The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston is a collection of memoirs, a blend of Kingston’s autobiography with Chinese folklore. The book is divided into five interconnected chapters: No Name Woman, White Tigers, Shaman, At the Western Palace, and A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe. In No Name Woman, three characters are present: Kingston, Kingston’s mother, and Kingston’s aunt. This section starts off with Kingston’s mother retelling the story of her aunt and her shameful past where her aunt took part in an adulterous relationship and expressed her sexuality openly, then Kingston’s interpretation of this story, and later what the story ultimately means to Kingston - the act of the family forgetting this aunt entirely. In White Tigers, it tells of the myth of Fa Mu Lan. It begins with Kingston recounting her mother’s story of Fa Mu Lan and her training where an elderly couple trains Fa Mu Lan into a warrior for fifteen years, then Fa Mu Lan’s role as a leading warrior and wife in which she replaces her father in battle and seeks revenge and lastly Kingston’s comparison to Fa Mu Lan’s life with hers.
In Shaman, Kingston recounts her mother’s story of when her mother was a student and doctor. It starts off with Kingston’s mother at the To Keung School of Midwifery, then her mother, Brave Orchid’s, return to her village, and finally Kingston’s mother telling Kingston of her life in America and how she tells Kingston that every person is a “ghost”. At the Western Palace, it tells of Kingston’s remembrances of her elderly mother and her mother’s sister, Lovely Orchid. It begins with Brave Orchid meeting her sister Lovely Orchid at the airport after not seeing each other for 30 years, then welcoming ...
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...spectives that it makes it quite difficult for a reader to see the progression of the autobiography and the progression of Kingston’s growth from a child to a woman. However, growth is evident in the narrative and one could see that the many facets of Kingston – her cruelty, her teenage rebelliousness, her meekness, and her strength. She grows from a child who could not speak for herself in school to a woman who can speak her mind on paper. She grows from a child who cowered from her mother’s story telling to a woman who accepts the dark crevices of her past. Kingston grew in her book from a person who suffered under scrutiny and conflicting values and customs to a woman who has found her identity and has composed beautiful prose about her heritage.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Knopf, 1976.
For Kingston, The Woman Warrior signifies more than five chapters of talk-stories synthesized together. Within each chapter of the memoirs, Kingston engraves the method in which she undertook to discover her discrete voice. The culture clash between her mother and Kingston accumulated her struggles and insecurities, resulting in Kingston’s climax during her tirade. However, what Kingston accentuates the most is that the a breakthrough from silence requires one to reject a society’s
Thus born The Woman Warrior, a chronicle of a Chinese American woman's personal sufferings and triumphs, of duplicities and truths, and of struggles and breakaways; a requiem for all the victims of the old culture whose soundless cries have not been heard and who died without a name, engulfed by the darkness and the silence. In her world then, at least, the failed heroine Fa Mu Lan is redeemed.
In Maxine Kingston’s “No Name Woman” she retells the story about a tragic past family secret. Kingston reveals the horrible family dishonor of her aunt who committed suicide, and murdered her newborn son, by jumping into the family well in China. She continues to explain her thoughts and emotions evoked from her aunt’s actions. As time passes, Kingston’s opinion and thoughts change and her perspective is altered. Kingston shows an evolutionary change in opinion toward her aunt by explaining her different thoughts in different stages of her life.
Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior is a series of narrations, vividly recalling stories she has heard throughout her life. These stories clearly depict the oppression of woman in Chinese society. Even though women in Chinese Society traditionally might be considered subservient to men, Kingston viewed them in a different light. She sees women as being equivalent to men, both strong and courageous.
Particularly, the author contradicts standard postcolonial and Caribbean literature in which denial of one’s culture leads to the celebration of a return. Unlike Avey Johnson, Lucy persistently evokes the past; however, she does not come to resolution or return to her homeland. Throughout the novel, Lucy becomes preoccupied, even obsessed with her past and traumatic childhood. She feels like a stranger in the American society and constantly brings up her past and homeland; however, despite her memories, she does not want to go back home or even visit her mother. Such an alienation from her family leads her to isolation, not only from her heritage, but also from the American society. Lucy’s connection to her culture, represented through her mother and motherland, signifies Caribbean literature, particularly in this novel where return and reconnection with her culture emphasized as a
Throughout history women have been underestimated. Society as a whole is patriarchal, and even though women have mead great strides in gaining equality, there are still crimes and prejudice against women. Women are capable of great feats, if they are given a chance. Some women ignored all social standards and managed to accomplish incredible things that changed the course of history.
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior discusses her and her mother Brave Orchid's relationship. On the surface, the two of them seem very different however when one looks below the surface they are very similar. An example of how they superficially seem different is the incident at the drug store when Kingston is mortified at what her mother makes her do. Yet, the ways that they act towards others and themselves exemplifies their similarities at a deeper level. Kingston gains many things from her mother and becomes who she is because of Brave Orchid, "Rather than denying or suppressing the deeply embedded ambivalence her mother arouses in her, Kingston unrelentingly evokes the powerful presence of her mother, arduously and often painfully exploring her difficulties in identifying with and yet separating from her" (Quinby, 136). Throughout Maxine Hong Kingston's autobiography Kingston disapproves of numerous of her mother's qualities however begins to behave in the same manner.
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston portrays the complicated relationship between her and her mother, while growing up as a Chinese female in an American environment. She was surrounded by expectations and ideals about the inferior role that her culture imposed on women. In an ongoing battle with herself and her heritage, Kingston struggles to escape limitations on women that Chinese culture set. However, she eventually learns to accept both cultures as part of who she is. I was able to related to her as a Chinese female born and raised in America. I have faced the stereotypes and expectations that she had encountered my whole life and I too, have learned to accept both my Chinese and American culture.
Jamaica Kincaid develops the interesting and amiable character of Xuela Claudette Richardson in her 1996 novel The Autobiography of My Mother. In contrast to other members in her community, Xuela is unique and unpredictable in an instable setting. Other characters in the novel such as her father, her half-sister, and the men she engages in sexual behavior with follow a pattern in their lives, which others appreciate and expect. Xuela, however, does not follow any guidelines in the manner that she thinks and behaves; while she is not hurt by the lack of love that she feels, she definitely identifies and accepts it. This sense of acceptance of herself and the acknowledgement that no one else is like her is what makes Xuela the free, unparalleled, and slightly defiant individual that she is.
The woman warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a collection of stories that blends between childhood memories, traditional Chinese stories and fictional stories. Maxine Kingston was born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents. Growing up as a Chinese American woman, Kingston was exposed to gender roles defined by the traditional Chinese culture and the American culture. Thus, throughout woman warrior, Kingston portrays the conflict between the traditional Chinese gender roles and American gender roles and her viewpoint towards the issue. Particularly, the story white Tigers, in which Kingston portrays herself as a traditional Chinese warrior who goes to battle in absence of her father showcases an alternative to traditional Chinese
The patriarchal repression of Chinese women is illustrated by Kingston's story of No Name Woman, whose adulterous pregnancy is punished when the villagers raid the family home. Cast out by her humiliated family, she births the baby and then drowns herself and her child. Her family exile her from memory by acting as if "she had never been born" (3) -- indeed, when the narrator's mother tells the story, she prefaces it with a strict injunction to secrecy so as not to upset the narrator's father, who "denies her" (3). By denying No Name Woman a name and place in history, leaving her "forever hungry," (16) the patriarchy exerts the ultimate repression in its attempt to banish the transgressor from history. Yet her ghost continues to exist in a liminal space, remaining on the fringes of memory as a cautionary tale passed down by women, but is denied full existence by the men who "do not want to hear her name" (15).
The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield depicts the warrior’s mentality from ancient times to the present through a variety of different aspects and stories. In The Warrior Ethos, Pressfield states that men are not born with the certain qualities that make a good warrior, but instead are inculcated through years of training and indoctrination, stating at an early age. He shows how different societies have been able to instill the same or very similar ideals throughout history while maintaining their own unique characteristics. Things have changed from ancient Sparta, where parents would be enthusiastic about their children going to war, and even more elated upon learning they died valorous in battle. These days, most parents are a lot
Jamaica Kincaid uses many symbolism that shows how Annie develops from a little girl that very dependent on her mother to a independent woman who makes decision on her own. Throughout the book she learns to accept changes, which she was afraid of In the beginning of the book.
Esther is introduced to the reader via a conversation that she has with Mrs. Dickson, an African American woman in her fifties. Esther’s low self-confidence is evident
Kingston’s “No Name Woman” is a story that revolves around morals, society and family expectations, and women role in society. Kingston writes the story of her aunt that committed suicide in China and she has never heard of until her mother spoke of her once. The purpose of Kingston story is to show women role in China and how women were trap in their society.