From The Situation And The Story By Jean Gornick Analysis

On further examination, signs of confusion caused by silence and lies in both essays illustrate an identity struggle. Especially, through questioning and presenting their thought process essayists prove their humanity, because they show their desire to understand the core of their writing. For instance, Vivian Gornick explains the vulnerability of essayists in “From The Situation and the Story” and stresses the importance of “a persona” in an essay (168). To achieve this distinct voice essayists are confronted with the challenge to be as honest as they can be. Therefore, the phenomenon of the personal essays is that the process of personal exploration may be heard by the readers. Numerous scholars have debated on the differences between an essay and a memoir. For

example, memoirs in David Lazar’s view as Lazar asserts may be differentiated from the genre of the essay. Lazar states that a memoir “is usually content heavy, narratively driven” and often based on a “’hook’”. He explains how memoirs revolve around personal tragedy which is presented to the reader, and rather serves as entertainment (Lazar 44). The occasion for writers of memoirs is the recollection of true events. Whereas the essay “in contrast is voice driven, question filled” and so, the writer’s occasion to share his story is to present his desire and reflect upon it. Therefore, an essayist reveals an inner argument. This argument or discussion between memory and desire, which the writer skeptically and carefully questions throughout his essay. Looking closer onto Valentine’s essay, the dilemma caused through the consistent normalization of her apparent difference by her mother is portrayed in her thoughts.

When Valentine’s mother divulges the secret of her biological father quite frankly without adding any further information about him. In addition, she confesses her indecision about what to find more horrifying: her ignorance, her mother’s dishonesty throughout the years or that she was conceived in a rape (1). Repeatedly Valentine’s thoughts circulate around the fact of her new identity: “My real father is a black man; therefore, I am black” (2). Apart from rationalizing her racial heritage, she seems to be relieved, since she compares her knowledge of being black with “coming out” (4). This may be interpreted as Valentine’s desire to be a black woman rather than a “dark-skinned Italian”, she used to be mistaken for. Contemplating on the idea of a distinct behavior she should probably adapt, after knowing that she is African-American, “Are there certain black ways to do these things that I don’t know about” (Valentine 4) [?]. Upon meeting another African-American woman, her desire to identify with her newfound ethnicity seems to

intensify:
I want to know what real blackness feels like, not the confused phony state of whatever I am. I want to know her secrets, feel the warmth radiating off her skin. I want to be inside her dark, gorgeous body, to be inside her mind and know what she knows, be what she is” (Valentine 10).
Her self-deprecating comments as she watches Celia emphasize her inner conflict and may be compared to Kriegel’s theory, since “the essay offers the reader a chance to observe the observer in the act of observing” (93). Moving on to Kingston’s essay and as per Lazar is “narratively-driven” (44). American literary critic and professor Cheung comments on Kingston’s “dualities, contradictions and paradoxes, she struggles to discern” (199). An example for the depicted ‘duality’ in Kingston’s essay can be seen in her questions on her supposed ethnicity:
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? (Kingston 385)
Clearly, she exerts herself to comprehend her heritage, cultural traditions as imposed by her mother and stereotyped connotations. Whereas she seems to have found comfort in her creativity as a tool to grasp the core of her identity by inventing stories about her nameless aunt to enliven her mother’s talk-story. Similarly, Cheung’s interpretation of Kingston’s frame of mind who claims that Kingston pursues her personal abilities to “talk-story” and “to play with different identities” (85). Kingston’s shifts her use of multiple narratives, for instance, her mother’s voice during talk-story marks the beginning of her memoir, a younger voice, being her adolescent-self invents additional stories about her aunt and her present voice closing the first chapter of her memoir. Towards the end of the essay Kingston confesses that over the two decades of knowing the story about her aunt, she has not inquired any further information, revealing her present voice. Since Kingston’s mother tells her the story of her aunt at the onset of her menses allude to the fact that she must have been a young adult when she heard the story. Kingston’s adolescent narrative distinguishes between contrasting characteristics of the Chinese and American “feminine” (389). Negative characteristics seem to be identified as Chinese, whereas she also refers to her “mother’s screams in public libraries or over telephones” (389). This statement reflects the contradiction of her mother’s insistence of silence on her nameless aunt and her public behavior. Valentine and Kingston face thoughts on identity and search for a sense of belonging which their mothers supposedly failed to provide due to the confusion they have caused. Leading to Kingston’s criticism on several aspects pictured in “No Name Woman”.