The finality of Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir, The Woman Warrior, concludes with the chapter titled, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe.” In this chapter, Kingston retells the story of her frustrations with her mother and the silent girl growing up and concludes with a story about the mythical poetess Ts’ai Yen. Combining both her mother’s talk-story about Kingston’s grandmother, who believed her family could succumb to no harm so long as they continued to attend plays, and the story of Ts’ai Yen, Kingston ends the final chapter of The Woman Warrior to show her personal connection to the poetess and represents the struggle of transcending symbols through different cultures.
Many times throughout the memoir, Kingston recounts her struggles with …show more content…
This is very significant in why Kingston decided to end her memoir with the story of Ts’ai Yen. Much like how Ts’ai Yen transcends the barbarian’s culture and later transcribes it into the song of “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, Kingston feels like it her responsibility to take many of the symbols from her Chinese culture and make them accessible to American culture. On the final page of her memoir Kingston says, “She brought her songs back from the savage lands . . . a song that Chinese sing to their own instruments. It translated well” (Kingston 209). This quote is very significant in that it shows how the song passed down from Ts’ai Yen, “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, not only inspired her to try and connect Chinese culture to American culture, but helped her as a guide and allowed her to succeed throughout her memoir. Kingston feels that her responsibility, similarly to Ts’ai Yen, is to take her memoir and her mother’s talk-stories and share her experiences to the American culture. A literary example of this is when Kingston says, “Her words seemed to be Chinese, but the barbarians understood their sadness and anger. Sometimes they thought they could catch barbarian phrases about forever wandering. Her children did not laugh, but eventually sang along . . .” (Kingston 209). Feeling like an outcast her whole life, Kingston uses her memoir to combine both American and Chinese culture to create the Chinese-American culture grey area that she, and Ts’ai Yen, have lived in their whole lives. The second half of the quote where she mentions how “her children did not laugh, but eventually sang along . . .” (Kingston 209), symbolizes how, as a child, Kingston never understood or
Many times throughout the memoir, Kingston recounts her struggles with …show more content…
This is very significant in why Kingston decided to end her memoir with the story of Ts’ai Yen. Much like how Ts’ai Yen transcends the barbarian’s culture and later transcribes it into the song of “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, Kingston feels like it her responsibility to take many of the symbols from her Chinese culture and make them accessible to American culture. On the final page of her memoir Kingston says, “She brought her songs back from the savage lands . . . a song that Chinese sing to their own instruments. It translated well” (Kingston 209). This quote is very significant in that it shows how the song passed down from Ts’ai Yen, “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, not only inspired her to try and connect Chinese culture to American culture, but helped her as a guide and allowed her to succeed throughout her memoir. Kingston feels that her responsibility, similarly to Ts’ai Yen, is to take her memoir and her mother’s talk-stories and share her experiences to the American culture. A literary example of this is when Kingston says, “Her words seemed to be Chinese, but the barbarians understood their sadness and anger. Sometimes they thought they could catch barbarian phrases about forever wandering. Her children did not laugh, but eventually sang along . . .” (Kingston 209). Feeling like an outcast her whole life, Kingston uses her memoir to combine both American and Chinese culture to create the Chinese-American culture grey area that she, and Ts’ai Yen, have lived in their whole lives. The second half of the quote where she mentions how “her children did not laugh, but eventually sang along . . .” (Kingston 209), symbolizes how, as a child, Kingston never understood or