The aunt makes Kingston sees that to be obedient and keeping silence all the time cannot help to improve the situation. Kingston regards her aunt as her forerunner. The transgression of traditional boundary results in destruction of the roundness of the whole village and the upsurge of villagers’ violence. this should terrify Kingston and silenced her. However, after a time, Kingston understands that she doesn’t like to be a woman like her aunt who is vulnerable and defenseless towards other’s disapproval. Kingston doesn’t like the passive way of revenge of her aunt who committed spite suicide by jumping into the family well. Kingston will like to devote a few pages to arouse people awareness towards the treatment of women. She would also like to see herself as a pioneer in breaking the silence of traditional Chinese women and liberating women from the restrain of the patriarchal society. She frees herself from the haunting of her aunt’s ghost and also free herself from the repressive silence.
The folklore, Fa Mu Lan makes Kingston understand that she is worthy, not ‘a maggot in the rice’. Though physically different from the swordswoman, their target is just the same- to fight against racist and sexist or voice out injustice. ‘The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance soon so that I can return to them. She understands that the eventual aim of the swordswoman and herself is similar, both are reporting ‘a crime’. ‘The reporting is the vengeance- not the beheading, not the gutting, but the words’. Once she recognizes that, she knows that she is not useless or just one more girl waiting to be sold. ‘When I visit the family now, I wrap my American successes around me like a private shawl.’ She is more sure of herself now. During her childhood years, she always heard sayings that degraded girls, ‘ Feeding girls is feeding cowbirds,’ or ‘There ‘s no profit in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls.’ These all deprives Kingston of recognition and acceptance. Kingston are constantly being looks down upon just because she is a girl. This is also reflected when the family only welcome the returning of the son from Vietnam with chickens and pigs. Kingston may not successfully gains the recognition from the family, but at least she is sure of herself now. ‘I am worthy of eating the food.’ She reassures herself that she too is useful and respectful. Though she may not be the dutiful swordswoman in her mother’s eyes, and her mother is certain that she will grow up as wives or slaves. Kingston chooses to be a warrior who will stand up and fight against all these traditional discrimination. She has successfully found another way to achieve what the woman warrior has achieved by using a pen. She is confident of herself despite lacking recognition from the villagers and her family.
The story of Fa Mu Lan also helps Kingston understand herself better with Kingston own reinterpretation of the story. Reinterpreting the story is a process of self-revelation. Through the reinterpretation of the story, she actually learns that the only way that she will gain approval of the villagers or her family is to take her father’s place in fighting and behead the baron and evil emperor. The impossibility of doing this makes Kingston acknowledge the difference between her American life and the fantasy. She may not be like the swordswoman having all kinds of hard physical training, to copy tiger’s anger or stalking kill, etc. However, she does learn to stand up in her life to challenge the racist. When her boss called her ‘Nigger Yellow’, she pointed out that ‘ I don’t like that word’, unlike the no-name aunt who endured all humiliation silently, she expresses her dissatisfaction. She also challenged the boss when the boss was being unreasonable. ‘I refuse to type these invitations.’ Though this is again not her mother’s intention in telling her the folklore, Kingston displays courage in fighting against injustice by using a pen. She does not recede under the spite teasing of others. Kingston is not a timid woman who let this kind of inequality continue without people paying attention to them. She is a female avenger and she sees herself as a liberator from all these old attitudes of China.
In conclusion, the intention of the mother telling Kingston’s stories is somehow twisted. Kingston breaks from the restrain of tradition and work out a set of her own values. She librates from the patriarchal society. She is not submissive anymore,. She writes her desire and dissatisfaction and in turns opens the way for understanding herself better.
