a myth she has heard from her grandpa. They ride horses and sleep on the ground rather than enjoy modern conveniences. I think the stolen beef that is shot and skinned is a visual representation of times past when this is how her people lived. The jello is a visual representation of modern times. The stolen beef seems to bring a darker sinister mood to the story and the jello brings a lighter happier mood.

2.

Leila’s father seems to have love for her but he is more concerned about how others see him. He is humiliated by what has happened to his daughter. Her father claps for her when the crowd does but does not stand up and act on his own. When he was sitting in the court room he thought about shouting that he was her father but he remained seated because of his humiliation. He was only able to support his daughter when he felt her deeds were heroic and people were proud of her. As soon as he heard of her rape and how she shamed he changed how he thought and decided that they would be better off dead rather them living with the shame.

3.

Death is the one thing we are assured will happen to all of us. We may find love, we may lose love but in the end we all die. Senator Sanchez has a terminal illness and only finds love for a brief moment in time. He dies regretting that he does not have the woman he fell for next to him when he dies. Love should be enjoyed while we are alive and never be taken for granted.

1. In the story “Yellow Woman’, the heroine, a woman whose name is never given, is struggling to understand what appears to be the convergence of two realities — the mystical folklore of her ancestors, and her modern day life. Throughout her life she has heard various stories in which a women referred to as “Yellow Women’ is whisked away by a mystical mountain spirit in the form of a man.

As far as can be seen, the man she meets by the river does not initially claim to be Silva. It seems that when the heroine goes down to the river, perhaps hoping these stories are true, she finds a man who is willing to take advantage of her fantasy. He says to the woman “last night you guessed my name and you knew why I had come’ (1205). The fact that she “guessed’ who he was implies that she had romanticized hopes that he would be there to whisk her away when she came to the river.

The Jell-o and the stolen beef bring us glimpses of the modern day reality. The woman fairly readily goes along with Silva’s plans although she does question the reality presented to her saying “I’ve been to school and there are highways and pickup trucks that Yellow Woman never saw’ (1206). For the greater part of the story, however, she views Silva as a mountain spirit rather than as a man who has manipulated and abducted her. I believe the stolen beef — which Silva is willing to kill for — reminds the reader that this man is not a mischievous mountain spirit, but a sinister, virtually unknown and unpredictable man.

At the end of the story when the woman has escaped from Silva she becomes nostalgic, regretting leaving him. As she returns home she wistfully thinks “he will come back sometime and be waiting again by the river’ (1211). Inside the grandmother is helping the son make Jell-o. These two realities, the legends of the past, and the contemporary lifestyle in which they find themselves in are in direct conflict with each other.

2. The father seems far less involved in Leila’s life. While the mother came and visited her in jail, we are not told that the father did. We are also told that the mother had Leila stay in her own bed so that if Leila was taken away in the night the mother would know and do her best to stop them. It is the mother’s screams, not the father’s protests that are described when Leila is taken away.

The father’s mind seems easily swayed by the opinion of the people. Initially when the trial is going on, he sits in his seat gripped with fear and pain. It is not clear whether this pain is for himself or his daughter. When the crowd sitting in on the trial applauds Leila the father suddenly becomes elated. He considers shouting “I’m her father; I’m Al-Fargani who fathered her and whose name she bears’ (1199). His pride appears to be for himself rather than his daughter; “What if I were to stand up now and reveal my identity to them?’ “Men like us live and die for a moment such as this, for others to recognize us, to applaud us, for us to become heroes with eyes looking at us and fingers pointing at us’ (1199).

When the judge withdraws and the crowd begins to whisper, the father hears various things — good and troubling — said about his daughter. It is not until he hears whispers about his own honor that he becomes distraught. While now hoping his identity will remain hidden from the crowd he thinks, “What is left of a man whose honour is violated?’ and “Death was preferable for him and for her now’ (1200). At this point he also bitterly ruminates on how he chided his daughter for going into politics. Perhaps, he thinks, if she had only listened they would not be in this trouble. It is clear, from observing the father, that he is proud and supportive only when the people are as well. He accepts her when it brings him honor to do so, and disowns her at other times.

3. This story is centered on Senator Onesimo Sanchez, a man who has been told by his doctors that he has not long to live. I believe the title indicates the deep rooted apathy which this man now holds. Although he may find love it does not matter, death is coming. Although he has five children and a wife, it does not matter; his fate is set. Although he makes promises to advance his political career, his career is already doomed. The title, “Death Constant Beyond Love’ indicates that although everything else may come and go, death is sure. For this man the assurance of death has come sooner than he hoped.

In Silko’s “Yellow Woman” what do the stolen beef & the jell-o have in common? How do these elements break the prevailing mood?
The main theme that I found these foods had in common was that they were not natural foods of Indian people. The prevailing mood is that the main characters were to be representatives of well known spirits, told of in tales of old. The characters try to draw themselves in with a tie to history. They find themselves drawn to nature, they stay in a cave with no modern conveniences and they eat very raw foods taken from the land. When the beef and the jell-o come into play, the cattle is rustled or stolen and not hunted as a purely natural food would have been if they stuck to the theme of purely American Indian tradition. The jell-o is obviously a completely processed food with almost no nutritional content and is in no way natural. These foods break the mood or idea of a complete return to traditional ways.
After reading Saadawi’s “In Camera,” how do you feel about Leila Al-Fargani’s father? Upon what evidence do you base your judgement?
After reading “In Camera,” I found Leila’s father to be a self-centered, selfish, prideful, idiot. At the trial, which would determine the fate of his daughter, he was more concerned with taking credit for a comment made by the judge, which would make him look more prestigious as a father, with respect to the way people saw his daughter at that moment, than he was with the outcome of the trial and his daughter’s life. After this portrayal, I could not shake the idea that he was a cold bastard, with no real emotion or parenting skill. The thought that this would be the first and most important thing to come to mind is beyond me. Maybe it was the society that he lived in, which defines priorities and principles, but I would not give him or that mind set a shred or respect.
What is the importance of the title of the story “Death Constant Beyond Love”? What does it tell us about the stories central thematic concerns?
During the preface of The Norton Anthology, it is stated that Marquez was portraying a reversal of the ambitious claim that love will outlast even death, in the sonnet “Love Constant beyond Death.” Marquez does portray his idea in almost every facet of his story. This is why his story is titled what it is. The story is titled to symbolize the theme he intended to express, which is that all types of love will come to an end with the fate of death.