Fa Mu Lan Analysis

warrior swordswoman. By putting herself in this role she is once again choosing not to be a just a wife or a slave (Kingston 20). Kingston’s uses this fantasy of being the hero who leads her people to victory, to overcome her feelings of inadequacy and to rise above a life of unimportance. “Kingston’s Fa Mu Lan fantasy actually shows Maxine’s desperate desire to break the mold of the typical woman (Job 8).” Kingston is able to feel what it would be like to be the hero. Not only is Fa Mu lan the hero in this story but she is also able to meet her husband and give birth to a beautiful baby all while fighting in battle. It’s important to recognize her internal struggle to break out of her expected gender role and still maintain her identity as a woman thru raising a family. She is unable to hide the conflict she feels over wanting to have a family of her own but conversely wants to prove to her mother that she can be more than just a wife and mother. She wants to show her family that …show more content…
She relates the story of telling her parents that she got straight A’s in school. Ignoring Kingston’s excitement, her mother dismisses this accomplishment and begins telling a story of girl who did something that was actually important to save her village. “It was important that I do something big and fine, or else my parents would sell me when we made our way back to China.” Kingston adds “you can’t eat straight A’s (46).” She fears that no matter what she does or who she becomes, her parents will always find her unworthy of the praise she and recognition she craves from them. The author of The Woman Warrior: A Question of Genre also comes to this conclusion stating, “By adding that straight A’s can’t be eaten, Maxine admits that as long as she is a girl, her accomplishments, no matter how big or how fine will never satisfy her parents (Job