“The Woman Warrior,” written by Maxine Hong Kingston, an autobiography but with Kingston’s unique blend of perspectives could be categorized as a creative non-fiction. I read this novel as a girl’s journey through discovering her “voice”, after being silenced for so long. The book was separated into five chapters, that read more like short stories. Although there were only five chapters, the last seemed to be the only one we actually zero in on our author. Throughout the book we learn about Kingston through her family, but after analyzing the text, I understood that after the tyrant and ridicule that she faced from her family and friends, it was easy to see that Kingston truly was a warrior. She faced mental and physical abuse, that ultimately …show more content…
silenced her, but rather than retreating into a safe haven she chose to persevere through her hardships in order to write a better story for herself. By persevering Kingston proved herself to be a voice, for the “voiceless” women. We see abuse throughout the story in multiple ways. We see physical abuse when it is revealed that Kingston’s mother “cut my tongue” (in reference to Kingston) with an object that is unknown to the author. But in a way this cut-tongue helped her find her voice in a way of her remembering her abuse her mother put her through regardless if she knew it, in comparison to a ribbon around a finger. There are also plenty of instances of mental abuse throughout, “The Woman Warrior”. In one instant we hear the “wealthiest village wife,” exclaim to Kingston that, “she has an ugly voice,” (Kingston 192), we later hear Kingston say, “and she was right,” (Kingston 192), the way the girl addressed Kingston’s voice is just another reason of why Kingston never spoke up, she was bullied into thinking that her voice was “ugly” so she should not speak. We also saw many instances of her mother’s torment toward Kingston throughout the novel as well Following the ridicule that Kingston faced throughout the novel, we finally get the sense in the last chapter that Kingston was getting her “voice,” in an instance of frustration Kingston exclaimed “What are you going to do for a living?
Yeah, you’re going to have to work because you can’t be a housewife. Somebody has to marry you before you can be a housewife. And you, you are a plant. Do you know that? That’s all you are if you don’t talk. If you . . .” (Kingston 180). While being aggressive toward the quiet girl, she repeated her mother’s threats, from this we can tell that she is taking out her own fears at the expense of the girl. After expressing her anger, Kingston seemingly has no guilt, but says to the older sister of the girl that, “Your family really ought to force her to speak,” (Kingston 181), to a young girl. After feeling some remorse, she believes that she was doing the girl a favor. After this interaction, I believe we start to see the beginning of Kingston’s change, she is slowly finding her voice, by hearing what her mother would scream at her all her life thorough her own ears. We can really see Kington’s “voice,” when she is scolding her mother for trying to sell her off to a less compatible husband, Kingston says, “Do you hear me? I may be ugly and clumsy, but one thing I’m not, I’m not retarded. . . I’m smart. I can do all kinds of things. . . I can make a living and take care of myself,” (Kingston 201). Kingston understands that she is someone, not …show more content…
just a girl that her family convinced her that is seemingly worthless. Kingston had always had a voice; it just took something to push over the edge. The absurdity of her mother trying to sell her off to a man who was not matched mentally, but exceeded in finances was too much for her. Though all her life she was told that the goal was to basically be wed off, and become a wife, Kingston understood through her experiences that she was capable of so much more, and that she didn’t need a husband in order to reach her full potential. Women do not have a “voice” in traditional Chinese culture and Kingston showcased that through her novel in order to promote a way for the “voiceless” women to find their voice.
That regardless of what other’s may tell them, they are somebody, and they do not need convincing in order to have what it takes to be successful. Throughout Kingston’s earlier life she seemingly had no “voice”, this is why the beginning chapters we never “heard” her, we only heard of her tormentors, the past chapters acted as a sort of silent protest, expressing her side of why she took it out on that quit girl, why it took her so long to realize that she was
“enough”.
For Kingston, The Woman Warrior signifies more than five chapters of talk-stories synthesized together. Within each chapter of the memoirs, Kingston engraves the method in which she undertook to discover her discrete voice. The culture clash between her mother and Kingston accumulated her struggles and insecurities, resulting in Kingston’s climax during her tirade. However, what Kingston accentuates the most is that the a breakthrough from silence requires one to reject a society’s
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is a riveting about a women who endured three years of social hardships in camp Manzanar. Jeanne Wakatsuki was born on September 26, 1934, in Inglewood, California, to George Ko Wakatsuki and Riku Sugai Wakatsuki. She spent her early childhood in Ocean Park, California, where her father was a fisherman. On December 7, 1941 Jeanne and her family say good bye to her Papa and her brothers as they take off on their sardine boat. The boat promptly returned and a “Fellow from the cannery came running down to the wharf shouting that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor” (Wakatsuki, 6). That very night Papa went home and burned anything that could trace them back to their Japanese origins paper, documents, and even the flag that he had brought back with him from Hiroshima. Even though Papa tried hard to hide his connections with his Japanese heritage the FBI still arrested him but he didn’t struggle as they took him away he was a man of “tremendous dignity” (Wakatsuki, 8) and instead he led them.
Taylor had a goal, a reason to achieve it, had many challenges along the way and in the end found her reason to thrive. Had Taylor stayed in town, there is a good chance she would have followed the rest of her peers, getting pregnant ad married without any thought to the world outside. Taylor Greer learned that she could rise above small town culture, be herself and thrive. This can be a lesson to readers and critics that life is a quest, and the most important part of it is our development and to find our place in the
Since Francie was young she saw the city as opportunity and a way of getting out of the poverty she was always struggling in. Now she realizes that no matter where is she is, she can overcome anything she puts
In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, many forms of social injustice towards women in Afghanistan are present. The characters face social injustice from family, relationships, society and are forced to endure them throughout their lives until they realize that the only way to bring justice is to fight back.
...nd bloodshed. Women gave a reason to go to war, a reason to come back from the war, and oddly, a reason to want to return to the war. The men were in a fraternity of life, and with no women around for so long they began to rely on themselves, and no longer had the needs that were provided them by women. They wanted to play in the jungle with their friends, only this time with no guns. They missed the life that they spent together eating rations and swapping stories. When they went home they were veterans, like the old men of the World Wars. If they stayed, they were still heroes, warriors, and victims. They still loved deeply the women at home, because they had no reason to fight or bicker, or possibly realize that the women they assumed would be waiting for them had changed in that time. The men were torn between love of women, and the love of brotherhood.
Since people who have different identities view the American Dream in a variety of perspectives, individuals need to find identities in order to have a deep understanding of obstacles they will face and voices they want. In The Woman Warrior, Maxing Hong Kingston, a Chinese American, struggles to find her identity which both the traditional Chinese culture and the American culture have effects on. However, in The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros clearly identifies herself as a Hispanic woman, and pivots to move up economically and socially to speak for her race. Even though both Kingston and Cisneros look for meanings of their identities, they have different approaches of reaching the full understanding.
...pecially for second generation Torontonians, but detangling themselves from the family past and unhomeliness allows for the city to be seen as a much brighter place that enables them to come out and discover themselves further. In conclusion, in order to find “What We All Long For”, it is within ourselves to discover and reflect influences in our lives that weighs us down, to then either deal or cope with the situation to finally live a life free of anxiety, loss and pain.
...as Mary Ann in the novel show that women can do so much more than sew and cook. Without women, all wars would have been a lot harder. Although men tend to keep a macho facade in order to calm others (such as the women in their lives), inside they may be like glass, easy to break. A society set on the ideal stoic, fearless warrior who acts ruthlessly and saves the damsel in distress (also showing that women are weak) obviously is one where doomed to sexism. Without the comfort and inspiration, men would have deteriorated in the face of death. All and all, women provided the needed comfort, nursing, “manpower”, and love that the soldiers of Vietnam need, something that helped them endure the havoc of war. O’Brien’s expert use of the feminist lens allows the reader to know that women indeed were a powerhouse in the Vietnam war, without whom, men would have perished.
Audre Lorde In our class discussions and reading, I learned that women were once in charge of the human race, women were a part of a community, no race was inferior or superior, there was peace and harmony in the world until the patriarchal era came, planning to embed itself in the ground for a long time. Women were raped for their identity, their race and their status in society. Men ruled the biblical stories, leaving Mary out. Hence, the war started between the races, women fought to gain their identity back and to do so, they started writing.
History tends to applaud the heroics of men in war, but there are few examples that cite the courage women displayed. We need to be vigilant when we remember that women deliberately made the choice to fear for their personal safety and even risk their lives t...
12 Shelly Bannister, op. cit., argues that women who respond to male violence with physical resistance, and are incarcerated as a result, should be viewed as political prisoners.
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
Women are often portrayed in stories and tales as the Damsel in Distress. We are the ones waiting in our flowing gowns for the knight to come and carry us away on the back of his white horse. In a Thousand Splendid Suns it is the women who are the warrior princesses, the ones enduring so much. It is the strength of a woman and how they deal with the human capacity for evil that jumps out as the themes of this story. A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the perspective of two women, in which they live their lives both very differently but both show the inner strength of being a woman. It is most definitely not the easiest task of being a woman in Afghanistan, where men have so much power and authority. Both these women stories’ are being told during three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. Mariam and Laila become allies in a battle with their brutal husband, many miscarriages, mothering a daughter where women are not welcomed, dealing with many deaths of loved ones and somehow showing the resilience of being a woman.
Morreale, J. (1998). Xena: Warrior princess as feminist camp. Journal of Popular Culture, 32(2), page 79. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&sid=64cd7df8-8ea3-4d9a-ad60-1deef7e616e6%40sessionmgr114&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=1585569