Literary Analysis of No Name Woman

A short literary analysis of Maxine Kingston's classic “No Name Woman” As part of the first generation of Chinese-Americans, Maxine Hong Kingston writes about her struggle to distinguish her cultural identity through an impartial analysis of her aunt’s denied existence. In “No Name Woman,” a chapter in her written memoirs, Kingston analyzes the possible reasons behind her disavowed aunt’s dishonorable pregnancy and her village’s subsequent raid upon her household. And with a bold statement that shatters the family restriction to acknowledge the exiled aunt, Kingston states that, “… [she] alone devote pages of paper to her [aunt]...” With this premeditated declaration, Kingston rebelliously breaks the family’s cultural taboo to mention the exiled aunt. Because a strict Chinese culture fails to be practical in American society, Kingston defiantly acknowledges the existence of her aunt's life because she understands that her lost Chinese values as imposed by her family parallels her aunt's capital crime to her village. This argument would prove that Kingston did not write this chapter in veneration of her aunt, but with the intention to provide insight to her understanding of herself as a Chinese-American woman. Providing proof that Kingston has no intention of venerating her aunt becomes necessary in order to further analyze her true intention behind her stated declaration. The phrase “devote pages of paper” is evidently used in reference to Kingston’s chapter, “No Name Woman,” in which she states both the story of her aunt and her analysis of it in remembrance of the aunt’s existence. As well, Kingston’s inclusion of the word “alone” emphasizes that only she has ever committed to her aunt’s remembrance. Yet to add further meaning to this line, the succeeding and concluding phrase of this sentence states, “…though not origamied into houses and clothes.” The idea of devoting through origami, an art form of paper folding, is used in Asian