The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

In The Woman Warrior, Kingston develops the motif of comparing herself to a swordswoman in order to illustrate how the talk stories of Fa Mu Lan aid her in combating the racism and oppression she faces as a Chinese woman in America through embodying the power of a woman warrior she possesses in her fantasies. Throughout the chapter White Tiger, Kingston explores the mythical story of Fa Mu Lan, placing herself in the role of the woman warrior and explaining her fantasy of living with an old man and woman, who carve the path to her success as a warrior. Later in the chapter, she contrasts Mulan's grievances to her own difficulties as a Chinese-American. Kingston ends the chapter by comparing herself to Mulan through stating,

A subheading within the family section is called “permission to speak” this section persuades students to write their story without worrying about the opinions of others. Subsequently, the “No Name Women,” is about a girl who is told by her mother at the very begin that “[y]ou must not tell anyone . . . what I'm about to tell you,” instantly we are told that the story she is sharing was meant to be a secret. Although, Kingston was supposed to keep this to herself she decides to share her story. Similar, to the chapter’s suggestion Kingston, drowns out the voices of her family member telling her to not tell the story. It is important to note that every writer has a purpose for sharing each story, ad those who succeed are the ones that do not

It is, of course, a story about storytelling, particularly the oral story telling through which humans have passed down most of our stories for most of our history. Women in particular, even after the advent of mass literacy, were barred for much of our history from education (and therefore the ability to read), have been historically the torch bearers of oral culture. After all, garrulousness and gossip are still stereotypes almost exclusively attributed to women. Of course an anti-woman society sees these qualities as bad things, rather than a means of shaping our reality and connecting to the people around us, of forming and maintaining communities. “The Blank Page” is another tale in which a woman tries to write her own story, despite the considerable pressures of royal life encroaching in upon her. Her “blank page” represents the willingness of many women to resist the attempts to tell or change their stories. “Silence will speak” says the old woman. Surely this nameless princess was shunned by some and scorned by others, those who tried to use such disapproval to make her change her story. I myself find comfort in the telling of her story by this mysterious old woman, comfort in the idea that stories of women inimical to what men and society have to say about us can be preserved, if only through word of mouth, by other

Maxine Hong Kingston's “The Woman Warrior” was a wonderful book. It is intense, fierce and disturbing but very original. I was intrigued by the title of the book: “Memoirs of a girlhood among Ghosts”. She grow up around the ghosts from her past and present. “The Ghosts” represent the people she grew up around which were the Americans, but throughout the book there is mentions of ghosts from her past. The first chapter of the book I found to be the most enjoyable. It introduced all major themes of the book. Including: Chinese culture and tradition, Women’s voice, and silence. The book itself focuses on the life of Chinese- American immigrants. Many believe that the book is influential but others cast a dark view on Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel. My impression of the book is that it takes a different angle on being brought up a second generation immigrant. I think that the use of the story of the aunt and Fa Mulan gives light to the turmoil of the search for self-identity. This exploration of

Kingston contrasts Maxine’s American education with stories told by her parents, for her edification, to demonstrate the opposing cultures found in her life. The beginning of the book starts with Maxine’s mother telling her about her ostracized aunt who had a baby with a random man instead of her husband. When the villagers raided out of discontent, her family “stood together in the middle of [their] house, in the family hall with the pictures and tables of the ancestors around [them], and looked straight ahead” (4). Maxine’s mother is implicating to Maxine that her actions don’t just affect her, but her entire lineage; that the family name is more important to protect than cherishing an individual. A recurring motif in Woman Warrior are ghosts,

Maxine Hong Kingston, in her book No Name Woman states that on the day of her menstrual, her mom revealed a family secret. She starts by saying “You must not tell no one (42).” In China, her husband’s sister drowned herself and the baby in their well. The secret was not only the suicide, but also the existence of the sister-in-law. Her mom said that her husband, father, and brother-in-law left to seek fortune in California, “The Gold Mountain.” The majority of men in the village sought money elsewhere because the village crops were suffering. While the men journey out, the women stayed home. Later in time, her mother noticed the sister-in-law was pregnant. Due to the strict

In her 1976 memoir Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston contrasts the Chinese value of maintaining the “roundness” and the American value of individuality to construct a situation in which cultural values create conflict. Chinese people preserve the “roundness” usually by remaining silent, whereas Americans promote individuality through the use of self-expression. After Maxine realizes that she is obligated to talk and participate during class, she “did not speak and felt bad each time that [she] did not speak” (Kingston 166). The phrase “felt bad” evokes an emotion of sorrow and regret for being unable to complete a certain task. In this situation, someone who tries to assimilate to American customs by speaking during class would feel disappointed

In this essay, I decided not to summarize Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior since we have already done that by posting our weekly responses and since it is an open essay; also it might seem too boring for you to read the same thing again. Instead, I wanted to write more on particular subjects that Kingston had talked in the interviews.

Kingston who is Chinese American writes about women who impacted her life, which are her aunt, Brave Orchid, Moon orchid, Fa Mu Lan and herself. During the first chapter, she talks about her long-dead aunt who was shunned by her family because she had a baby by another

Through Kingston’s narration, her mother defeated a ghost and her village believed her to be a magician. Her mother calls white people ghosts and is sentimental about ghosts in China that did not take human forms. Kingston thinks that she still prefers America. The chapter on her mother reflects on the relationship she has with her. Her mom, independent and brilliant, contradicts the traditional motherly housewife picture. However, she reinforces the stereotype about Chinese women being useless by telling Kingston stories about the treatment of women. Kingston has difficulty labelling her mother as a role model or a traditionalist because she cannot tell whether or not her mother’s stories are all true. Kingston continues the use of the ghost motif and the consideration of how women should be

In order to demonstrate the superficial knowledge of the Asian culture in American, Kingston uses herself as the narrator to create a “role embodiment narrative” that is The Woman Warrior. Readers are introduced to a narrator, who despite being of Asian descent, perceives the Asian culture as no less foreign, unfamiliar, or threatening than non-Asians. This invitation for reader identification even extends to Asian readers, who are led to see that even Kingston, an Asian-American scholar, constantly expresses a sense of confusion, loss, and incomprehension. In essence, the narrator serves as the avatar for the book’s non-Asian and Asian readers, with the majority of the former having ever only known the Asian American culture peripherally and

“No Name Woman,” an essay by Maxine Hong Kingston, examines the intricacies of culture and identity. The essay centers on the story of when Kingston’s mother first told Kingston about her deceased aunt, the no name woman. In “the old China” (310), Kingston’s aunt became pregnant out of wedlock. The villagers, furious at her betrayal of their way of life, raided no name woman’s family’s home. No name woman’s family preceded to shout at her for bringing such misfortune upon them.

Kingston illustrates silence in a variety of forms throughout the narrative. Early in the text we are presented with this theme of silence in two separate time periods. First we have the mother telling the story of the aunt in secret to a young Kingston who has just begun menstruating as a cautionary tale on how to conduct herself in a particular manner as a Chinese-American woman. Kingston begins her narrative with the introduction of this forced silence as she looks back at her mother telling her, “You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you. In China your father has a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born” (3). The mother is demanding Kingston to remain silent and requiring her to be obedient to this command while breaking this silence herself by speaking this story behind her husbands back.

Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Woman Warrior highlights conflicting views of women that spans decades through autobiographical and biographical accounts to demonstrate the harmful impact of contradicting viewpoints on the functionality of a family that differs not only in generation but

In the first chapter of The Woman Warrior, No Name Woman, Kingston tells the story her mother told her as a teenager about her aunt’s untimely death. Throughout the story, many remarks proving the empowerment of Chinese women are made. In the middle of the story, Kingston’s mother stops to say, “Don’t humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born” (Kingston 5). This is seemingly demeaning, but is actually empowering.