Explore Kingston's presentation of the relationship between gender, community stories and identity in Woman Warrior.

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Kingston reads herself into existence through the stories her culture tells her about women’

Explore Kingston’s presentation of the relationship between gender, community stories and identity in Woman Warrior.

The focus of Maxine Hong Kingston’s autobiography The Woman Warrior is the talk-stories of females who have affected her life and identity in some way. A rich amalgam of Chinese heritage, legends and folktales, the text follows the reality of a woman’s struggle for self identity in migrant America. Kingston finds stifling the stories she was told as a girl; they were responsible for her fear and insecurities. However, they also serve as inspiration for her own story telling as a creative writer. Thus  a critical reading raises the  question of what these narratives actually intended to teach, and how they worked to influence identity.

 The stories of ‘No Name’ aunt, Fa Mulan, and Brave Orchid accentuate how women are constructed in male dominated societies. The gender orientated reading promoted by the narrator encourages the view that  the power of tradition is responsible for women’s oppression, rather than the male gender. Kingston’s female characters submit to the patriarchy; even her narrator confesses to colluding with their silencing. Kingston’s American context, however, with the supreme value it places on individual choice, has allowed her to interrogate how these Chinese stories dictate female identity. According to Chinese Confucianism women must show obedience consecutively to their father, husband and sons. Their debased status is internalised by Chinese women who must sacrifice their lives in service to their community. Through the technique of rewriting them in an American manner the narrator is able to distinguish her personal identity from the cultural one the stories construct.

Kingston’s mythopoeic text works to construct the author’s bi- cultural identity, and she shows her independence by  reading herself into existence through the traditional stories. Whilst Kingston has embraced her culture, she has forged her own identity only through their interrogation. In the opening sentence of The Woman Warrior, the narrator’s mother Brave Orchid marks milestones with her ‘talk stories.’ For example, when Kingston begins to menstruate, Brave Orchid informs her of the story of her Chinese aunt as a precaution that “what happened to her could happen to you,”(13). A married woman, this ‘No Name’ aunt was ostracised and forced to commit suicide because she became pregnant whilst her husband was away. Brave orchid tells the story to ‘prove’ that promiscuity will be severely punished the modern western reader could interpret this as a warning against promiscuity. The horror what happened to her is emphasised to inform the narrator if women are seen to be ‘promiscuous’, they will be punished. The narrators mother asserts, ‘you wouldn’t want to be forgotten as if you had never been born,’ a harsh lesson that has proved a reality for the aunt. Kingston’s father denies her, (the aunt). From this talk-story, the narrator believed that sex was ‘unspeakable, and words so strong, and fathers so frail that “aunt” would do my father mysterious harm,’ (22). Kingston presents the notion that patterns of behaviour are internalised, as this knowledge has manifested itself in her behaviors today. She learns the power of words and becomes a writer. The cautionary voice of her mother towards sex has meant ‘imagining her (the aunt) free with sex though doesn’t fit though. I don’t know any women like that, or men either,’(16). Perhaps more telling, the immense secrecy of this knowledge has imparted itself on the narrator, ‘they want me to participate in her punishment and I have.’ She never asked for details about her aunt, nor referred to it again. But this would indicate that if Kingston suffered the same fate of the aunt, she too would be forced to commit suicide. In reality, modern American life has meant an alternative path may be sought, and the narrator has a choice, something denied to her aunt. Therein lies the differentiating factor, while the narrator has allowed this story to influence her cultural identity, she has created her own personal identity, reading herself into existence through this aunt by retelling her version of the story, contrary to her mothers intention ‘don’t tell anyone’. She purposely presents alternative versions of what may have happened to her aunt, a passionate seductress and individualist that empower and liberate her giving immortality of sorts.  In ‘No Name’ aunt, we see the relationship between gender, community stories and identity as something that can be negotiated. Kingston presents the relationship as incorporating choice, that can be both influential and rejected.

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Kingston reads herself into existence by imparting her values about women into the story of Fa Mulan, constructing a bi cultural identity that embraces America and China. Kingston reminisces, that ‘as I grew up, I had learned the chant of Fa Mulan, the girl who had taken her father’s place in battle,’(25). Brave Orchid tells her daughter stories that can be empowering as they are necessary. The paradox of Fa Mulan is that her ‘disguise as a male warrior when in battle is meant to illustrate the potential power’ that Chinese women can exert. The narrator ‘learned that we failed ...

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