Throughout Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, there is focus on repression, silence, and obedience. Kingston weaves her story through five small tales that show the expectation of Chinese and Chinese American women. With a focus on the tale of the “No Name Woman,” the plight of Kingston and her family is exposed, as is the years of Chinese oppression.
Through the tale of the “No Name Woman” in The Woman Warrior, Kingston reveals her own desire to be sexually free, but unable to allow herself such liberties. She discusses the possibilities surrounding her aunt’s pregnancy as if she cannot believe that anyone in her culture could be sexually promiscuous. Kingston writes, “Imagining her free with sex doesn’t fit, though. I don’t know any women like that, or men either” (“No Name Woman” 8). However, Kingston seems intrigued at the prospect of her aunt gawking at a man and admiring what she saw, an extremely uncommon occurrence in Chinese culture. Kingston admires, “She looked at a man because she liked the way the …show more content…
Not only does her mother refer to her ability to speak, but also Kingston struggles to use her words in a liberating way. She says, “The Chinese I know hide their names; sojourners take new names when their lives change and guard their real names with silence” (Kingston “No Name Woman” 5) As with the No Name Woman, silence not only fueled Kingston’s mind, but the circumstances surrounding her aunt’s death made her question her heritage as a Chinese-American. Kingston explains, “Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies (“No Name Woman” 5-6). This ideal of the silent women correlates with the Chinese trait of
Through the tale of the “No Name Woman” in The Woman Warrior, Kingston reveals her own desire to be sexually free, but unable to allow herself such liberties. She discusses the possibilities surrounding her aunt’s pregnancy as if she cannot believe that anyone in her culture could be sexually promiscuous. Kingston writes, “Imagining her free with sex doesn’t fit, though. I don’t know any women like that, or men either” (“No Name Woman” 8). However, Kingston seems intrigued at the prospect of her aunt gawking at a man and admiring what she saw, an extremely uncommon occurrence in Chinese culture. Kingston admires, “She looked at a man because she liked the way the …show more content…
Not only does her mother refer to her ability to speak, but also Kingston struggles to use her words in a liberating way. She says, “The Chinese I know hide their names; sojourners take new names when their lives change and guard their real names with silence” (Kingston “No Name Woman” 5) As with the No Name Woman, silence not only fueled Kingston’s mind, but the circumstances surrounding her aunt’s death made her question her heritage as a Chinese-American. Kingston explains, “Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies (“No Name Woman” 5-6). This ideal of the silent women correlates with the Chinese trait of