ipl-logo

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

Show More
Related

Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior

1186 Words | 5 Pages

``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.

Read More

The Woman Warrior Literary Devices

2869 Words | 12 Pages

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston seemingly creates a theatrical performance where Kingston engages in swordfights against the socio-cultural norms that seek to define the construction of her own identity. The Woman Warrior presents many unique literary devices and motifs that seemingly create a theatrical performance, although the curtain will never rise, and the audience must watch the performance from behind a curtain. The many unique literary devices provide many important features of the text that seek to define Kingston’s overall feelings without lifting the thin veneer Kingston has strategically placed. Kingston employs a talk-story narrative as a very important narrative device throughout the text.

Read More

Jennie Chine Hansen Speech

274 Words | 2 Pages

The article is about Jennie Chine Hansen speech that was given for the Chinese American Women Oral History Project. Hansen discusses in her speech about the ways exclusion, participation and empowerment shaped not just her life but the lives of all Chinese people living in America. Hansen during her speech also talks about the brief history of Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892 and how that had a significant impact on the parents and grandparents of Chinese American women. She also talks about how there are two generations, the ones who were born in China and the ones who were born in America. She discusses how there is an alienation from her parents and other Chinese people who never learned to speak English who live in America.

Read More

Fae Myenne Ng: A Person's Life

877 Words | 4 Pages

Fae Myenne Ng was a first generation Chinese-American. Being in a family that immigrated to the United States after it was finally allowed, influenced her writing. Fae’s writing brought light to the Chinese-American culture and the struggles they must face in a country founded upon freedom. Primarily, Fae’s biographical background greatly influenced her writing; she moved to the United States at a very young age.

Read More

American Born Chinese Thesis

880 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang (2006), it talks about three different people’s stories. The author starts off with telling a story about a monkey called the Monkey King, who lives in the jungle, seeking for higher power to become considered a god in the book. The author also tells a story about an American born Chinese boy named Jin Wang, who moves from San Francisco and struggles with fitting in at a new school. The last story the author tells is about a boy named Danny who has his cousin Chin-Kee from China visit every year. Danny ends up struggling to keep his reputation in adequate shape at school after his cousin visits causing him to switch schools often.

Read More

Straw Into Gold Sparknotes

759 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of the book the narrator/main character explains the difference between an American-Chinese woman and a Chinese woman, “Normal Chinese women’s voices are strong and bossy. We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine. Apparently we whispered even more softly than the Americans.” (1, Kingston) In this quote she depicts the difference, how to fit in with american girls they had to change the way Chinese women normally talk to fit in with the cultural norm in america, this need to change who they really are most likely upset the narrator in which she took it out on the quiet girl whom paralleled with the American-Chinese nature.

Read More

Woman Warrior Sparknotes

2159 Words | 9 Pages

She argues that the silencing of Asian American women is a form of symbolic violence that reinforces their marginalization in society. This marginalization is further reinforced by the "perpetual foreigner" stereotype, which Chou explores in her dissertation. In both works, it is clear that the silencing of Asian Americans through stereotypes and cultural norms is harmful and perpetuates racism and discrimination. For example, in Woman Warrior, Kingston writes, "I had to learn to hide what I was, which was Chinese, from what I was, which was American" (Kingston 7). This quote highlights how Asian Americans may feel the need to hide or suppress their cultural identity to fit into mainstream American society.

Read More

What Is The Theme Of Once More To The Lake By E. B White

1060 Words | 5 Pages

In the speech that Amy Tan made called, “Mother Tongue,” she unmasks the years she spent being her mother's interpreter and learning different “Englishes'” to help her. Tan shared the struggle of being an American-born daughter of a Chinese-born mother, which helps the readers realize how similar situations happen all around the world. The bond of that struggle can bring offspring of immigrant parents together to help each other adapt and learn different “Englishes.” Although Amy Tan and her mother did have a few arguments, meaning she quite literally held a knife to her neck, they were able to get past their differences and continue sharing this unbroken

Read More

The Comeback By Maxine Chen

435 Words | 2 Pages

They tell Maxine to be proud to be Chinese, and to never let comments from people, such as Alex, take that away. E. L. Shen encourages people to take pride in their heritage and culture by showing Maxine’s journey to accept herself. Her journey to balance ice skating and her school work without getting overloaded with pressure is also present throughout the story. For me, working hard to maintain high grades with good mental health was always a challenge. Especially when I wanted to engage in my interests at the same time.

Read More

The Woman Warrior Sparknotes

1084 Words | 5 Pages

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a memoir filled with folklore and imagination, that takes the reader on a journey through growing up as a Chinese-American woman navigating the conflicting worlds. This journey is told through the young daughter's naive understanding of her mother's descriptive talk stories. The first chapter “No-Name Woman” is an excruciating tale of how the father’s sister was exiled from the family, killed her assumed daughter, and committed suicide for adultery. This scary tale was told to women of the family once they started menstruating and felt to me like a tactic to shame rather than educate the young girls This story, like the others, was filled with connotations that teach shame, what’s to be kept unspoken,

Read More

Wher Where Her China Character Analysis

527 Words | 3 Pages

After hearing Maxine break the accepted silence, her mother ‘wishes’ she would stop, making it seem like something in her does not feel comfortable with simple talk. The Chinese culture affecting Maxine is forcing her to be silent unless she has something of importance to say.

Read More

Woman Warrior Character Analysis Of The Woman Warrior

101 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

Amy Tan Research Paper

737 Words | 3 Pages

Tan talks about the different types of English she used and learned while she was growing up. Tan’s English wasn’t all so great when she was in grade school but in college she switched to an English major from pre-med. English was Tan’s second language so she wasn’t so encouraged to become a writer. Others could not understand her mother’s “broken English”, but Tan could because she grew up listening to it, which is why she named this story “Mother tongue”.

Read More

The Importance Of Communication In The Joy Luck Club

1225 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

Read More

Amy Tan A Pair Of Tickets Analysis

1309 Words | 6 Pages

Jing-Mei was immersed in American culture as she attended school every day, as opposed to her parents who were both born and raised in China. As a young adult who experienced two cultures, the barrier (including language and culture) between Jing-Mei and her parents contributed to “vigorous [denial] that [she] had any Chinese whatsoever below [her] skin” (Tan 147). Still, her mother was convinced that Jing-Mei would eventually come to “feel and think Chinese” (Tan 147). Although she disagreed with what her mother said, Jing-Mei knew deep inside that she was right, frequently realizing the tendencies she had that were so alike to her mother. She listed that “haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter clothes” were some of the things that her mother did that the naive fifteen-year-old Jing-Mei identified with being Chinese.

Read More

More about The Woman Warrior Figurative Language

Related Topics

Open Document