Clair Rosengren
Honors Global Literature - Block 3
Ann Skemp-Cook
12 October 2015
The Self Discovery of A Woman Warrior
In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood Among Ghosts, Kingston searches for her identity as an individual, separate from her family’s traditional Chinese culture. Throughout her memoir Kingston incorporates the stories her mother told her in her as a young girl, such as Fa Mu Lan and No Name Woman, with the purpose of solidifying her identity as a strong, independent, Chinese-American woman.
Growing up in traditional Chinese culture, where women have little if any voice at all, Brave Orchid knew the importance of teaching Kingston that she could be whatever she chose to be in life and that being a girl should not hold her back from that. Brave Orchid …show more content…
Kingston introduces the last talk story by writing “here is a story my mother told me, not when I was young, but recently, when I told her I also talk story,” (206). The introduction Kingston gives to her final talk story is especially important because Kingston is publically acknowledging that the talk stories Brave Orchid has told her still play an influential role in her life. The talk story centers around Ts’ai Ya’s abduction by barbiarons. Kingston utilizes the talk story to primarily focus on Ts’ai Ya’s validation and acceptance of the barbarian's new culture rather than focusing on Ts’ai Ya’s grievance over the separation from her life back home. By making Ts’ai Ya’s reconciliation with the barbarians the focal point of the talk story, symbolizes Kingston’s ability to learn and grow as an individual from both American and Chinese culture which she emphasises with the last sentence of the story stating that it,“translated well,” (209). Kingston includes the talk story of Ts’ai Ya to illustrate how she develops her identity harmoniously through American and Chinese
Honors Global Literature - Block 3
Ann Skemp-Cook
12 October 2015
The Self Discovery of A Woman Warrior
In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood Among Ghosts, Kingston searches for her identity as an individual, separate from her family’s traditional Chinese culture. Throughout her memoir Kingston incorporates the stories her mother told her in her as a young girl, such as Fa Mu Lan and No Name Woman, with the purpose of solidifying her identity as a strong, independent, Chinese-American woman.
Growing up in traditional Chinese culture, where women have little if any voice at all, Brave Orchid knew the importance of teaching Kingston that she could be whatever she chose to be in life and that being a girl should not hold her back from that. Brave Orchid …show more content…
Kingston introduces the last talk story by writing “here is a story my mother told me, not when I was young, but recently, when I told her I also talk story,” (206). The introduction Kingston gives to her final talk story is especially important because Kingston is publically acknowledging that the talk stories Brave Orchid has told her still play an influential role in her life. The talk story centers around Ts’ai Ya’s abduction by barbiarons. Kingston utilizes the talk story to primarily focus on Ts’ai Ya’s validation and acceptance of the barbarian's new culture rather than focusing on Ts’ai Ya’s grievance over the separation from her life back home. By making Ts’ai Ya’s reconciliation with the barbarians the focal point of the talk story, symbolizes Kingston’s ability to learn and grow as an individual from both American and Chinese culture which she emphasises with the last sentence of the story stating that it,“translated well,” (209). Kingston includes the talk story of Ts’ai Ya to illustrate how she develops her identity harmoniously through American and Chinese