The Woman Warrior Significance Of Food

The Significance of Food

The need for food is something that all people have in common regardless of gender, age or race as it provides living things with nutrients to survive. While food can be seen as a mere biological necessity because of this, Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir, The Woman Warrior, shows many conflicts involving hunger which appears mostly in the chapters “No Name Woman”, “White Tigers” and “Shaman”. From how different societies and cultures seem to have different ways of consuming food, it is safe to say that the production and consumption of food imbue different meanings. Typically, in Chinese culture, food is used to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships between people, the environment and their beliefs, hold symbolic significance and as a reward and punishment system (Ma, G., 2015, p. X). In addition to this, Kingston uses food to symbolize body and mind, showing how each woman used food to define their power through the power over food. Kingston uses the struggle with food throughout the novel with No Name Woman, Fa Mulan, Brave Orchid and Maxine. Just like food that serves both a

Instead of the Sky Sword Fa Mu Lan wields, Maxine uses her words to fight her battles instead. She is able to live through the unfair prejudice, “facing off against the racist and sexist hatred —both external and internal—of her physical existence that demands resolute silence in the face of terrible abuse.” (Outka, P., 1997, p. 34). She exposes the issue of gender and identity living as an Asian-American in America. She gains her true power by just being herself to find her identity. Maxine was able to construct her identity with the influence of food and was later on able to gain control over food by making herself “worthy of eating the food” (p. 55) and ultimately invalidating the resentful Chinese culture of “Girls are maggots in the rice.” (p.