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The Woman Warrior Figurative Language

1688 Words7 Pages

Canada Cunningham
Manfredo Grellert
March 24, 2023
Literature

The Identification

Figurative language from immigrant parents can develop feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and worthlessness for a first-generation American, raising concerns about fractured self identity in expectations of being the idealized child of immigrant parents.

The Woman Warrior, by first-generation Chinese-American Maxine Hong Kingston, is a book that blends autobiographies with old Chinese folk tales. Brave Orchid, Maxines overbearing mother, used words in a way that deviated from traditional meanings to convey a complicated meaning. The use of this language was Orchids way to refer to a particular concept without actually saying …show more content…

This language is evident on page 6 in which Maxine asks her readers, "Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things are in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese?" (Kingston, 6). This quote from the beginning of the book demonstrates the struggles around being the ideal Chinese American Maxine's mother envisioned her to be. From the young age at which Maxine's mother began telling her stories, Maxine had to equip and absorb the Chinese manners her mom forced upon her. Accordingly, it was crucial for Maxine to fully understand and execute expectations these stories unveiled, due to how significant they were in shaping her identity. Maxine received these stories as confusing, however, due to the lack of coherence and correlation they had around the Chinese manners she was expected to possess. When Maxine poses a question about this misinterpretation to other Chinese Americans, it illustrates her confusion about Chinese customs. Maxine's use of personal pronouns such as you and your in this quote exemplifies her attempts around …show more content…

Ideal expectations Brave Orchids had for her daughter caused Maxine to exhibit these postmodernism traits. As these expectations were explained in a code for Maxine, she placed her readers in a position to understand how difficult it is to perceive these codes and put them into perspective when it comes to her

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