The Woman Warrior Essay
From the very beginning of the novel, Kingston uses this avatar’s experience to demonstrate the problematic stereotyping of the Chinese culture. In her explication, the narrator expresses her emotions on her connection to the Chinese culture:
Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese…
What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies? (Kingston, 5)
Even the narrator, who has a personal connection to Asian America, remains invariably conflicted about what that connection means to who she is. Representing many of the novel’s American readers, the narrator’s only source of information and subsequent conclusions are based on what she has been told (Brave Orchild’s talk-stories and “the movies”). Due to this disconnection …show more content…
In “No Name Woman,” the narrator the story of her alleged unnamed aunt, who gave birth to an illegitimate child. This story illustrates the maturation of a girl, who offers a look on the female experience. 2. “White Tigers” tells the story of Fa Mu Lan and the narrator’s life in mainstream American culture. In both cases, we see cultural tensions and conflicts that give rise to rebelliousness, against oppression in the former, and against cultural conflicts in the latter. 3. Brave Orchid takes the stage, as “Shaman” shows her conflicting sides as a “warrior” with capabilities and intelligence, who has gone beyond the traditional role of mother and housewife, but also the woman entrenched in age-old Asian tradition who believes her slave-nurse to be worth more than her own flesh and blood. In this demonstration, Kingston shows the gap between the generation born and raised in Asian culture and the generation bathed in the American culture and can therefore only linger in the peripherals of the former. 4. The importance of change dominates “At the Western Palace, in which the narrator tells the story of Moon Orchid, whose husband finds another wife. Here, Kingston makes the case for change and modernity, so that women can free themselves from the role of breeder, and attain their
Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese…
What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies? (Kingston, 5)
Even the narrator, who has a personal connection to Asian America, remains invariably conflicted about what that connection means to who she is. Representing many of the novel’s American readers, the narrator’s only source of information and subsequent conclusions are based on what she has been told (Brave Orchild’s talk-stories and “the movies”). Due to this disconnection …show more content…
In “No Name Woman,” the narrator the story of her alleged unnamed aunt, who gave birth to an illegitimate child. This story illustrates the maturation of a girl, who offers a look on the female experience. 2. “White Tigers” tells the story of Fa Mu Lan and the narrator’s life in mainstream American culture. In both cases, we see cultural tensions and conflicts that give rise to rebelliousness, against oppression in the former, and against cultural conflicts in the latter. 3. Brave Orchid takes the stage, as “Shaman” shows her conflicting sides as a “warrior” with capabilities and intelligence, who has gone beyond the traditional role of mother and housewife, but also the woman entrenched in age-old Asian tradition who believes her slave-nurse to be worth more than her own flesh and blood. In this demonstration, Kingston shows the gap between the generation born and raised in Asian culture and the generation bathed in the American culture and can therefore only linger in the peripherals of the former. 4. The importance of change dominates “At the Western Palace, in which the narrator tells the story of Moon Orchid, whose husband finds another wife. Here, Kingston makes the case for change and modernity, so that women can free themselves from the role of breeder, and attain their