Proposes a study on the image of the noble savage or buen/mal salvaje as he appears in the short stories of Sandra Cisneros and Elena Garro. Development of the dualistic notion of buen/mal salvaje; Notion of identity in Cisneros's "Bien Pretty"; Dissonance between self-perceived identity and identity as imposed by others in Garro's "La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas."