No Name Woman Essay

Although some people speak, it’s not guaranteed that they have a true voice. Some speak up and stand out, while others remain silent with thoughts rushing through their head, only to speak when needed or forced. In places like China, the percentage of women and girls who don’t have a voice is far greater than that of men and boys. Gendercide and gender expectations in that country are much worse than one could expect. Women are viewed as “less than,” they’re not treated as though they have importance or exist, and they’re forced to always obey men and do things they would prefer not to. In the writings of Maxine Hong Kingston 's “Girlhood Among Ghosts” and “No Name Women” the ideology that women are not viewed as equals and are undeserving of a voice is portrayed quite clearly. Kingston’s stories prove that although women may speak, men and boys are more desired, “greater than” any female, and have a special voice women do not and can not posses. A voice that helps them to be who they are, to stand out, rather than be hidden away, a forced silence placed upon them like women.

In Kingston’s writing “No Name Woman”, men are seen as superiors over women, they’re allowed to have a voice, to have a say, and to do as they please. Women

The silence forced upon chinese women is a key factor as to how easy it is to both abandon and forget them. In “No Name Woman” the narrator’s family acts as though her aunt never existed. Because the aunt was a female who became pregnant out of wedlock, she brings ‘dishonor’ to her family’s name. After the aunt kills herself along with her baby, it’s so easy for her own family to act as though she were never born, never existent. The narrator’s mother says: “‘You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘What I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We all say that your father has all brother because it is as if she had never been born.” (Kingston- “No Name Woman”