Silence In Maxine Kingston's The Woman Warrior

A central theme in The Woman Warrior by Maxine Kingston is silence. As the book progresses and the author opens up more about her past, she cures her silence and finds a way to stand out as a Chinese-American woman in the community. The different stories in the novel focus on the conflict between silence and communication to a person’s loved ones and refer to both emotional and physical struggles. She also uses her own frustration as a restricted Chinese American woman to break through the wall of silence that separates her from not only her loved ones but also from the rest of society. The theme of silence in The Woman Warrior displays the lack of a voice the author feels in asserting independence from her own Chinese community.

The author conveys silence using irony at the start of the book when she mentions “You must not tell anyone.” In reality, Kingston is telling the story to everyone, or in this case, the audience. At the same time, several of the lessons Brave

Orchid teaches the author is rooted in telling. Telling provides a voice to the Chinese customs, traditions and the lives of the past that did not receive as much recognition as it does now. Brave Orchid, Kingston’s mother, is voiceless in America even though she has lived in America for many years. Brave Orchid’s story of the woman warrior displays how stories of traditional Chinese culture can alternatively give voice to those who feel oppressed in a domination patriarchal society. Just how her mother experiences a struggle of finding her identity in a new country, so does the narrator. Examples of how the narrator feels restricted include when she could not tell her “ghost” teacher that her father had run a gambling house and when she is not allowed to ask questions about “anything that is really important.” Silence is not something she alone expresses. She explains that the emigrants often avoid talking to the police and involving themselves with the authority even for crimes
Based on the first chapter of the memoir, No Name Woman, Kingston realizes that if she acts against the community’s standards of suitable behavior like her aunt, she too will replace her nameless aunt, who remains silent her entire life. By going against her mother’s warning of keeping her nameless aunt a secret, Kingston tells everyone the story of her aunt and even gives a voice to the silence woman. In giving her aunt a voice, Kingston is able to remove her aunt’s guilt and strengthen her identity as a Chinese-American woman. She feels that remaining silent about her aunt would be the same as rejecting her own voice and identity. Furthermore, the act of naming the nameless aunt “No Name Woman” is symbolic as it honors a forgotten ancestor’s story.
Even though the women of traditional Chinese culture have no voice, the stories and myths passed down generation by generation can inspire girls who feel voiceless.

The legend of Fa Mu Lan convinces then narrator that it is possible to overcome societal obstacles. Kingston describes how even at a young age she dreamt of overcoming an insignificant life. Another story, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” singles out the process of finding her own voice which Maxine Kingston accomplishes by writing her story as a way of finding her voice. In this chapter of the novel, Kingston focuses on herself and her own search for a voice. In order to assimilate in American society, she finds her voice hidden away from society. The silent girl she bullies as a child is a parallel to herself as Kingston is a voiceless girl. She fears of becoming even more voiceless like this silent girl who she constantly bullies. When the narrator bullies the quiet girl in school, she takes her anger out at the whole

community.
The chapter, “At the Western Palace”, shows how costly remaining silence can be and the cost is revealed through Moon Orchid, Kingston’s aunt. In the story Moon Orchid tells, the woman’s loss of speech is the deciding factor in her husband’s decisions that she does not have a part in American society. Through the telling of this story, Kingston also provides Moon Orchid with an individual voice. At the conclusion of her memoir, Kingston tells the story of a poet to depict the possibility of unity among the two cultures of America and China.
In The Woman Warrior, Kingston employs the different stories to depict the restriction in voice of Chinese-American women in America. Through these different stories told my herself, her mother, and her aunt, she is able to express her own feelings and experiences. Kingston’s memoir shines light on the struggle of immigrants and how the reoccurring theme of silence played a role in strengthening her voice as an individual. The writing of this memoir serves as an outlet for the narrator to explore her past and ultimately, find her voice.