Arranged Marriage In Maxine Hong Kingston's No Name Woman

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Arranged marriage is a concept that is largely unfamiliar for many people in Western culture, particularly in the United States. However, in many cultures throughout the world, it is a widely accepted way of life, meant to serve as a way to preserve society in an organized fashion. A gradual result of the practice of arranged marriage lies within its effect on gender roles, especially for women; specifically, they are required to be faithful and obedient husbands in order to be contributing members of society. Despite offering unique perspectives on the opportunities for women after arranged marriage, Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman” and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s “Meeting Mrinal” reveal the consequences of arranged marriages in Indian and Chinese culture, as they strive for perfection and order within societies and contribute to a definitive characterization of gender roles for women. In “No Name Woman,” Kingston establishes the desire …show more content…

The narrator’s aunt experiences discrimination from both her husband and the man who raped her, as Kingston depicts when she writes, “Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil… She obeyed him; she always did as she was told… [she] promised before they met that she would be his forever. They both gave orders: she followed” (228). The system of order through arranged marriage developed by “the old China” diminishes the ability for women to choose for themselves; furthermore, societal beliefs forces them to remain faithful and obedient to the commands of men. Kingston argues that arranged marriage in traditional Chinese society perpetuates the belief that women should be obedient to men and thus become integrally inferior to

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