The first section of the novel, “No Name Woman,” deals with the creation of a ghost by a family who has decided to abandon their daughter/sister for the shame she brought upon the family. The very first words in the novel are “you must not tell anyone,” a mother urging her daughter to abandon her voice, to NOT tell. This book is an act of unveiling the restricted voice and allowing the words to erupt, it is an act of rebellion against the very first her mother uttered. In this first section of the novel Kingston imagines the aunt’s story, creates a narrative and thus grants her ghost-aunt with a voice, with a chance to tell. This aunt is erased from the memory of the family and Kingston seeks to inscribe her inside the family narrative. The entire novel deals with ghosts of all kinds, and hauntings, in what ways does Kingston use the “ghost” to deal with tradition, history, family, speech, etc? What is constantly haunting the narrator throughout the novel?
In “White Tigers” the story of Fu Mu Lan is told in first person, another act of attributing voice to a woman. The third section focuses in on her mother, and tells her story, and it is mainly told in third person (with some interceptions in first by the author). Is Kingston trying to draw comparisons between her mother and the Chinese woman warrior? How are these two women similar? What are some versions of feminism that Kingston engages with in her portrayal of female figures?
The last two sections deal largely with the immigrant experience, particularly the experience of the Chinese immigrant in California. How is this experience outlined by Kingston? Why does Moon Orchid dissolve into madness? She finds out about the story of her Aunt and the encounter with her husband from her brother, but then she tells us that she actually finds it out from her sister. This little insertion may not seem relevant but Kingston is constantly revising the truth, constantly putting tension on what reality consists of. What are some other examples of this? In which other sections/pages does Kingston throw doubt on her ability as a narrator? Why do you think this is important in a story such as hers?
In the last section she tells us mainly of her own status a Chinese-American woman who must deal with a past she is not familiar with and with a present that often excludes her. We hardly learn anything about her that is not in some way tied to her family, to Chinese tradition, or to alternative histories. Her story is in itself a compilation of all of these, a compilation of silence and voice and it is the WAY she tells her story that is more compelling than the story itself. She does not establish a singular identity, she creates a collage of multiple faces and voices, fragments which create her.
This work is classified as “nonfiction/literature”- what does that category even mean? Think about the title: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts” and try to discuss what a memoir entails. What is a memoir and how it is different from an autobiography or a work of fiction? Kingston uses both fiction and fact in this novel, weaving them together so as to make their pattern fluent and coherent. Why do you think she does this? What is this saying about our own histories/past? Do we too combine fact and fiction, relying on both to create our master life narrative?
There are numerous correlations between Angel Island poetry and Kingston’s Ghost Story. When the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was imposed, it was as if the government was trying to hide Chinese immigrants from mainstream American society. Many history books neglect to include the story of Angel Island but the detainee’s poems serve as a permanent reminder of how the US government refused them entry. Like the poems of Angel Island prisoners, Kingston’s “No Name Woman” forces people to remember an often-overlooked part of her family history. Her aunt’s pregnancy and suicide brought so much shame and disappointment to Kingston’s family that they refused to acknowledge that she ever existed. Rather than forget about her, Kingston wanted to share the pain and suffering her aunt endured, similarly to how the Angel Island poems are personal accounts of the Chinese immigrants anguish.
While both the Angel Island poems and Kingston’s Ghost Story provide a voice to those unable to share their experiences, there remains some mystery about them. The Chinese immigrants feared that signing their name to their poems would jeopardize their chance of entering the country. Furthermore, while Kingston’s mother shared the story of her aunt, she was unable to utter her name. Without knowing the names and identities of the Angel Island poets or Kingston’s aunt, it is difficult for readers to fully connect and understand the subjects and their ordeals.
To me, the first section of the novel, “No Name Woman”, represents the mother’s own apprehension towards American Culture. I think while the mother tried to embraced the American way of life, she was constantly haunted by the stigmas against women in her home country and ultimately lived in fear that her daughter would succumb to the social pressures of being an “American Teenager”. The story was meant to “warn” Maxine into living her life with Chinese morals, but in my opinion– what it actually did was divert Maxine away from the Chinese culture because of feelings of confusion and disgust. Being an American herself, Maxine, was unable to understand a society that could ostracize a woman based on a mistake of infidelity. I think the “ghost” made her disconnect herself from the Chinese culture, however, being of Chinese decent she never felt that she was completely an “American” either. She felt disconnected from both societies, thus the reason she creates the “collage of multiple faces and voices”.
Even though Kingston’s mother immediately threatens her with “you must not tell anyone” to some extent, even the repetition of this story from mother to child is giving the no named aunt a voice. When we tell someone something, even if we warn them to never repeat it, there is always a chance that your secret can get out. By taking that risk, Kingston’s mother, is the first one to legitimize the life of the no named woman. Kingston is essentially drowned in the story, consumed with daydreaming about how this situation unfolded, who the man was, and how they met. Kingston’s mother and ultimately Kingston set her unknown aunt free by finally sharing her story with the world. Additionally, another burden or “ghost” is placed on Kingston by her mother who may have been somewhat tormented with the secret of the aunt. By passing on the secret to another person she relieves herself of a ghost, whom Kingston also allows to haunt her and ultimately her readers. The idea of a ghost is that it has a presence that affects those around it, and these stories thus act like ghost, affecting both those who tell them as well as those who hear them by making us wonder what is fact and what is fiction. Until she heard this story from her mother, Kingston knew nothing of her aunt, does this make her own life fiction?
The Woman Warrior is classified as a work of nonfiction/literature. Kingston attempts to link Chinese stories told by her mother with her life in America. The stories are a blend of fact and fiction in the form of a “talk-story”. The format has similarities with magical realism, a genre that I studied in Spanish literature courses, while analyzing such texts as “La muñeca menor”. In magical realism, supernatural elements are mixed with real events and descriptions to access a deeper understanding of reality. Similarly, Kingston’s imagination creates a fabrication of her mother’s stories to weave fact and fiction. The way she tells the stories is more significant than the stories themselves.
In the last chapter of Woman Warrior, Maxine finds the voice to speak out against her parents regarding all the past experiences and concerns that she has struggled with all her life. Having to live a dual identity – the traditional proper and obedient Chinese woman and the assimilated strong-voiced American woman – was too much for her. More than anything else, Maxine wants to take her own life back, not giving in to anyone or any ideal, but instead be person who she wants to be rather than who others expect her to become. As an Asian American, I experience similar conflicts. I struggle to learn mandarin and speak it fluently, honoring my parents and maintaining the work ethic that Taiwanese and Chinese culture demands, while at the the same time speak the perfect English and live the free-flowing American lifestyle of my native land.
Personally, I do not think it was right for Maxine to speak so poorly of the Chinese the way she did in The Woman Warrior. I admit that she has experienced some injustices that demand retribution. Yet for her to generalize ALL Chinese as viewing women as inferior beings who only serve the duty of housewife, as well as portraying ALL Chinese men as immoral people who cheat on their wives all the time – it saddens me to think that Americans who read this book may come to accept these accounts as facts that apply to all Chinese. Being myself an American-born Taiwanese, not once have my parents or relatives viewed women as inferior, and not once have the men in my family line cheated the way Maxine so described.
Like Maxine, I find myself stuck in two worlds so polar that I cannot enter one without shunning the other. But unlike Maxine, I do not stereotype.
Throughout the story, the idea of ghosts is present. They represent the unclearness of Kingston’s past, in which she has to discern which parts are real and fake. This is because her mother always told her so many talk-stories that she doesn’t really know which one is real. Symbolically, the ghosts are in so many versions (like the acenstral, everyday newsboy ghost) that they represent the many different versions of her past, imagined or real. And ghosts signify how different people may see different things as real or fake; just like how kingston’s mother may see it as real, but kingston sees it as fake. Brave Orchid says that the non-Chinese are ghosts, while Americans say that the Chinese are the ghosts. Clearly, the ghosts are changing depending on who is seeing them. All this unclearness contributes to the frustration of Kingston.
The ghosts represent the shadow of the tradition and history of her family, something should be exposed. “The Necessary,” everything done for the sake of the village and family, is at first concealed by the “ghosts.” And with this, Kingston struggles between truth and the illusion. Though she talks about her aunt, she is involved in a forced fabrication of fake stories. As a result, it’s not sure at all if she is actually helping her aunt’s “stories.” In this controversy between fact and fiction, the ghosts are variable, meaning they depend on the relative perspective. Kingston’s mother accentuates that these ghosts are the American and non-Chinese people. However, the other perspective is present in the novel as well; how the Chinese are really the ghosts.
Kingston constantly changes the facts of her stories. This is significant because Kingston and the reader both know that she is not the most reliable storyteller. Stories that came from her mother were most likely not 100% true because her mother had alternative motives when describing these stories to Kingston when she was growing up. As we watched Quentin Tarantino’s “Hero,” there were many similarities apparent that were shown through this other form of Chinese storytelling. The assassin told a very elaborate story to the Emperor, and in doing so, bought the Emperor’s trust. However, this was all part of an intricate plan to bring down the Emperor. This act of deceitfulness that the assassin displayed follows the same pattern that Kingston’s mother displayed when telling stories to her. For the reader, this shows that we need to be observant and skeptical when reading her stories as a lot of information could have been fabricated. This follows a similar theme that we have seen throughout all of the literature we have read in this class: the ability of the author to trick or lie to us.
The relationship between Kingston and her mother parallels the struggle between the Chinese and American cultures within the household. One of the more obvious contrasts are the personalities of the two. Kingston is told to keep quiet and not share her experiences and feelings with any one because it was not normal to do so in Chinese cultural. However, near the end of the book Kingston explodes with complaints showing that she could just bottle up her opinions. It goes beyond this: her mother warns her of “ghosts” and they are surrounded by them in American society, but these warning only make Maxine resentful and angry. We see at the end of the book that her mother is somewhat seen as the ghost within American society than anything else. But Kingston uses the Ts’ai Yen story to show that she had to explain cultural differences between Chinese and American so that we fully understand like Yen translated the songs.
In several ways, “The Woman Warrior” is very different from the others works we have read. While it is a story, in many ways, of oppression, it is different from the oppression faced by Angel Island poets, Lawson Fusao Inada, Langston Hughes, and story tellers in “Mules and Men.” All of these other writers were facing the oppression of an entire government against them. Maxine, on the other hand, is dealing with the challenges of a family dedicated to the traditions of an old culture, but not the oppression on the US government. The “Teacher Ghosts” actually support her more than her family does.
In this clash of cultures, the portrayal of the Americans as Ghosts is one of the most interesting. While in the master in “Mules and Men” is portrayed as dumb, Maxine’s mother, and perhaps Maxine herself, portrays the Americans as non-human. While in the other works we have read, the white people are the ones unable to accept differences in culture and skin color, locking up or enslaving minorities, in this novel, the Chinese are the ones who cannot accept the different cultures. Not once is there positive portrayal of the white people. The children are constantly in trouble for acting in American ways, like talking at the dinner table. Even the teachers who support Maxine are still called “Ghosts” because of their different way of living and acting. Perhaps the Chinese see the Americans missing a part of the soul necessary to be human. Or perhaps they just can’t accept the differences. But these are the types of thoughts that have led to oppression of the minorities in the other works we have read. Ultimately, all groups of people are in some way guilty of stereotyping out-group members in a negative light.
After rereading Woman Warrior focusing on the ghosts for my paper, I have ended up with a completely different perspective. Maxine and her mother classify the other people as ghosts because they don’t understand them. They are different, and Brave Orchid sees them as lost without a strong cultural background like she has. She sees American as lacking in a strong identity, so all the people are ghosts, lost souls, wandering around in search of what is missing.
Ghosts are prevalent and developing through the novel. We first see the ghost of the no name woman, lost in her culture, and her baby who never had a place in the world. Then we see the Ghosts in Shaman, the detached souls lost between life and afterlife, haunting those on earth. Then come the American ghosts, the ghosts that are lost in their own world because they do not have a distinct identity. Finally, we see Brave Orchid come the the realization that she, too, is a ghost. To America, she is a ghost of the Chinese past. But to herself, she is a ghost due to assimilation. She gave up her own identity, despite all her attempts to avoid, simply to survive in the world she now lives in.
I think it is interesting to note Kingston’s struggle between being Chinese-American and American-Chinese. There is a sense of double consciousness there that is so crucial to the way that Kingston sees herself. In Chinese culture, women do talk loudly and express themselves in a sort-of vulgar way, and it is noted that Kingston tries to be more quiet as an American feminine feature. Together the cultural aspects of her mother/chinese mannerisms and her American environment allow us as readers to explore the various experiences that have made Kingston the person she is today. There was a part where the Chinese girls would put tape on their eyes to appear less Chinese and more Americanized. This internalized need to be a part of the American culture and the outward appearance of being Chinese is the conflictual battle Kingston deals with towards the end of the novel. Through the final personal narrative, Kingston attempts to explain to the reader the difficulty she had in dealing with the two cultures, and seeks to further explain the Chinese culture itself.
While reading “The Woman Warrior” there was one sentence that really came out to me and represented the theme of instilled fear and silence within the first chapter No Name Woman. The very last sentence of the chapter summed up the imposed/implied culture of silence and shame within a traditional Chinese (Chinese-American family). “The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one, whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and bloated skin, waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute” (19). It is implied that the function of the no name woman is to instill fear in other women to control any transgressive behavior and specifically any transgressive behavior related to sex. The story of this drowned aunt serves to police other females who may have the temptation to have sex which in the most undesirable case cause pregnancy, and shame to the family. It is apparent that this fear kept many daughters away from sexual expression because they did not want to become No name woman who is silently very appealing to them. These stories are told in silence for two reasons one because it is their culture to never speak of someone who has shamed the family and two because the fictitious story was only told in order to keep her daughter from desiring the deemed “shameful” behavior. It is rather interesting that Kingston brings these stories up in her writing because they are a manner of breaking silence for women who have been subjugated by the very presence of the stories in their lives. Setting the stories in this context allows people of all gender and cultures to critique traditional values which may or may not oppress the women of that culture.
The book is classified as nonfiction/literature and I believe that this is the correct category for such a book. The “talk-stories” that Kingston’s mom is constantly telling Kingston are somewhat ambiguous. Kingston as well as the reader do not know if the stories actually happened or not. These stories make up and play a large role in the book making it hard to classify the book as either nonfiction or fiction. Both sides could be argued but I believe that it is nonfiction because it is a recount of her real, nonfictional life. An example of evidence leading to this being a fictional book, however, is in the beginning when Kingston is told the story of how her aunt killed herself and baby. Kingston makes up stories for her aunt that explain why she killed herself. These made up stories could be classified as being fictional.
Memoirs, like Kingston’s, significantly differ from autobiographies. While autobiographies are usually written in a formal structure, generally following a chronological timeline, memoirs capture certain parts of one’s life based on memory or personal experience. Memoirs usually discuss events and stories that played a significant role in one’s life, like Kingston’s. I think Kingston uses fiction and nonfiction throughout the novel to represent the idea of her Chinese roots and her American side. The Chinese traditions and talk-stories oppressed upon her are traditions she can’t fully engage in because she is living in America, so it’s almost like these stories are the fiction (non-realistic) part of her life. On the other hand, the effect of these traditions/talk-stories that she has felt in America and simply just living in America with modern traditions and beliefs, is reality, the nonfiction portion of her life. Maxine seems to yearn for some sense of belonging among what is real and what is not real. She wants to fulfill her mother’s hopes, by trying to understand and acknowledge the Chinese traditions she is being force-fed but finds it utterly difficult for she is living in America. Ultimately, we see Maxine describe this perfect life she longs for when she puts herself in the shoes of Fa Mulan. As Fa Mulan, Maxine is able to fulfill the role of a Chinese woman, by having a kid and living traditionally, all while being able to break her silence, by participating in battles against men. In other words, as Fa Mulan she’s able to combine reality and illusions, or nonfiction and fiction. I believe Kingston uses fiction because some things in her life were, without a doubt, blurry so she had to use her sense of imagination to evaluate these things, such as talk-stories and Chinese traditions, she couldn’t firmly grasp because she was living in America, not China.
I found it interesting in section yesterday in which my group discussed the definition of ghosts used throughout the novel. We came to an agreement that by Maxine calling America the Land of Ghosts she is trying to show how immigrants have lost their true identities once they have come to America. I found this idea to parallel the use of writing as a combatant to assimilation, which causes these immigrants to become ghosts. By writing “The Woman Warrior,” I feel as though Maxine Huang Kingston is trying to keep her true identity alive amongst of a society of individuals who have lost themselves.
A memoir is a type of autobiography in which the principle interest resided in significant events or people other than the author; in the case of the Woman Warrior these events are all part of Kingston’s past and therefore help to shape not only the memoir but her own memories and life. I feel as if a memoir is more personal, it draws on specific memories creating emotion
and capturing the meaningful events of her life. Her memoir starts at the beginning with a rebellious aunt without a name, a voice and without power. As the memoir progresses, it, or rather kingston goes through different phases and experiences, and at the end, gathering from all her past experiences, fantasies, relatives, and chinese-american culture she realizes her power. The second chapter White Tigers is a childhood fantasy told in the first person. By doing this Kingston becomes a rather unreliable narrator, making up stories, but also allows us into her subconscious, and her desires. She compares and contrasts the strong, perfectly balanced Fa Mu Lan with herself and her seemingly failed accomplishments. At the end of this chapter, Kingston very unassumingly revels that she too has a power, writing; like the tattoos of Fa Mu Lan, Kingston derives power from the written word, giving voice to the voiceless which include herself. This resolution becomes more apparent at the end of the book she embraces her past and uses it to find strength for her writing and her career.
I think that it would be difficult to simply classify this novel as just fiction or just an autobiography. It seems like it could be just classified as fiction because it is not completely factual, but the stories Kingston writes are not just ones she pulled out of a dream or imagination, they are stories that helped her grow and shaped her real life. Although Kinston’s stories are not necessarily true to us, they are true within her own mind. Our minds create an almost alternate reality in which we live in. Its just like when someone tells us a lie and we believe it, we live thinking that lie is true, even when it is not. Maxine lived her life listening to certain stories her mother told her that were not always factually true. Even so, they led her in a certain direction that she may not have chosen had she never been told them. Maxine’s stories show us that being told stories, or lies, is not necessarily a negative thing. These same stories, or lies, should not be considered fiction because they have the power to be lived and seem like actual reality. You can compare this to Angel Island where people would lie in order to become U.S. citizens. Even though they had to lie about things such as their names, they had to live the rest of their lives according to these lies. These lies had to actually become reality in order for them to gain their citizenship. Lies and stories can be just as inspirational and powerful as truths. To classify Kingston’s novel as just plain fiction would be an insult to its strong underlying meaning and content.
To begin with the first story, “No Name Woman”, definitely sets the story-telling quality of the novel. Because it is entitled as a “memoir” it seems as though Kingston will go on to tell her life story in connection with the first story her mother tells her. While Kingston does do this to some extent, she is clever in her way of weaving in each story, fact or fiction, and finally bringing it all together in the ending. In the way she tells the stories, her writing is somewhat similar to Zora Neale Hurston because so much of it is based on “talk-story” and what stories she is told as a child and growing up. Although stories by Hurston and Kingston both have morals at the end, Kingston’s stories seem to cause more of a fear in its ending rather than a light-hearted moral. In this way, all of the “ghosts” in the novel seem to portray the negative influences and negative things that surround her culture that her parents try so hard to bring her up in but one that she constantly refuses to accept. By the end of the novel, Kingston seems as though she has made her ultimate form of rebellion through writing a novel that reveals many secrets of her family and is like a climactic ending to a long battle within herself.
Kingston uses her first story, “No Name Woman,” to introduce aspects of Chinese culture that she finds significant. The story introduces concepts of family and one’s place and duty within a family. She comments throughout the story on things irrelevant to the tale, but informative about Chinese culture. She noted that it was strange for her “aunt” to be living with her own family because she should have been with her husband’s. Side remarks of this form are present throughout the story and offer insight into aspects of Chinese culture that were taught to Kingston at a young age.
The multiple scenarios she imagines her aunt experiencing illustrate the role of women in Chinese culture at the time. In discussion, we were asked if we thought her aunt would feel betrayed that Kingston had shared this story. The fact that she created multiple scenarios that could have resulted in her aunt’s pregnancy, shows the fairness of Kingston’s assessment of her situation. She gives her “aunt” the benefit of the doubt and portrays her in a good light.
I think it is important to consider peoples’ perceptions of reality. This book has brought up many questions about whether or not it is fiction. I find it interesting that a publisher would take the perceptions of reality of the author and label them as fiction. It is possible that Kingston’s perception of her life is exactly what she wrote. She is a “Third Culture Kid” or a child who was raised in a country other than that of their parents. This describes Kingston’s upbringing and this type of upbringing gives a person a unique perspective on how the world works and changes the way they experience the factual events of life. Her writing reflects this in how she exists between worlds. There is an expectation that she will behave and perceive life through the culture and stories of her mother, however she is also expected to understand factual events in terms of American culture. We see this with the pharmacist story.
After consideration, I have to say the fifth and final chapter, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” was very enjoyable to read, because for the first time I felt as though there was a connection with the author because she finally got personal and gave details on her life. This portion of the book had a very autobiographical sense to it, as she delved into the stories of her childhood, teenage years and finally her adulthood. I felt as though for the first time, she was letting readers into her painful past and struggles with her mother and ending in a way that seemed as though she had finally embraced her past and used it to become a stronger person. I feel as though, by finally writing about her past, Kingston got the chance to say all the things she didn’t get to in her quiet, shy and bottled up youth. It is especially interesting when Kingston tells readers about a young girl she did not like in grade school, who would not speak up. It seems as though this brings to mind many things to Kingston that frustrate her about her own personality and she takes this out on the young girl. She even proceeds to torment the girl and tells readers about this. It is so interesting to hear about her painful youth and to finally hear her get very personal, and let out so much she’s been meaning to.
Chapter 2, White Tiger, is about reversing gender roles and the different versions of women in different cultures. The opening words of The Woman Warrior do not belong to Kingston herself, but to Brave Orchid. It is interesting that it is up to Kingston to make sense of Brace Orchid’s talk-stories and make the memoir to either be direct or indirect. The quote where the phrase starts with “you must not tell anyone” is a direct reflection of Kingstons struggle with the no name woman, making the memoir as a whole to be written about her unnamed dead aunt, the Chinese village and the bad that went on, and Moon Orchid who cannot adapt to life in America. There is a struggle for Kingston to find a voice as both Chinese-American and a woman. The quote reflects the memoir as a rebellion and a willingness to break the silence and shame by saying something about the troubles they have gone through.
“This book is an act of unveiling the restricted voice and allowing the words to erupt, it is an act of rebellion against the very first her mother uttered.”
While this statement is 100% true, Kingston is not only rebelling against her mother, but she also takes a stand against her Chinese heritage. Professor Huang mentioned that Chinese culture often favors silence and does not typically permit gossip or self-disclosure. Kingston goes against this “cultural norm,” by sharing her family’s history. This shift in style is much more along the lines of American culture, where people feel free to discuss personal problems, experiences, or issues. In America secrecy is viewed negatively, while China enforces it. After reading Kingston’s book, it becomes clear that she is favoring her American side (at least when discussing the topic of secrecy). She speaks of her Chinese tradition through her American customs.
Kingston doesn’t just “speak out” about her personal life and family history. Instead, she is able to empower a strong female voice throughout her stories. She uses writing as empowerment and compares herself to Fu Mu Lan in Chapter two. While Mu Lan uses a sword to gain power, Kingston uses the pen as her weapon and is able to form her own type of “woman warrior.”
How one perceives themselves and the course of there life in reality is fairly subjective. Kingston defies the traditional format of a memoir or autobiography to weave fiction and non fiction to better personify her life experience and the factors that comprise her being. While some a Kingston’s tales such as the women warrior are obviously fictitious, these stories and the lessons they brought played a large role in shaping herself and at present describing who she truly is. While such stories may not give the most specific details or a straightforward narrative of her life they go a great ways in portraying the values that forged her being.
The classification “nonfiction/literature” is essentially the blending of both forms of prose. Kingston writes this sort of account of her childhood, creating vivid images of thing she has never seen or experienced. From one side her narrative becomes literary, embellishing the things she is told about and creating a rather alternate or fictional parallel. From the other side, Kingston is in fact narrating stories passed down to her; her embellishment are not simply manifested from thin air. As prof. Huang put, Kingston continues the stories her family members as well as other people have told her as she grew up as a first generation American. In many respect, Kingston’s writing style reflects her own position in American society; she is at loss with her identity, trapped between the distant China she knows so little about yet immersed in a new society whose culture she does not yet fully comprehend. This sort of middle ground where personal, cultural, and familial identity (at least for Kingston) was a point of confusion and uncertainty. With that in mind, Kingston’s writing reflects the attempt to appeal to the Chinese historical, non-fictional aspect while maintaining and developing a creativity fueled by her own search for personal identity as Kingston is immersed in two widely different cultures.
One theme that I found in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior was the idea of translation. This occurs on many different levels. We can stand from a cultural perspective and observe how Kingston balances being both Chinese and reserving those feelings for her mother’s homeland but also being American. Another way to view translation in this book is the idea of extrapolation from the original story. Like Prof. Huang said in class, a translation can never truly be carried out. Thus Kingston takes her mother’s stories and weaves them into a tale that walks a fine line between fiction and nonfiction. Would the story brandish more authenticity had it been told from her mother’s point of view?
It took me a little bit longer to get into “Woman Warrior” than the other books. One thing that kind of confused me at first was a talk of ghosts. It took me a while to realize that Maxine Hong Kingston used the ghosts to symbolize things that she was unfamiliar with. In the “Shaman” chapter she talks about many ghosts including Garbage Ghost. Garbage Ghost turned out to just be the garbage man, but since Kingston was unfamiliar with him she referred to him as a ghost.
The stories that Kingston investigates are not purely fantastical. These are stories passed onto her through tradition, and experiences she herself endured, with fictionalized elements. These fictionalized elements have enabled her to connect with the reader on a more intimate level. Just because a story has fictional elements does not mean it cannot be interpreted as reality. Regardless of its predominantly non-fictional nature, albeit with numerous fictional additions, at its core this book is an autobiography. Kingston’s narrative is a story of her life, as she remembers it and believes it can be most effectively conveyed to others. The Woman Warrior is in essence the autobiographical tale of one woman’s life and serves as an indirect commentary on the dichotomy of truth and deceit.
I drew something really interesting from Chapter 4 that we might have discussed a little in section, but it’s that in the attempt to protect and not alter her culture, she is isolating herself from her new culture and holding back her own assimilation.
Kingston uses the Woman Warriors in each chapter of her book to portray a feminist role and empower females across generations. Fa Mu Lan specifically is important because she embodies a literal and figurative Woman Warrior. Literally she fights in battles as a man for her father. In the figurative sense she is a Woman Warrior, fighting in a battle to prove to herself and other women, that she can fight just as well as any man, and do any tasks as well as men. This empowers women by proving that men are NOT necessarily the dominant race, and it is not women always relying on men, but men often rely on women as well.