Woman Warrior Thesis

1367 Words3 Pages

Noah Yuen
Vuong
AmerLitH, Per.5
8 February, 2017
Voiceless
“Walking erect (knees straight, toes pointed forward, not pigeon-toed, which is Chinese-feminine) and speaking in an inaudible voice, I have tried to turn myself American-feminine,” (11) recounts Maxine, the protagonist of Woman Warrior, a memoir written by author Maxine Hong Kingston. Stuck between two worlds, “Chinese-feminine” girls such as Maxine must sacrifice their chinese heritage in order to become “American feminine,” which withholds Chinese values. Placed in a world that stresses the importance of self-expression and individuality when discovering one’s purpose, Kingston presents the struggle of finding selfhood that Maxine faces as she encounters colliding cultures and varying …show more content…

At a young age, Maxine has her frenum sliced from her tongue by her mother in order to prevent her from being tongue-tied, and enabling her to speak fluently in multiple languages. However, Maxine thinks her mother committed this, as seen from her perspective, terrible act because , “The Chinese say ‘a ready tongue is an evil’”(164). When someone or something is “ready,” they are prepared and able to carry out a task. In Maxine’s past world, a “ready tongue” means something or someone is ready to comply to the demands of another. As a woman from mainland China, Maxine is expected to obey the values of other Chinese women: introversion and compliance, without question. The “ready tongue” symbolizes Maxine’s ability to speak, or lack thereof, as she is reluctant to speak in school and express her feelings to her family. The ready tongue is described as “an evil,” which exemplifies the resentment Chinese people feel towards those who are ready to speak. Maxine’s mother, who grew up with traditional Chinese values, finds it fitting to limit Maxine’s ability to speak, which proves disastrous when the family ventures to the United States where Maxine struggles to find a sense of self in an environment that encourages …show more content…

When Maxine moves to America, she realizes that her old expectations which had been acceptable in China were prohibiting her success in America. She realizes her lack of identity in either world “when [she] found out [she] had to talk that school became a misery, that the silence became a misery” (166). “[Have] to” indicates that an action is mandatory. Now in America, Maxine “had to talk,” signifying that participation is a requirement in class, contrary to that of Chinese schools where utter silence is an expectation. This American belief that opposed her Chinese values made learning “a misery” for Maxine. “Misery” symbolizes a feeling of great discomfort, which accurately captures Maxine’s feeling while being torn between two worlds. Rather than either assimilating to America or maintaining her Chinese traditions, she is dragged back and forth. Her silence, which has now become a burden for Maxine after withholding her thoughts for many years, has now “[become] a misery. She is dying to speak up, but her the opposing values of her current and past world are tearing her apart at the seams. Maxine’s failed attempts to fit into her new world slowly deteriorates her mindset, intensifying her struggle to find a place in either of her two worlds.

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