Analysis of Maxine Hong Kingston "No Name Woman"

This hatred was not generalized by gender but, these adulterous acts generally resulted in a tragic ending. Ha Jin explains, “This time they ought to burn Old Whore on Heaven Lamp;What they referred to was the old way of punishing an adulteres”(Jin,80). Grandma was expressing her opinion on how the Red Guard should handle the situation of Mu Ying, and her memories bring up gruesome acts of execution of adulterers and adultresses. Ha Jin also says, “Officials used to have the criminals of adultery executed in two different ways. They beheaded the man;Unlike the man, the woman involved was executed on Heaven Lamp..Since the fire merely scorched her head,it took...a night[for her]to die completely”(Jin 81). This quote is the specific punishment involved for women, and men. The old way of punishment may have been tragic, but many viewed it as sufficient. In today's society however,many might view it as an

Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her

The passage Lesson for Women is a work done by Ban Zhao that goes into detail on the proper ways a lady should act. Not only does the author explain the ways but she also goes into detail to help others understand what it’s like for a woman of that time period. When writing the author provides us with detailed sentences and a lot of informative material. Over the course of this essay we will be breaking down the key elements of this passage to fully understand it.

But this is not necessarily the way it was perceived by the Chinese. There were plenty of unhappy women. However, there were also men who thought that the private (inner) life of the family was more desirable than the public life which they faced.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

The lives of women and experiences they faced were due to the stereotypes that are given to women during the time of the seventeenth century. Women are meant to be married, have children, and to attend to the needs of her husband as well as the needs of the household, not do the work of their husbands like Hsi-lu did.

Woman deserve to be treated with respect, they deserve equal rights. In this paper, I will provide evidence that gender roles have not changed over the period of time between the writing of The Death of Woman Wang and the dragon’s village. The Death of Woman Wang was written by Jonathan Spence; it was published in 1978. The dragon’s village was written by Yuan-Tsung Chen, it was published in 1980.

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Relationships between people depend on the time period, the location, the social norms set at place in one’s society and one’s own personality. Throughout history and cultures the meaning of relationships have changed. In some ways they have become more relaxed and in others stricter in following these rules of society. In Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu, he describes his relationship with his wife and his culture during the eighteenth century in China. His story tells a relationship that was very unique between his wife, Yun and himself. For the time they were very progressive in their beliefs and actions. It helps the reader see the culture in China at this time and how relationship during a time with strict societal rules especially for women became to be a very surprising and reformist relationship.

Junot Diaz, the author of “A Cheaters Guide to Love” writes his short story with many different references to anti-feminism. He writes about women in different ways to show them as powerless, and un-superior to the main character in the short story. From this short story, Diaz conveys the main characters ways when he shows the him talking about, the girl he calls to have sex with, the women at the yoga class, and the files read at the end of the story that show the fifty girls he cheated on his fiancé with. Diaz creates his main character and puts him in the second person to relate to the reader, but show his anti-feministic signs.

This education, seen from the other side of the cultural gap, is what makes Lena see her mother as a weak person. Lena has a job, an American husband, she lives an American life, unlike her mother, who is attached to weird old disused Chinese traditions. But she herself is not happy, as her mother can see. Her husband is not as good as he might be: he exploits her, paying her a too low wage, never recognizes her contribution to their success as architects,... On the other hand, Ying- Ying marriage, although imperfect, is based on firmer grounds of respect and goodness towards each other than that of Lena.

As part of the first generation of Chinese-Americans, Maxine Hong Kingston writes about her struggle to distinguish her cultural identity through an impartial analysis of her aunt’s denied existence.  In “No Name Woman,” a chapter in her written memoirs, Kingston analyzes the possible reasons behind her disavowed aunt’s dishonorable pregnancy and her village’s subsequent raid upon her household.  And with a bold statement that shatters the family restriction to acknowledge the exiled aunt, Kingston states that, “… [she] alone devote pages of paper to her [aunt]...”   With this premeditated declaration, Kingston rebelliously breaks the family’s cultural taboo to

During the Republican China, there were no other female writers who paid typical attention on depicting sex successfully except Zhang Ailing. She has studied many western feminism ideologies,

Since these wives were basically prostitutes under the guise of marriage, many people ignored the “taboo” and “deviant” nature of this version sex industry because it was difficult to understand. Vu Trong Phung not only clarified the structure of these marriages but also brought to light the dangers to the women. While highlighting the dangers, he also criticizes his own culture for essentially providing no other options for these women and then shunning them when they had enough (14). He even further objected to the condemnation of prostitutes by equivocating marrying for anything other than love was like receiving a life-long prostitute (14). By having these eccentric stories and radical beliefs, Vu Trong Phung was able to call attention to a subject no one wanted to talk about – let alone read

Ah Q suddenly rushed forward and threw himself at her feet. /There was a moment of absolute silence” (Lu, 3, Chapter 4). As women began to progress in society, many citizen’s, like Ah Q, looked back on traditional views and pushed women to the outskirts of society. When Ah Q gets repercussions for his actions, the author indicates that all China should begin to accept women. In Lu Xun’s call for nationalism, the rejection of modern culture had to be stopped. Lu Xun uses the metaphor with women to explain the appreciation of foreign influence. Whether it was the adoption of new culture such as hair style or medicine or the understanding of new ideas such as the appreciation for women, Lu Xun knew that new influences would be key to their rebirth