The Woman Warrior Essay

In The Woman Warrior, Kingston illustrates Moon Orchid's submissiveness and helplessness towards her husband in order to show the male dominance aspect of the Chinese culture and how this differs from the American culture. Brave Orchid leaves for America thirty years before Moon Orchid herself moved there. Her husband never sends for Moon Orchid to come join him in the new country, instead chooses to forget about her and marry another woman. Moon Orchid's sister, Brave Orchid, saves money to bring her sister to America and confront her husband. Seeing her husband renders her speechless and unable to defend herself from his verbal abuse, "He looked directly at Moon Orchid the way savages looked looking for lies. 'What do you want?' he asked. She shrank from his stare; it silenced her …show more content…
By sending her money and gifts, Moon Orchid's husband silences her for his own benefit. For thirty years, Moon Orchid says nothing about when or if her husband will send her to America and she never questions his decision to wait or his reasons behind this decision. This illustrates how much power Moon Orchid's husband holds over her, whereas Brave Orchid's husband has little say in what Brave Orchid does and how she does it. Moon Orchid's husband shows he is the power figure in their relationship by silencing her and giving her bribes whereas Brave Orchid is more independent from her husband, demonstrating how the American culture has altered her beliefs. Brave Orchid has worked very hard in order to provide for her family, without standing to the side and allowing her husband to control her. While her husband was in America, Brave Orchid chooses to become a doctor, without contacting her husband and getting his input. She decides to do this for herself. This illustrates how Brave Orchid does not need validation to pursue her