No Name Woman Analysis

The relationship between mother and daughter is complex, albeit loving. The relationship between a mother and daughter who grew up in two different cultures is a recipe for a long life of misunderstanding. Moreover, it can be difficult to connect with a mother when one grew up in a completely different society and holds drastically different values. In the story “No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston, Kingston tells the story of a Chinese-American mother telling her daughter an unspoken tale about her secret aunt who committed suicide. Throughout “No Name Woman,” Kingston provides themes of sexuality, gender, traditionalism, and family. Most importantly, she discusses the theme of motherhood and how this role is portrayed by a Chinese immigrant

In addition, the mother “tested our strength” (1230). Through telling this sad story about the aunt, Maxine’s mother is giving her a warning not to bring shame to the family and to avoid promiscuity. As Maxine imagines different scenarios for why her aunt had a baby with another man, she also sympathizes with her because she too suffered the constraints of traditional Chinese society. Maxine is going through adolescence and is questioning everything she’s been taught by her mother. Her aunt endured the wrath of traditional society so strongly that she knew her baby didn’t stand a chance in the real world without a family lineage to cling to. With this knowledge, Maxine’s aunt killed the baby too, which was her way of protecting her child from suffering shame. In Maxine’s mother as well as Maxine’s Aunt, we see two mothers who go to two extremes in order to spare their children from a life of shame. Whereas Maxine’s mother results in telling her horrid stories to keep her from straying from her Chinese traditional values, Maxine’s aunt tragically kills her baby because she thinks “carrying the baby to the well shows loving” (1236). They used what they were taught about womanhood and shame, and projected it onto their own children, because this is what Chinese mother’s

Maxine’s aunt haunts her because of all the things she will never know about her, but also because Maxine herself is enduring a battle between her American and Chinese culture. She’s just as curious as any other teenager living in America, but is confined to the fearful advice given in the form of stories, which is her mother’s only way of teaching her about womanhood. However, much to the narrator’s dismay, Maxine’s mother is actually just teaching her about the shame of being a woman, rather than being a woman. Similarly, we see Maxine’s aunt saving her own child from shame, which is something both mother’s consider