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Woman Warrior Compare And Contrast Essay

1597 Words7 Pages

In the melting pot of diverse cultures in the United States, Asian Americans have been on a difficult path fraught with the challenges of racial discrimination and marginalization. Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Bulosan Carlos' America Is In The Heart tell their own compelling stories, showing how they struggled with injustice and explored their own identities. This essay mainly revolves around the unique but echoing personal stories of the two narrators in the book, and analyzes the narrator's psychological changes to the environment in which Asian Americans live. These stories are composed of the narrator's dreams and imagination, reflecting the most authentic and natural expression of the narrator's spiritual world. Their …show more content…

Dreams serve as a repository for latent imagery and are an unconscious, natural occurrence. Imagination, on the other hand, is formed from experiences and the subconscious, revealing the genuine products of human cognition. In America Is In The Heart, Bulosan recalls and reconstructs his personal experiences through the depiction of his dreams, providing a means for him to search for his own identity. Similarly, in The Woman Warrior, Kingston shares ancient Chinese stories that have been adapted through her imagination. While originating from different places, both authors share the common identity of being Asian American. The stories they described serve as the most authentic expressions of their spirit, demonstrating their unwavering resistance against racial discrimination and their tenacious determination not to succumb to their challenging …show more content…

In the original story, Mulan's father was too old and weak to join the army, so Mulan disguised herself as a man to join the army instead of her father. In Kingston's version, Fa Mu Lan went to White Tigers Mountain to practice for fifteen years, led an army composed of farmers to overthrow the rule of a corrupt emperor, and finally turned back into an ordinary woman, returned to the family, and once again played the role of daughter and wife. The image of Fa Mu Lan most directly corresponds to the title of the book The Woman Warrior, and is also Kingston's fantasy self. "I would have to grow up a warrior woman. (Kingston 20)" Kingston's Fa Mu Lan is brave and upright, she fights against tyranny and sexism. In ancient times, only men were allowed to join the army, but Hua Mulan's power transcended gender and even became the protector of men. The biggest difference between Kingston's Fa Mu Lan and traditional stories lies in the right to choose. Mulan in The Ballad of Mulan cannot reveal herself as a female, while Kingston's Fa Mu Lan acts as a heroine to defeat the enemy. Kingston added an unconstrained plot in the process of Fa Mu Lan's practice. A rabbit jumped into the fire and became Mulan's food. "The fire went down for a moment, as if crouching in surprise, then the flames shot up taller than before. When the fire

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