Gender Inequality In Zora Neale Hurston's No Name Woman

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Maxine Hong Kingston’s story “No Name Woman” can certainly be considered a tale about gender inequality. There are numerous ways that Kingston suggests and incorporates gender discrimination into her story. For example, Kingston makes it clear how sons are celebrated more than daughters in traditional Chinese society. While sons were acclaimed because they could pass on the family name, daughters were commonly given away by their parents. Kingston makes this notion clear in her sentence, “it was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys,” regarding the “no name woman’s” newborn child (Kingston 4).
The relations between men and women in this story are portrayed as being tradition, necessary, and unfair to women. In China, it …show more content…

“She tested our strength to establish realities,” claims Kingston, regarding her mother’s cautionary tales (Hurston 1). Her mother may have also been trying to give her an awareness of who she is and where she came from, by explaining to her how life was like in traditional Chinese society.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” Delia is faced with several gender related obstacles. One hurdle in particular she faces is having limited job opportunities available to her. Delia is forced to be a washwoman, a very physically demanding job. The reason why Delia is made to do this menial occupation is because in this era, there were relatively no job opportunities for women, especially if they were black (Hurston 378). In addition, the reader can see gender discrimination and inequality by the way Delia is treated by her husband (Hurston 378-379, …show more content…

In “No Name Woman,” Kingston states that her great aunt’s sexual partner “was not a stranger because the village housed no strangers” (Kingston 2). However, this is very ironic because this same village subjected women to submissive roles. Another showing of irony in this story is the sole fact that Kingston includes the story about her great aunt in her book. Kingston’s mother tells her daughter (Kingston) this tale, but tells her not to share the story (Kingston 1). However, by including this tale in “No Name Woman,” she ultimately shares it with the

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