The Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston Essay - 1557 Words

Hathman 1 Rachele Hathman Professor Richard Potter ENC 1939 16 November 2016 The Woman Warrior Language is a system of communication used by humans either written or spoken to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Our thoughts and feelings we want to communicate to our loved ones, to our friends, to people we work with or go to school with and even to strangers. Maxine Hong Kingston in her memoir The Woman Warrior explores language and the use of language to express what Kingston finds as several conflicts. The conflict of the immigrant experience and the conflict of having to be a Chinese- American woman along with the expectation of being â€Å"silent†. Maxine Hong Kingston provides a remarkable memoir that blends Chinese folktales and personal narratives. Much throughout her memoir Kingston, tells narratives of â€Å"talk- stories†, which are stories blended of her family stories and cultural myths that she has heard. For example the story of Kingston’s un-named, â€Å"no named† aunt. The only knowledge Kingston has of her aunt are the hushed stories her mother tells, the rest Kingston spins with what she may have thought is what had happened. In this sense Kingston’ is an unreliable narrator, leaving readers to question which parts of what Kingston is saying is actually true and which parts are pieces of her imagination. Kingston s unreliableness as a narrator could also be symbolic of stories told in history. Many times we hear stories of events that may have happened, but weShow MoreRelatedThe Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston1722 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston crafts a fictitious memoir of her girlhood among ghosts. The book’s classification as a memoir incit ed significant debate, and the authenticity of her representation of Chinese American culture was contested by Asian American scholars and authors. The Woman Warrior is ingenuitive in its manipulation of the autobiographical genre. Kingston integrates the value of storytelling in her memoir and relates it to dominant themes about silence, cultural authenticityRead MoreThe Woman Warrior, By Maxine Hong Kingston1434 Words   |  6 PagesThere is great plasticity in the self perception and identity of immigrants and even more so in their offspring. The memoir, The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, does a good job in highlighting this statement. Her memoir shows the struggle of the older generation to adapt to American culture after migrating, it shows how the second generation comes to terms with their dual identity, and how their unique perceptions emphasize the gap between the two generations. Thesis tying identity crisisRead MoreThe Woman Warrior, By Maxine Hong Kingston1342 Words   |  6 Pagesand struggle to live the â€Å"American Dream†. Thousands of people come to the U.S. to live a better life for their family. Instead they face racial seclusion, struggle to survive, and consequences of American’s fear. In the memoir, The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, a girl who discloses stories about Chinese myths, families, and events in the U.S. that has shaped her identity. In the historical fiction novel, When the Emperor was Divine, by Julie Otsuka, is about a Japanese American family sentRead MoreThe Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston1866 Words   |  8 PagesThroughout the novel The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, the past is incorporated into the present through talk-stories combined into each chapter. Kingston uses talk-stories, to examine the intermingling of Chinese myths and lived experiences. These stories influence the life of the narrator as the past is constantly spoken about from the time she is young until the novel ends and she becomes an adult. Kingston incorporates two cultures. She is not a direct recipient of Chinese culture,Read MoreThe Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston Essay1208 Words   |  5 PagesIn 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 mayRead MoreSummary Of The Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston1356 Words   |  6 PagesSubjugation of Women in â€Å"No Name Woman† The Story â€Å"Woman Warrior† written by Maxine Hong Kingston in 1975, is a great representation of what woman are characterized as in regards to being submissive or rebellious in their society, and how, even though they are harshly treated, the women fight back instead of letting themselves be subjugated, it exemplifies the hardships women face in their lives. In The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Author Maxine Hong Kingston brings to the table a bunchRead MoreEssay on The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston1033 Words   |  5 PagesThe theme of â€Å"voiceless woman† throughout the book â€Å"the woman warrior† is of great importance. Maxine Kingston narrates several stories in which gives clear examples on how woman in her family are diminished and silenced by Chinese culture. The author not only provides a voice for herself but also for other women in her family and in her community that did not had the opportunity to speak out and tell their stories. The author starts the book with the story of her aunt. This story was a well-keptRead MoreAnalysis Of Maxine Hong Kingston s The Woman Warrior 1547 Words   |  7 PagesKejsi Drenova Paper 2 In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston makes her narration compelling and relatable to the audience through her unique style of storytelling. The ever-present changes in perspective lead one to see how each event eventually affects Kingston. Her comparison of her life to that of Fa Mu Lan brings out the difficulties in her living in America while her mother had grown up in China. This hero myth allows her to connect to those values that Brave Orchid holds which make herRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston Essay1936 Words   |  8 PagesThe Unescapable Net: Tradition vs Transformation in Kingston’s Ideology The Woman Warrior, written by Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston in 1976, blends traditional Chinese folktales and memoir, and portrays the early 20th century Chinese history in a Chinese-American perspective. For Maxine, it seems Chinese â€Å"history† means social and cultural constrains from conventional Chinese doctrines, especially regarding the social status of womanhood, the blind collectivism, and superstition inRead More Maxine Hong Kingston Understanding Her Life through The Woman Warrior1166 Words   |  5 PagesMaxine Hong Kingston Understanding Her Life through The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston’s â€Å"The Woman Warrior† is novel composed of myths and memoirs that have shaped her life. Her mother’s talk-stories about her no name aunt, her own interpretation of Fa Mu Lan, the stories of ghosts in doom rooms and American culture have been the basis of her learning. She learned morals, truths, and principals that would be the basis of her individuality. Since her mothers talk-story was one of the