Analysis Of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior

In the excerpt from The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, the purpose is finding one’s identity through the hardship of family struggle because if not, they will forever be lost. This passage shows the purpose through the acts of irony, anecdote, and imagery. Kingston struggles with finding her identity through the participation in forgetting her aunt. She believes by not mentioning her aunt’s name will wash away any sins her aunt caused, but the irony is that she still speaks of her aunt even when told not to. Though she does not speak of the “unknown aunt” out loud, she writes about her. She writes about how after death, her aunt is still punished, but she wants to comfort her. Kingston calls this “a reverse ancestor worship”