Summary Of Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston, the author of Woman Warrior, and her mother Brave Orchid are the only two people to make an appearance in every chapter of Woman Warrior. Because of this, we can tell how much of an effect Kingston’s mother has had on her, and how her talk-stories influenced her views on the Chinese and American cultures, family, and maybe most importantly, gender and what it means to be a woman. In the chapter entitled “Shaman,” we get to see the life story of Brave Orchid, with a few moments of transparency in which Kingston gives glimpses into how she felt about these stories when she was younger. With these stories that Kingston remembers her mother telling her, we can see what Kingston was taught about being a woman from her, and how these stories effected her growing up.
There is even a story within the book, written in first person, where a little girl becomes Fa Mu Lan. Because of these influences and this first person story, I can’t help but draw comparisons to the life story of Brave Orchid as told by Kingston in the chapter “Shaman.” In the first part of this chapter we learn that Brave Orchid went to Hackett Medical College for Woman at Canton. There, she lied about her age, not wanting to seem dumber because she was older than all the girls there. Though lying about your age is not the same as lying about your gender and going to medical school is not the same as going into battle, her we see Kingston’s mother find independence success as one of the smartest ones in her class. Through the way this part of the story is told, I believe we can see how proud Kingston is of her mother for this part of her life. I think being told this story growing up could have made Kingston feel pride at being a woman, and feel able to do things such as go to medical school and bring in success