The Role Of Women In Maxine Hong Kingston's No Name Woman

The role of women has changed dramatically over time in significant ways that, while challenging, have proven ultimately to be beneficial to females as a gender and I would like to address some of these changes and have chosen a couple of works of fiction to support my claim. It is important to determine how much a woman’s role has changed in society, first to gage how far women have progressed, and sometimes to understand how much farther the role has yet to evolve. I myself, being female, in some ways applaud the brave women who have fought and sacrificed to overcome obstacles, because I am not so sure I possess the courage or their foresight to have done similarly. In other ways, I am comforted by knowing exactly what is expected of me

The story is told by a mother to her daughter as the girl enters puberty. In the some 50 years between when the story takes place and its publication, quite a bit of emancipating change has occurred and while the story is from Chinese culture, it contains similarities to all cultures. The woman in the story was the only sister of the young girl’s father, and because of her crime, the family never speaks of her and pretends that she had never been born. The woman had been wed in an arranged marriage to a man from a nearby village and spent one night with him before he left for America. While he is away and too much time has passed for the baby to be his, the woman becomes pregnant. On the day the baby is due, the village wreaks havoc on the woman, her family’s home, and their possessions. What is not destroyed is taken. As a result of her shame and humiliation, the woman gives birth to the baby and then jumps down the well with her child to commit suicide. She obviously felt great pressure, in a sense, to right her wrong. “Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on her family.” An example of irony most vivid. The village sees all, knows all, and judges all. Society still judges and disapproves but we no longer feel the need to cave into the

“But what Cleofilas has been waiting for, has been whispering and sighing and giggling for, has been anticipating since she was old enough to lean against the window displays of gauze and butterflies and lace, is passion.” With a father, six brothers and no mother mentioned, the heroine does not appear to have had the maternal hand to guide her in the ways and responsibilities of a woman, mother, and wife. As a result, she quickly weds without the benefit of a long courtship and moves with her new husband from Mexico across the river to Texas, dreaming of romance, beautiful things and a wonderful life. In both stories are told of women who do what is expected of them, but the Chinese woman was surely not dreaming of happiness and romance, while Cleofilas was looking at her world through rose colored