How Does Kingston Manipulate Stream Of Consciousness In The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston, a chinese woman who grew up in America, recounts her experiences first-hand in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Blending her own aspirations and characters throughout her book, Kingston delves upon lines of fiction and nonfiction, growing both characters and situations which rely on the basis of each other to form a coherent story. Kingston is able to effectively use character traits to develop unique situations, manipulate stream of consciousness techniques, and employ continuity and change to lend her characters to a story. Kingston effectively walks characters into unique situations that exist solely due to the unique traits of that character. Character traits often “bring about events” that are out of the character’s “control” (Macauley and Lanning 91). In effect, the traits and attitudes of a character often bring that character into a dilemma. Moon Orchid, a character exhibiting reserved behavior and general lack of common

The stream of consciousness technique – where essentially the reader hears the character’s thoughts as they occur – reveals “a character from the inside” (Macauely and Lanning 119). This facilitates a personal bond between the character and reader, allowing for characterization. Kingston effectively utilizes this technique when she describes situations with free-flowing thought: “It was very late”, “Maybe a janitor had locked me in…”, “Shadows leaned…”, etc. (Kingston 179). In this situation, Kingston is attacking a shy girl in an attempt to get her to speak, but this technique unfolds light on the situation. To the casual observer Kingston appears to be bullying the girl, but the stream of consciousness technique reveals that Kingston herself is desperate and feels stuck in an unforgiving situation – providing valuable insight for the reader about her