In the novel The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston uses ghosts to represent a battle between American and Chinese cultures. The two cultures have different views of what a ghost is. The Chinese believe the ghost spirits may be of people dead or alive. Chinese culture recognizes foreigners and unfamiliar people as ghosts because, like American ghosts, they are mysterious creatures of the unknown. Americans view ghosts as spirits of the dead that either help or haunt people. American ghosts may or may not be real. There spirits are there but physical appearance is a mystery. Chinese culture has many interpretations ghosts. One way they are seen as is people who have disgraced their family or country. An example of this in the novel is Maxine's aunt. She is considered a ghost because she disgraced her family by having a baby outside of marriage. They call her "Ghost! Dead ghost! Ghost! You have never been born." (Kinston 14) She drowns herself in the well to become one of the most feared ghost, the Shui Gui or watery ghost. These ghosts are said to be waiting for their victims, to pull them into the water to take the drowned ones place. In the novel another example of what the Chinese consider ghosts are American people. Sometimes they feel haunted by this unfamiliar culture, just as a ghost would haunt. "But America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts, Fire Ghosts, Meter Reader Ghosts, Tree Trimming Ghosts, Five-and-Dime Ghosts." (Kong 96) These examples are American people of any ethnicity. They are called ghosts because the Chinese are not familiar with the culture. Another example of the unfamiliarity is when, "Her husband looked like one of the ghosts passing the car wind... ... middle of paper ... ...hinese. The Chinese see ghosts as haunting spirits, either dead or alive. The live ghosts in Chinese culture represents all of the odd and uncomfortable people who are unusual or have been disrespectful. Americans perceive ghosts as the haunting spirits of the dead. Americans also believe there are good ghosts' spirits of people who come to help or protect. Both cultures question the real definition of ghost. To each culture it has a new meaning. The ghosts represent the cultural divide of Chinese and Americans. Work Cited Chang, Lee Samantha. Hunger. Chin, Marilyn. Moon and Outgrass. Ghost Theory, The Utah Ghost Organization, http://www.utahghost.org/research_pages/ghost_theory.html History Mystery, http://history.sfogs.com/ Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. New York; Random House Inc., 1989. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, www.Merriam-Webster.com
Great people often arise from unlikely places. During the civil war women were barred from serving in the army; however, women did sometimes disguise themselves as men and enlisted in both the Confederate and Union armies. During the Civil War years of 1861 to 18-65, soldiers under arms mailed countless letters home from the front. There are multiple accounts of women serving in military units during the Civil War, but a majority of these incidents are extremely hard to verify. Nevertheless, there is the one well-documented incident of the female Civil War soldier by the name of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.
Through out the short novella, 'The Turn of the Screw,' by Henry James, the governess continually has encounters with apparitions that seem to only appear to her. As Miles' behavior in school worsens so that he is prevented from returning, and as Flora becomes ill with a fever, the governess blames these ghosts for corrupting the children, Miles and Flora, and labels them as evil and manipulative forces in their lives. But why is it that these ghosts only seem to appear to the governess even when the children are present at the time of the sightings by the governess? Evidence from the short story leads the reader to believe that the ghosts are not real but are merely the evidence of the fragmenting sanity of the governess.
Ghosts, both figurative and literal, are very common in the Joy Luck Club and are a recurring theme in the book. The mothers of The Joy Luck Club were all raised in traditional Chinese households, which has influenced them to have deeper feelings about ghosts. Mentally, the term ghost is used to describe people who have become a shell of their former selves and rarely speak or do anything. Physically, ghost is used to describe the spirit of the dead. This is the basis of the mothers and others to be scared of the thought of becoming a ghost figuratively and literally. Christianity is the basis of physical fear of ghosts and traditional Chinese beliefs cause the mental fear of ghosts, this stimulates the thought of the afterlife to be
The definition of the “ghost” is a shadow which wandering among or haunting other people. The villagers called her aunt a ghost because they are scared of her behavior. The life that they know had been attacked. Kingston uses the harsh responses of the villagers indirectly exposes her aunt ‘s challenge to the society.
Ghost- a vision of a dead person that is believed to appear or become visible to the living as a vague image. There have been many cases in reality where one sees the ghost of their deceased loved ones or encounter some sort of paranormal activity in their life. “Proof” by David Auburn plays around with the “Ghost story” in his play to represent identity, memory of Catherine.
Women in America have been described as “domestic household slaves” referring to their status in society. Do the documents support this assertion? If so what is the evidence?
The contentious little book titled Women, Power, Politics maintains politics to be devalued, acknowledging the fact that only few people do vote, and women are unable to achieve within the realm of Canadian politics. Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the book argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority, what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's biased role of representing the private lives of women in politics, and she wonders why citizens find politics is underrepresented in Canada compared to Belgium. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains her ideas on how to eliminate “low voters turn-out,” “devaluation of politics,” "gender schemas," and "media framing.” She outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics which are; contesting media portrayals, changing the rule of the game, improving legislative quotas, electoral reform, movement renewals, and so on. This response paper would addresses the reality of a political mainstream, actions which should be taken against the oppressive elements of reality, and the awareness it brings through economic, social, and political environment.
Ghost is something that some believe and some won't. But still most of them get frighten to some extend, when they watch terrific horror films. Perhaps it is due to the terrific sounds or special effects that imposes ones mind. But there is a specific science that has the ability to explain the concepts of the spirits or ghosts called Adhyathma (A study centered around the soul)in the Ancient Indian script. According to the teachings of the ancient scripture Bhagavad Gita, the brain (and the body in general) is only a mechanical device used by the spirit soul (the actual self). It is described that just as a passenger rides in a chariot, in the same way the spirit soul is riding in this vehicle of the body.
First, it is important to include an in-depth description of the storyteller in order to fully analyze the meaning of the tale. My story was narrated by an 18-year-old woman. She was born in Poland, and at the age of eight moved to the Frederick. She is from an upper-middle class family; both her mother and father are chemists. The story was obtained late one night while working on homework and casually conversing. The topic of ghosts and the supernatural arose, and she informed me that she once saw a ghost firsthand. I inquired about her experience, and she willingly explained what had happened.
...ssified ghost into two categories blessed, and damned spirits. Those who come from paradise appear for a good purpose and those from hell for an awful and demonic purpose. While a few apparitions could be heavenly angels in a form of a ghost, Protestants felt that spirits were mainly evil because they take the form of dead friends and relatives to abuse and harm people.
When she moves to America, her mother calls everyone who is not Chinese a “ghost,” and Kingston catches on to the saying. In an article, Lee writes, “refers to the “foreigners: when they live among the whites. Here” ghosts” mean outsiders for the Chinese” (Lee). By moving to America, Kingston views herself as being surrounded by “white ghosts,” or “gwai-lo’s” constantly throughout her everyday life. She views anything she does not quite understand or anything that frightens her as a “ghost” and because of that, all white people become ghosts in her mind. “By calling (white people) and other people of color “ghosts,” Chinese immigrants tried to claim their legitimate statues and to some extent debased the existence of others”(Lee). Through the appointing of all non-Chinese immigrants as “ghosts,” the Chinese are able to unite as living beings in a world full of the dead. They are able to categorize all unfamiliar races and skin colors that they do not understand as one group termed “ghosts.” In one excerpt, Kingston writes, “America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts, Five and Dime Ghosts. Once upon a time the world was so thick with ghosts, I could hardly breathe” (90-91). With this passage, Kingston describes the white Americans as ghosts. Because they are different from her and have different cultures and do not really interact with her, they are automatically deemed ghosts by her mother, and therefore accepted as ghosts to Kingston herself. She is living in a world full of ghosts, and it is absolutely terrifying for her. Although these ghosts are indeed alive, they are every bit as scary to her as the dead ones that haunt her through her mother’s stories. In a strange and terrifying new world, Kingston categorizes the things that scare and haunt her, under one word:
It is difficult to put into words the ideas of ghosts that Derrida develops in his book Specters of Marx. If we were to make a definition of what a ghost is, we could say that the ghost is a thing, an entity which status in the one of neither being nor not being. A ghost is not a substance, the idea of the ghost involves those who are no longer present or those who haven't been born yet. Those who are not presently living.
Dead ghost! Ghost! You 've never been born." This was said by the villagers because she and her son, "little ghost" was an outcast. According to traditional Chinese belief a ghost is the spirit form of a person who has died due to misfortune, then comes back for revenge. This theme of judgment got worse because through the concept of orientalism because the aunt was at first considered an outcast and then it got worse and everyone wanted her to become a ghost, to be dead as if she never existed. This was done by the way the citizens viewed the aunt for her "sin". They emphasized her being dead when they raided the home "the people with long hair hung it over their faces." Which is what the Chinese people viewed the ghost as Kingston explains that her aunt drowned her child with her because she knew that her child would grow up to be a pariah and wanted to spare it the shame that had killed her, made her a ghost, even before she died. She could have abandoned her child but in the village culture "mothers who love their children take them along." The protagonist also suggests that the baby was a girl because males were the preferred sex and if it was a male her aunt would have abandoned the baby for the village to take care of
A ghost is a person’s spirit from his or her body and will continue after death. (According to Benjamin (2013), “Ghosts have been a popular subject for millennia, appearing in countless stories, from "Macbeth" to the Bible, and even spawning their own folklore genre: ghost stories.” Places that are haunted by ghosts usually are where he or she may have died, therefore majority of the ghost stories tell how ghosts haunt what he or she left behind. Most people believe in ghosts according to what him or her may have seen or what they experienced (Benjamin, 2013).