Abstract
“The Woman Who Rode Away” deals with the collision between two different races, but we should read the story in terms of gender as well as race because it is “the Woman” who is sacrificed by Indians resisting “white people.” In leaving for the world of Indians, she transgresses the race boundary. This transgression also means crossing over the boundary of gender because Indians are the object of white men's interests. She, then, becomes the gazing subject like white men in the encounter with Indians. However, she is also the object of their “piercing look, ” which turns her into the position of the other. The process culminates in the sacrifice of her which functions as the other's image in the story. The sacrifice turns out to be the ritual not only representing Indians' resistance but also negating the woman's transgression of gender/race boundaries and her transgressive sexuality. But the strategic intersection of gender and race makes the boundary between the two races ambiguous.
