Post a blog entry about your reading of The Woman Warrior. What role do speech and writing play in The Woman Warrior? Why do you think these themes are so important to the text? How do they relate to ethnicity and gender, two of Hong Kingston’s preoccupations?
Also: Does the fact that the work is semi-autobiographical change how we read it? Is The Woman Warrior a work that deserves to be at the heart of the new American canon? (Think here about some of our earlier discussions about canonicity, and how the value of literary works is determined). We will discuss your comments in class.
Please answer any or all of these questions in a 1-2 paragraph posting
For those interested in seeing more from Maxine Hong Kingston's talk about writing, check out the following.
In the "No Name Woman" Kingston uses her writing to tell the stories of those she has been forbidden to speak about. Writing allows her to communicate feeling and questions that she is not allowed to verbalize. At the same time, Chinese traditionally create paper tributes to their ancestors, so Kingston's writing is another form of paper tribute. Perhaps even more honoring and lasting due to it's being bound up in a book with potentially endless printings. Kingston notes that particularly as a woman she has had trouble expressing herself. Spoken word is a conflict for her because of the difference between the Chinese way of speaking and her learned American way of speaking. The attitude she presents to the world is non-sexualized, a sister, in order to prevent attracting the wrong sort of male response.
ReplyDeleteThe semi-autobiographical nature of the text makes the statements and experiences more resonant for the reader. Not only do I find myself more likely to believe her stories, but I find myself more concerned with answering the questions she puts forth about identity and gender. The Woman Warrior deserves to be at the heart of the American canon, because it gives both the quintessential immigrant experience and takes part in the search for identity that is central to modern American society. Kingston's expressions of intermingling Chinese tradition with perceived American expectations teaches the reader more about both cultures.
In the beginning of A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe the narrator begins by telling us that her mother cut her tongue when she was young. When she asks her mother why she did that her mother tells her, "I cut it so that you would not be tongue-tied. Your tongue would be able to move in any language. You'll be able to speak languages that are completely different from one another" (164). Obviously to her immigrant mother it is important that her daughter be able to speak multiple languages fluently. She wants her to be able to speak Chinese to her family and American English to the world. Communication is so important for survival and her mother wants her to be affluent in language so that she can survive in America.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of gender, it is interesting in the same story when she is describing speaking or reading aloud in school. She didn't like to do it. She makes an interesting comment about silence though. She says, "The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl" ( 166). It is as though she's saying that by being a girl and being Chinese, it is proper to remain silent in all things. As though the girl has no place to speak. She also makes a similar assumption about being an American girl when she says, "We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine" (172). It is as though she sees Americans as valuing women who are demure and soft-spoken.
-Anne Marie Cannon
Speaking, writing, and communicating (or lack thereof) are all intricate roles that exist within Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior." In the story entitled "At the Western Palace," Brave Orchid is constantly attempting to force Moon Orchid to confront her husband. She begs her sister, who is depicted as shy and quiet, to speak with the man who virtually abandoned her in China and moved to California to start a new life. Moon Orchid keeps replying that she does not need to see him, and, when she does finally come face to face with him, she is unable to utter a single syllable. Even Brave Orchid, who always said that she would defend her sister's honor and dignity, is mute.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Moon Orchid had absolutely no desire to speak to the man who committed this horrible crime against her; she did not want to see him, speak with him, or challenge his new-found position in American society. It is quite obvious that this fear has to do with being Chinese instead of Chinese-American, and also a woman as opposed to a man, but I also feel as though the inability of Moon Orchid to confront her husband has to do with her age. In other words, it is not just ethnicity and gender that limit the actions of the characters in "The Woman Warrior," but also the concept of age. In Chinese culture, older men and women are to be treated with respect and honor (this is especially obvious in "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe"). It is evident that Moon Orchid's Chinese-American husband does not share this feeling; he insults the two sisters by calling them old grandmothers! This book discusses the constant clashes that arise between those of different ethnic backgrounds, sex, and ages. The entire novel portrays the inability of language, whether it be spoken aloud or written down, to truly communicate thoughts and opinions. The characters all appear to be held back by unspoken rules that are applied to their ethnicity, gender, and age.
Maxine Hong Kingston’s work – specifically “No Name Woman” – truly emphasizes how simply a person can be forgotten if they live only in words. If you exist only in the stories people tell about you, should they decide to stop talking about you then you can be easily forgotten. Here, Kingston tells us what she knows about her aunt, her father’s sister, who virtually ceased to exist after she shamed her family and then committed suicide. Because she was only able to be defined after her death by the words of her family and village – and they chose not to speak about her – she essentially ceased to exist. She was nothing but a “ghost.” Now that Kingston has written down her story, or the little she knows, her aunt begins to live again. Though it’s only a short, sad life which Kingston knows, her aunt’s sadness now exists in a paper form which is much more difficult to destroy. In some small way, too, Kingston is able to give her aunt a bit more fleshing out and imagine what might have happened in her life to lead her to that well. Written word allows her aunt to find a new life, though still sad, and Kingston seems to show just how easily we could all be forgotten if people don’t care enough to remember.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that this writing is semi-autobiographical really changes the way I read it. When I think about this as at all autobiographical, I stop looking at it as something to be torn apart as severely as I would with a piece of totally fictitious literature. Not that I don’t still analyze the way it’s written, but I take the stories more to heart. I think about them as a life experience that can’t be easily written off as “oh, that’s just a story someone told.” If it’s being put forth as true then, rather than totally focusing on the literary value (and I do think Kingston writes incredibly well, and I was really engaged by the stories) it makes me think about society as a whole. It forces me to think of the text as part of a much bigger whole, not entirely its own isolated thing, so that I think I come away from the experience of reading it as someone who has likely thought more deeply than if I’d just spent my time getting nitpicky with fictional characters. Not that fiction is bad, of course! I’ve spent four years of my life mostly devoted to it, but I think as far as raising my overall awareness of the world work that is at least semi-autobiographical does the trick better.
She is very interested in the old customs and traditions. She talks about her “no-name” aunt in the first story and one of her fantasies in the second one. She writes White Tiger very vividly and makes the second story very interesting. She sometimes puts her own feelings/persona into the second story which makes it all the more fascinating. By showing that emotion in the story, Kingston allows us as readers to really relate to her and this fantasy. It allows us to thing about our fantasies, and maybe how we or other would perceive it if we were to write a story. The first story is written kind of like a tribute to the world of Chinese customs. It’s more of a way of remembering old customs and helping aid in her experience growing up as a Chinese-American.
ReplyDeleteThe role of speech and writing plays a major role in the development of each unique story in The Woman Warrior. In the first story, “No Name Woman”, Kingston is writing about a story that was passed down from her mother about an Aunt. Because her Aunt was shunned from the village for committing adultery, her side of the story was never told. Kingston has found a way to provide her deceased Aunt a voice. When it comes to ethnicity and gender, Kingston is able to channel several culturally significant topics of Chinese-American immigration. She finds a way of casting a spotlight on traditional Chinese value and questions its old school mentality.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the book is semi-autobiographical does change my perspective of how I read the book. As we have explored in this class with past autobiographies, such as the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, we only know what the author is willing to expose. Meaning the author has the ability to shape the autobiography into any reality they deem adequate; thus why I prefer the term SEMI-autobiographical. These memoirs are a prime example of loosely based true stories of Kingston’s upbringing in America.
The role of speech and writing play a major part in The Woman Warrior. In the first chapter “No-Name Woman”, Kingston learns that her dad had a sister who killed herself and everyone acts like she was never born. They acted like she was never born because she became pregnant by someone else other than her husband. This behavior, no matter the circumstance is unacceptable. Her mother tells her this to warn Kingston to not make the same mistake her aunt made. Kingston gave details to the story; she said the child her aunt gave birth to must have been a girl, if the baby were a boy it would have had more chances to survive. Kingston as a Chinese-American is looked down upon because she is a girl. No one praises her when she gets all A’s, her mother tells her she is a failure if she isn’t a wife or a slave. In “White Tigers” Kingston pretends she is a woman warrior. Her mother told her many stories growing up one about a girl warrior who took her fathers place in the army, Kingston relived this. I think she tried to live in this fantasy world because for the first time her parents and everyone around her saw her, a girl as useful, in they way they seen men. Kingston is very quiet which is unusual for Chinese women to be, she is trying to find herself as a Chinese-American while her family looks down up on her because she is a girl.
ReplyDeleteI really like the fact that this book is a semi-autobiography. I can read it and know that many of these stories are true, about a Chinese-American trying to be their own but struggling with their families Chinese traditions and customs. I feel for Kingston in the book and now I feel for every Chinese-American woman who is looked at as useless because of the way their beliefs are.
Speech and writing allow Kingston to examine her identity; the identity she constructs for herself and the identity others construct for her. For instance, in 'No Name Woman', Kingston writes about how her mother communicated through stories the way 'traditional Chinese' feminity functioned in China. This has impact on the speaker and the stories simple, blunt nature invites the reader and the speaker to wonder more about her deceased aunt. As the narration continues, the reader and the speaker discover who this aunt was, by looking into the narrator's psyche. This theme -of looking into oneself to make sense of the past- is important to the construction of American identity because it is a collective experience to all immigrants and their American-born generation. Kingston questions feminine identity by juxtapositioning herself, a Chinese-American, with her aunt from China as she contends with the story her mother told her.
ReplyDeleteThe semi-autobiographical nature of Kingston's book engages me because it implies that there is a collective nature about the themes she wants to convey and instead of focusing on herself, she focuses on many stories. This allows me to get past the baised nature of autobiographies in a way because I am already aware that she is not trying to represent herself alone in the text.
The novel "The Woman Warrior" places great emphasis on the role of speech and writing. Early on in the novel, it is evident that the stories that are told are simply passed on from person to person. This can change the credibility of the facts of the stories, though Kingston takes what she is told to heart and begins to shape her moral identity around what she is told. She is very interested in the customs of the Chinese-American life and strives to achieve an ideal Chinese-American identity. Through stories she has been told about her Aunt she, along with the rest of her family, pretty much disown her Aunt due to her actions that are disrespectful of the traditional Chinese customs. Thus, speech and writing play a vital role in her decision to shape her own life, customs, as well as morals.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I really enjoy the semi-autobiographical nature of Kingston's writing. I feel as though I, as the reader, am able to learn valuable aspects of her life through stories that are not directly stating the way her life is. Through stories, her 'life story' gains credibility as I am able to see certain instances of her Chinese-American life that portray different aspects about her. In an autobiography I may learn the same details of her life, yet I am left without the clear evidence that the stories bring. I also prefer the semi-autobiographical nature of her writing because not only is the reader able to learn about her life, but this type of writing also engages the reader with her family's lives which can be seen as a representation for a larger Chinese-American group.
In The Woman Warrior, I feel Kingston’s writing functions as a memoir/fiction; The memoir part working as evidence while the fiction part working as an emotional effect and connection to her ethnicity and gender. For example, in the first chapter, she tells the audience what she is told by her mother but then almost goes off into another style of writing to tell what she believes really happened. “My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil” (6). This idea of meshing this different styles of writing into this one book works out beautifully, because I find myself reading it as a piece of fiction, but I also find myself being moved and engaged by it like an autobiography or memoir would. I feel all these factors contribute to how Kingston wants her audience to feel about ethnicity and gender, while also giving evidence of her own experiences.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel The Woman Warrior, speech and writing play a major role. Throughout all of “No Name Woman” Kingston explains the way women are viewed in the eyes of the Chinese community. Women are viewed as objects rather than humans. They must obey the men and do as they are told. Their families have control over them. There is a passages in the book that states that “Her husband’s parents could have her sold, mortgaged her, stoned her” (7). This just goes to show that she had no rights, no voice. This is why speech is so important in this book. Just being able to tell the story and let this woman be heard is a big step. Women don’t have much say, if any, and writing is a way for them to feel they have some control over their lives maybe even a way out for them.
ReplyDeleteThese themes/customs are very important to the text because it shows the Chinese way of life. It gives us insight on what it was like in a different country years ago. There are customs that are unknown to America that are presented in the text. They talk about bounding feet, having an outcast table, women presenting themselves in a certain way. The themes help us as readers understand their way of living and see how the women were treated. The themes show that gender is a major key. Men have all the say and control. They make the big decisions and the women have to live by them. The Woman Warrior explains that women have no say in who they marry. There family sets it up and she has to follow her family’s wishes/orders. Once she is married off she becomes the other family’s object. They can do with her as they please. The main issue in this novel is that women are being held captive in their own families, communities, and culture.
In Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior" the role of speech/writing used to create the story is a memoir looking back on the heritage and gender roles of chinese women. Women had to bind their feet as a marraige custom and women were chastised not just by the family but by the community as well, when the young aunt committs suicide after the community ostracizes her. The use of memoir for this story looks back on the past with the ghosts such as the one of the aunt who were affected by the customs and gender roles imposed on chinese culture.
ReplyDeleteThe aunt is never mentioned in the family as if she never existed until the young girl in the beginning living in the present is warned what will happen if she steps outside her boundaries as a woman, upon her first period. This shows that these beliefs still hold firm from the past all the way to the present that dictates chinese culture, society, and gender roles.
Sex is not directly tied to speech - one does not need to communicate verbally to initiate or engage in sexual activity, but the idea of “speech” does suggest an interpersonal social exchange, and so, in some sense, sex should be regarded as the most intimate speech or dialogue two individuals can share. In “No Name Woman”, Maxine Hong Kingston reveals, “[n]o one talked sex, ever.” When not discussed, understood, or explained, sex IS NOT CONSENSUAL and becomes an incredibly accurate weapon capable of inducing inescapable trauma. If men are indoctrinated with the belief that they are entitled to sex and if women are gagged, trained to not “talk sex”, then the likelihood of women verbally resisting sexual advances diminishes completely. The gender roles Kingston exposes are disturbing to say the least. Rape seems like an alien concept to the women in Kingston’s narrative. It appears that there is no shared sexual dialogue going on, that sex is a one way conversation consisting of male penetration and entitlement. Kingston’s aunt never communicates anything about her lover, going as far as to keep his name a secret.
ReplyDeleteANYWAY, I’m not sure if any of that was relevant…but I’d also like to point out that Kingston reveals families never talked at the dinner table, “[b]ut at the dinner table, where the family members came nearest on another, no one could talk”, Kingston continues “[e]very word that falls from the mouth is a coin lost.” Speech is regarded as incredibly valuable, so much so, that sharing it with family (a group of individuals who should communicate candidly) is wasteful. In contrast, Kingston’s mother screams in public libraries and over phone lines, two occasions where screaming is completely inappropriate in the “western world”.
Kingston is highlighting the negative views of her culture. As she points out in the first story, her aunt is shunned and, later, completely ignored by her family to the point that they no longer say her name so that she is forgotten and can bring no further shame to the family. This is all due to the fact that she laid with a man who threatened to kill her if she did not. She had no choice either way but to say nothing and accept her tragic fate. How awful, but Kingston uses this as a reason for writing about her. She says that she feels such remorse and anger with herself for this, especially as another woman of her family.
ReplyDeleteWomen, according to Kingston's experience in her family and culture, are nothing more than necessary for breeding children, mainly boys. Then as Kingston demonstrates in the second part of the novel, she decides as a child to become a swordswoman, as this is the only way for a woman to be viewed positively by her culture and society, and most importantly, by her family.
The autobiographical qualities of Kingston's text provide a very valid way in which to look at her blending of language and culture as a method by which to achieve an ultimate Chinese-American identity. Initially timid about her culture, a culture that is traditionally secretive and quiet, especially in terms of the female half, "You must not tell anyone," her mother warns in the opening sentence even.
ReplyDeleteOf course Kingston herself, and here the auto-biographical qualities come to the forefront of the work, is through the collection telling the world the secrets she was not meant to tell. This is, arguably, her way of ultimately finding her new Chinese-American voice in the process of knocking down the overtly patriarchal oppression that haunts the stories of her ancestors. Just as the ex-slaves of Beloved had to come to face the horrors of slavery by coming together, the Chinese emigrants of The Warrior Women must escape their overbearing and male dominated traditions by, quite simply, talking about it.
What I find most interesting in The Woman Warrior are the ways in which certain attitudes—specifically pertaining to gender—are embedded in certain words. This is most notable in “White Tigers” where the narrator says, “There is a Chinese word for the female I—which is ‘slave.’ Break women with their own tongues!” (47). Again and again throughout the story, we see the female identity as being subjugated to masculine oppression. Any kind of refusal to adhere to the established gender codes results in the accusation of being a “bad girl,” which, ironically, the narrator sees as being one step removed from being masculine. But most importantly, the oppressed have learned to keep quiet—to repress their stories. This is certainly evident in “no Name Woman,” where the aunt’s story is all but forgotten. The very fact that Kingston has chosen to write about it is (at least in the context of the culture she grew up in) the ultimate form of women’s rights avocation. In a sense, Kingston is being a woman warrior simply by narrating her struggles—something that would not have been permissible in another place and era.
ReplyDeleteWhat I believe makes this work worthy of canonization, is how it uses the memoir form, but breaks away from the conventions typically associated with memoir (that is, a ridged adherence to realism). Kingston uses the surreal as a wholly effective means to arrive at truth—the surreal is equally as functional as the real. Also, this allows for very rich, imagistic prose, rather than banal, mimetic descriptions .
-don
In 'no name woman' she tells the story of her aunt, a story she cannot speak of verbally, which makes it more thrilling to read. the fact that it is semi-autobiographical makes it very intense. for me, hearing what happened to her aunt makes me sad, because we don't want to think of things like this happening in real life. speech plays an important role in this chapter because there are a great many things that women are not allowed to say out loud, which makes Kingston's writing even mote interesting. this is the first and only time the story of her aunt has been written down, since everyone else in her family likes to pretend she didn't exist. for me, that fact keeps me engrossed in the story she is telling, unable to pull myself away until the story is finished.
ReplyDeleteThis book has been very interesting so far because of the emphasis on women. I have been taught that women in China are supposed to be submissive and for Kingston to write a semi- autobiographical novel about Chinese- American women I totally read it in another light. I feel that it being a semi- autobiographical book I feel more sympathy than I would if I knew it was complete fiction. I realize that some characters in fictional novels are based off of real people but knowing that this woman went through some of this is touching. "No Name Woman" was very sad because I am close with my aunts and I couldn't imagine ever not knowing them or their name. I feel like names are a crucial part of the world these days because it gives you identity and if you don't have identity then you start to question what you have to offer in the world.
ReplyDeleteWoman Warrior seems to be a Kingston's way of conveying that as a chinese-american woman, she deserves the same treatment, expectations, and customs as a man does. It is interesting how the book starts off with "no name woman," which is a story of a woman who was ridiculed for having a baby out of adultery. It is sad that the in all likelihood, the woman was probably raped by someone she knew and she and her baby sacrificed themselves to spare him.
ReplyDeleteThe next chapter, "White Tigers" is a total shift in spirit. It tells of a woman who breaks away from the traditional ways of a chinese woman and trains to be a warrior. She not only is successful at war, but she also bears a son, and even through her term of pregnancy, she fights on and avenges her people. I believe, that since this book was semi-autobiographical, that Kingston was communicating to her audience the life of a chinese woman in reality and the life of a chinese woman that could be, but was never given the chance due to her gender. It shows how Kingston resents the traditional chinese customs of girls being treated as inferior to boys and she even states in the text many times that it was typical for people to equate the raising of girls to geese. With this novel i believe we are told the story of Kingston of what she is capable of which is why it is only semi-autobiographical.
Gish Jen and Maxine Hong Kingston differ greatly in their depictions of Asian American identity in their respective novels. Whereas Kingston seems to characterize the individuals in "The Woman Warrior" as categorically different from those around them, Jen focuses upon the similarities between those from different ethnic backgrounds. In other words, Jen believes ethnicity is just a descriptive word; it does not make or form the person. In "Mona in the Promised Land," Jen experiments with the idea that an individual has the ability to change or alter his cultural heritage. It is not necessary for a person to only be Chinese or American or Jewish; in her mind, it is possible to be a Chinese American Jew. This manner of thinking is a sharp contrast to Kingston's presentation of race and ethnicity. In her mind, ethnicity is inescapable; no matter where a person lives or what a person does, he will always belong to his original culture. This is demonstrated by Brave Orchid's inability to recognize the differences between life in China and life in America In her mind, the Chinese way of life is the only way of life; it is not possible to merge Chinese and American thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe complex issues of identity and ethnicity in "Mona in the Promised Land" are absolutely fascinating. The idea that race and ethnicity can be abandoned, embraced, combined, and separated makes this postmodern novel truly unique. It is as though Jen decided to rewrite the cultural rules, making anything possible for anyone. However, it is difficult to see that racism still exists in those who do not share Mona's, Seth's, and Barbara's way of thinking. For example, Mona's parents refuse to promote Alfred because he is not Chinese; they do not think that they can trust an African American to take care of their restaurant. The blend of new ideas (such as choosing not only a religion but also a race) with old ideas (such as racism and judgment)serves for a stimulating read that made me truly wonder if it is possible to "choose" who I want to be. I mean, I know that it is possible to switch religions, but I'm not sure if it is as simple to switch races or forget an ethnic background. Perhaps this is why Mona's parents find it difficult to embrace their daughtern's conversion; in their minds, she is abandoning their way of life. Her parents believe that she is choosing to forget their history in favor of creating her own, new future. In other words, Mona's parents are not postmodern characters. They see things as strictly separated between blacks and whites, Chinese and American, old and young. However, Mona sees fit to blur the lines between these separate identities, forming her own unique identity in the process.