Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Wendy Ho scrutinizes Maxine Hong Kingston's book "The Woman Warrior" in her essay, "Mother Daughter Writing and the Politics of Race and Sex in Maxine Hong Kingston's 'The Woman Warrior". The author points out that Ho shows how, in this book, especially the first chapter 'No Name Woman', the various gender and racial confines in Kingston's life affect her relationship with her mother and Kingston's own identity formation. The paper also relates the way that Ho believes that the process of story telling in 'No Name Woman' helps free Kingston to break the oppressions of both her Chinese culture and the patriarchal system in which she lived.

From the Paper:

"Through the story of her aunt, Kingston's mother warns her daughter "now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful." This quote exemplifies Ho's point that those in the Chinese society were especially fearful of women appearing to masculine, or at least, not appearing feminine; the survival of Chinese life depended on the maintenance of these strict roles."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women: The Traditions in English. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 1996.
• Ho, Wendy. "Mother Daughter Writing and the Politics of Race and Sex in Maxine Hong Kingston's 'The Woman Warrior." Contemporary Literary Criticism 1991. Gale Group. 6 April 2006 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/93/908/82690837w7/purl=rc1_CLC_0_H1100018516&dyn=4!xrn_7_0_H1100018516?sw_aep=emc_main>.
• Kingston, Maxine Hong. "No Name Woman." Gilbert and Gubar 2239-2247.

More papers on Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior":

• Analytical Essay # 55508 : "Maxine Hong Kingston's "Woman Warrior"
• Book Review # 73819 : "The Woman Warrior"
• Book Review # 113342 : "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston"

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