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Communication And Silence In Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior

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A member of the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society once questioned Gandhi, “Why is it that you never open your lips at a committee meeting? You are a drone” (Cain 189). Though the world today certainly knows of Gandhi, his peers once saw him as a drone as a result of his silence. Cultures linked with silence can conflict with other, more vocal cultures: a prominent example is the silence of Asia in contrast with the openness of America. Maxine Hong Kingston delves into this clash in her 1976 memoir The Woman Warrior, throughout which a young, insecure girl develops a voice of her own, gaining an increased appreciation for her Chinese-American heritage in the process. The world that she lives in values open communication, often …show more content…

Two items are not the same—they are not comparable. Employing the word “different” to describe the countries of America and China demonstrates Maxine’s mother’s awareness of the numerous dissimilarities between them. In her 2012 nonfiction book, Quiet, Susan Cain writes, “Westerners value boldness and verbal skill […], while Asians prize quiet, humility, and sensitivity” (Cain 189), the same cultural differences that Maxine’s mother recognizes in The Woman Warrior. America prefers “verbal” communication, whereas China places more value on silence. In particular, American residents who straddle both Chinese and American cultures must face these two conflicting ideals. Maxine simultaneously lives in these two opposing cultures. Stemming from her Chinese upbringing, Maxine’s silence makes it hard for her to accept herself in the Western world. While reminiscing about her school life, she thinks, “It was when I found out I had to talk that school became a misery, that silence became a misery” (Kingston 166). The word “misery” generally indicates sadness or distress; furthermore, misery commonly causes debilitating symptoms—a person in a state of misery tends to be unable to function appropriately. Thus, when Maxine refers to silence becoming a “misery,” she means that it upsets her and that it prevents her from being fully present. When her school forces her to talk, Maxine becomes uncomfortable with her own silence. Consequently, her

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