Comparing Narrator's Role In No Name Women And White Tigers

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The narrator’s mother’s role in“No Name Women” and “White Tigers”is to serve as a protector. However, in “No Name Woman” the mother wants to protect the narrator from shame and in “White Tigers” the mother wants to protect the narrator from being inferior to men. In “No Name Woman”, the narrator’s mother is very fearful of society and being humiliated. Therefore, the mother tells the narrator about her (narrator) aunt who was humiliated by the village people because she (aunt) had a child out of wedlock. Also, the mother tells the narrator about how her (narrator) aunt committed suicide because of the shame. The narrator’s mother says, “‘Don’t let your father know what I told you. He denies her. Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. …show more content…

You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you had never been born’” ( Kingston 385). The mother is very fearful that the narrator will do the same thing and bring shame to their family. In their culture, a woman is supposed to be very obedient and be traditional. In addition to that, in their culture if a woman makes mistake then, her whole family is to blame. Unfortunately, if someone does make a mistake they have to be afraid of what their society will do or say to them. For example, the villagers raided the aunt’s home, broke objects, killed animals, and caused embarrassment. Since the narrator started menstruating it causes the mother to worry because now the narrator can have a child out of wedlock Therefore, the mother wants to protect her daughter from the shame the aunt had to go through which caused the aunt to commit suicide and be forgotten by her

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