The Woman Warrior Essays

The Woman Warrior During early centuries, men received better treatment than women in terms of status socially and politically. Men have political position and runs a business while women stay behind or their home. Maxine Kingston “The Woman Warrior” novel is influenced by this historical event. Her book was an autobiography, and a compilation of folk story told by her Chinese mother.

``The woman warrior`` written by Maxine Hong Kingston is a collection of memoirs. It has a hybrid form: it is a myth, fiction, as well as autobiography. ``The woman warrior`` is a book about finding and discovering yourself in the circumstances of a Chinese family and an American upbringing, always fluctuating between the two worlds, wondering about your true self. In ``A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe`` a very important theme is the Identity Plot.

In the novel The Woman Warrior written by Maxine Hong Kingston, we are being told about the stories of five women and their lives. Throughout the novel there is a story told for each of these women. Kingston writes throughout the novel almost exclusively of her own family. Her main focus is on her own mother, Brave Orchid. Kingston originally learnt the tradition of talk story from her mother and she spends most of her time judging the dynamics of each female role in her family.

Traditions are that of old family tells and stories from our grandparents and great grandparents, as they get passed on to generation after generation they tend to develop and modify to help aid who the stories are being told to and allow that person to benefit from them as the situation develops. This is very common in most ethnicities, however in the Chinese tradition it is important to listen and follow these talk-stories as their elders are telling them. In the memoir, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Kingston establishes a relationship between silence and finding ones voice through the talk-stories and Chinese traditions she encounters that truly forms her perspective on finding her own identity as a Chinese American.

The Woman Warrior Survival In 20th Century Maxine Hong-Kingston’s novel/autobiography The Woman Warrior uses fictional female characters that depict her own struggles. Many of these women are empowered and give Kingston confidence that she can succeed in the male dominant world she lives in. The less powerful women give her a chance to learn from their mistakes. Both groups of women enable Kingston to what traits to value and mistakes to avoid when growing up in America. Kingston uses the character Fa Mu Lan as a role model for young Chinese woman like her self.

Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir the “ Woman Warrior” has a very alluring writing style. Her beautifully written words drag readers into the abyss of fable and reality. Nevertheless, to numerous readers her writing style may seem unnerving and difficult to pinpoint, and can make one question the ability to fathom English ! Consequently, readers are pulled into the paradox between words and meaning. Kingston’s memoir is like no other writer, her words are like a graceful dance that swings readers along for the ride.

The meeting with the goddess also connects to the stage of temptation. However it’s not always the case. In The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, Fa Mulan falls into temptation to the point where the thought of her husband and son distract her from fulfilling her quest. She thinks about them so often that she gets caught off guard by the enemy and she doubts her abilities to fight. “

The Woman Warrior, Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts, explores Kingston’s identify formation in relation to her mother and female relatives. Kingston uses the first person to narrate five distinct short stories. Each of them contains a central female character. The unique feature of this book is the rearrangement of the traditional Chinese myths, legend of Fa Mu Lan and Ts’ai Yen. The combination of fantasy and reality is closely intertwined in the stories.

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, is a story of an American daughter of Chinese immigrants. The story in this book reflects on Kingston’s childhood memory of growing up among the ghosts that her mother tells her during her talk-story. There are many stories of ghosts that appear in several forms, both literally and figuratively, in each chapter. There are three primary ghosts that reflect Maxine’s struggle to find her identity while growing up in two different cultures, the traditional culture of her Chinese parents and the modern American culture. These ghosts are, “no name woman,” the sitting ghost, and the ghost of China.

Throughout her memoir, The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston laments on the gender roles prevalent in both her own culture and the United States, as well as the disdain she feels for the ideology driving these beliefs and the difficulties she’s faced resulting from it. In “White Tigers,” Kingston displays this theme through the use of the epic hero quest and paralleling common staples of the genre in her own story, effectively demonstrating the importance of her own personal message, feminism and female empowerment, through this process. Specifically, Kingston utilizes elements such as the quest itself, the constant struggle and setbacks faced by the protagonist as they attempt to achieve their goal, and the characteristics possessed by the main hero of the tale, Fa Mu Lan, in order

In The Woman Warrior, Kingston develops the theme seed of strength and how Mulan demonstrates it to lead an army against the emperor in order to illustrate why Kingston looks up to Mulan for finding her motivation to go against the Chinese norms that follow her family to Chinatown. When Kingston enters the world in America, her mother immediately puts regulations on her so she will not be able to follow her dreams. At an older age mother repeatedly tells Kingston her future occupation when she gets older, a wife or a slave. Straight A Kingston refuses to have her dreams crushed so she looks to Mulan for inspiration to succeed in the Chinese culture. Mulan was a woman who lead an army whose purpose was to overthrow the emperor in the capital of

The chapter “White Tigers” from the book The Warrior Woman, by Maxine Hong Kingston, has long been seen as a story from a very cultured point of view. Indeed, it’s easy to say that people who are not Chinese don't really have a connection with this story because these experiences only happen in their culture. 2.

Americans are constantly “just talking” and value the individual and expressing one’s self. In contrast, The Chinese culture values secrets and introvertism. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior, Maxine must find her way through America while pleasing her Chinese family. She struggles to categorize herself into either society and finding a sense of identity. Kingston uses Maxine’s struggle to illustrate that when one is stuck between two cultures, one tends to have a harder time finding a sense of identity.

American cultures values the freedom of expressing one’s self and not being afraid to speak up ; “‘if you don’t talk, you can’t have a personality’” ( Kingston 180). In contrast, chinese culture, tends to encourage shying away from speaking up, or speaking in general. In China there is strict, and concise agreement between people to keep personal information to oneself. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir Woman Warrior, Maxine must learn that In a world that values outspoken people, those with different cultural values tend to shy away from others in a negative way, ultimately alienating them from both the community and people around them.

Another scene where the power relation between silence (inferiority) and voice (superiority) is involved can be found in the final chapter of The Woman Warrior. When Kingston finds her schoolmate’s sister who hardly talks standing alone in front of the school, she lures the silent girl to the lavatory and tortures her until she would break the silence. Kingston told her: “You’re going to talk, […] I am going to make you talk, you sissy-girl [emphasis added]” (Kingston 175). Here, Kingston chooses the role as the person in power, whereas her schoolmate is chosen to be the weaker one. It is important to note that Kingston becomes the one who makes choices for her and the girl in terms of power relations, while the other girl is being chosen to

Lizzy S. Ruacho Mrs. Jarrell AP English lll 4 April 2016 The Woman Warrior In order for people to move into the future, they must first accept themselves and their past. It is also a necessity in human nature to find a purpose as well as their social role in their environment in order to know which direction to take in life and live in peace and harmony. Maxine Hong Kingstone captures the essence of self-identity in The Woman Warrior, a memoir of her life as a Chinese-American woman.

Throughout the modern world, women fight to gain equality in all settings of life. Maxine Hong Kingston, in an effort to portray this struggle through a series of carefully interwoven stories, blurs the line between both fictional and nonfictional struggles in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Kingston’s use of declarative sentences, active voice, and effective variation of speech successfully manages to continuously engage the reader in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, while adding a personal touch throughout the story.

The importance of Story-telling and embracing your culture There are numerous novels that focus on the immigration of people to The United States. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston is an example of one of the numerous novels that touch on the experiences that these people have been through. Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko is an example a little different where it shows that the people are sort of being pushed out of their land. Maxine Hong Kingston and Leslie Marmon Silk both use a form of story-telling (talk-story) to tell the stories of their protagonists.

From my perspective, I believe the chapter “White Tigers” was fictional. I think the author included this fictional element in her memoir to make a statement in regards to the readers and the traditional Chinese culture. As written in the chapter, Maxine Hong Kingston took on the role of Fa Mu Lan. She used this lifestyle filled with myth and magic to exhibit what she was taught a woman warrior was to be. It created a sense of reality for Kingston even though she wasn’t Fa Mu Lan.

Maxine Hong Kingston's use of talk stories in The Woman Warrior emphasizes that individuals will find a more fulfilling life if they defy the traditional gender norms place on them by society. While contemplating beauty standards in Chinese society in “No Name Woman” Maxine Kingston thinks, “Sister used to sit on their beds and cry together… as their mothers or their slaves removed the bandages for a few minutes each night and let the blood gush back into their veins” (9). From a young age girls are expected to be binding their feet and are told that it is to look beautiful, but in reality that is not why. When a womans feet are bound they are restrained and silenced. These girls could be free and happy but they are restrained by men through this binding.