Woman Warrior Myths

In literature authors often use literary forms and mediums such as, illustrations and images, talk story and legends. But why do authors add such forms and styles in their contemporary texts? Well, the answer can be found in the literary works of Mine Okubo Citizen 13600, Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior and Le Thi Diem Thuy The Gangster We are All Looking For– all three writers uses theses forms as a way to give the readers a sense of the characters development as an Asian American. Okubo’s drawings give visualization about her struggle in America during the time of political strife. Kingston uses talk –story and legends as a way to illustrate her problems of growing up as a second-generation immigrant and her difficulties with her
Chinese’s origins. Thuy uses the father story as a gangster as a way to shape the character’s sense of self while in a new country. The drawings, talk story and legends gave way to a better understanding of the characters assimilation of a new country. In Citizen 1330, Okubo illustrations depict the situations Japanese Americans faced while in the internment camp. The image of Okubo and her brother with there tagged bags (22) draws attention to the fact that she is just like her luggage in a sense because they both share the same number. Also, looking Okubo you notice that she is looking at something in the distance and her brother looks tried almost as if he has been through a lot because of their current situation. The image of her and her brother looking back her home (23) (bottom of page) shows how her emotions can be expressed trough words, only in visual. For example, the passage states “Our friends came to take us to the civil control station, we took one last loo at our happy home” (22), if you turn to image it speaks higher volumes then the diction because in the image you see that Okubo has tears in her eyes, meaning that she is crestfallen about having to leave she home. The words failed to show the readers Okubo feelings, even if she was to write “I cried taking one last look at our happy home” it would not be able to convey to the readers the physical pain Asian Americans experienced having to leave there place. The living conditions for them was dreadful, the readers don’t get the sense of how unwelcoming was the place they resided until you view the image, for example, the image of women using the toilets (74), the stalls are wooden and grass is sprouting between the wooden planks on the floors, which projects that the place is not for human habitation. Furthermore, the image shows how humiliated the woman was about their living arrangements because it lacked privacy. The women at the end has set up a wooden door, the women next to her has her dress covering her self and her hands over mouth and the other women has pinned a curtain to hid herself. The image concludes that it’s challenging for the women to get use to it because they did not have privacy. In The Woman Warrior the story-talk possess the aspects that the narrator grapples with in her Chinese heritage.
For example, her mother tells her the story about her aunt and how it impacted her life: “Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on & 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. (4). From the passage, the mother story talk centered on the horrors of the action and the disapproval that lead the aunt to obscurity. The story gives no details about the kind of woman the aunt was or what her motivations might have been. The readers get a strong view about how the narrator feels, which is afraid because she is haunted by the ghost of this forgotten aunt, and she feels the need to better understand the aunt. Since the aunt has officially been forgotten she cannot ask her parents for more information about her, thus she speculates. Furthermore, this story goes on to impact the narrator sense of self because her speculations about the aunt’s desire to be stunning in the eyes of man and how it lead to her downfall, makes the narrator have fears about being attractive to boys, even though she would like to go on dates she decides that being a sister is more reasonable. The second is the legend of Fu Mu Lan, which taught the narrator to not be this docile creature but a creature who
can be reckon with: “She (the narrator's mother) said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman.” (20). Fa Mu Lan is the polar opposite of Aunt because she did her deeds out of devotion, not for personal gain. Fa Mu Lan is a needed female heroic model because she helps the narrator feel a sense of her own worth in a culture that frequently emphasizes the worthlessness of girls. The talk-story in a way offer the narrator a sense of her identity and how it each talk story lead the narrator to further get a understanding of her Chinese heritage.
In the story “The Gangster We Are All Looking For”, the story talk of her father’s “gangster” background sets the way in how she sees herself.
The father legend as a “gangster” starts when he and his mother met: “ When my mother a Catholic schoolgirl from the south decided to marry my father, a Buddhist gangster from the North, her parents disowned her. This is in the photograph, though it is not visible to the eye. If it were, it would be a deep impression across the soft dirt of my grandparents’ courtyard. Her father chased her out of the house beating her with the same broom, she had used everyday of her life, from the time she could stand up and sweep until that very morning that she was cased away” (79). From the passage, the readers get a sense that the narrator is expressing the longing she feels for the gangster father that she used to know. The narrator views the father a person who does not follow the traditional conventions, thus she wants to be this gangster figure: “When I grow up I am going to be the gangster we are all looking for” (93). The gangster figure plays a role on the narrator identity because this figure makes her want to be a rebellious person who is independent. She is claiming some type of power being a gangster because she feels powerless due to her family struggles in America. Furthermore, by running away get to be this gangsta because she has freedom. The gangster legend also takes a toll on the father because when Ma calls Ba a gangster, he
demands to see the gangster as if he misses it within himself (89). Though he was gone because he was in the war and in re-education, his absence reinforces his gangster persona.
The three texts all in some way uses the forms of artwork, story talk and legends in their texts – Okubo drawings of her being in the camp shows the reality of what being a Japanese American during the time of war, Kingston’s Chinese stories and legends help the narrator come to terms of her identity being Chinese American, and Thuy’s stories about her gangsta father help the narrator get a grasp on what it like to not follow the traditional conventions of life and just be free. All of the three texts share a commonality, which is exploring the life of being Asian American.