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The Woman Warrior Sparknotes

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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, …show more content…

This chapter emphasized the expectations, roles, and values placed on women. While also showcasing the complete contrast in the way men were valued. In Chapter 3, "Shaman", Kingston heavily describes the confusion she felt surrounding her parents. This is told through the talk story of her mother's time at To Keung School of Midwifery. Contrasts between the Chinese and American culture is showcased in "The Western Palace." Told through the story of two sisters reuniting, Moon Orchid and Brave Orchid. This chapter also has underlying messages of shame and misogyny. For me personally, the last chapter made all the other talk stories and myths make sense. This is when the story truly clicked for me, and I started to understand the confusing journey of a Chinese-American girl. That’s why for this essay I plan to discuss chapter 5 “A Song for A Barbarian Reed Pipe.” Highlighting the characters battle between Chinese and American culture while bringing forth the mythology Kingston …show more content…

A mole for example is seen as good fortune if it is on the front of one’s head, pulling you forward. But it is seen as a bad omen when on the back of one’s head, pulling them back. Sweeping is an act of moving nature particles around. Within Chinese mythology a broom is thought to carry spirits inside of it. Thus, sweeping under one’s feet is seen as extremely bad luck. The last nature myth I spotted in the text has to do with an eclipse. In Chinese eclipse stands for “frog-swallowing-the-moon”. The mother of the family makes everyone slam pots, pans, and lids together to keep the moon from being swallowed by its shadow. Kingston used the eclipse mythology to show the daughters struggle to conceptualize Chinese and American cultures. By describing how the daughter used critical thinking to disband her mother's

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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.

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In The Woman Warrior, Kingston develops the story of her mother cutting her tongue to silence her, in order to show the damaging effects silence has on Chinese-American girls. As Kingston grows up, her mother tells her stories to teach her lessons but only includes the details she thinks are necessary. The minimal detail provided creates the idea the stories are not entirely true. Kingston has known the story of her mother cutting her tongue for as long as she can remember, but every time she asks her mother why she cut her tongue, she gives her a different excuse.

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Maxine Hong Kingston's use of talk stories in The Woman Warrior emphasizes that individuals will find a more fulfilling life if they defy the traditional gender norms place on them by society. While contemplating beauty standards in Chinese society in “No Name Woman” Maxine Kingston thinks, “Sister used to sit on their beds and cry together… as their mothers or their slaves removed the bandages for a few minutes each night and let the blood gush back into their veins” (9). From a young age girls are expected to be binding their feet and are told that it is to look beautiful, but in reality that is not why. When a womans feet are bound they are restrained and silenced. These girls could be free and happy but they are restrained by men through this binding.

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Much of this controversy is about its generic status. The book was meant to be an autobiography instead of a work of fiction. However, it does not fulfill the basic definition of an autobiography which is an account of the actual life of an individual (Wong 249). Several famous critics have given negative reviews of The Woman Warrior by pointing out that is a work

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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.

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