Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts 1976 could be termed a female version of henry roths call it sleep, a nonfictional counterpart of growing up, in which a personal memoir uses nearly every device of postwar fiction. Interpreting silence and voice in maxine hong kingstons the. The thesis aims at interpreting the themes of silence and voice in kingston s book, especially womens silence and voice. Get everything you need to know about the quiet girl in the woman warrior. In china your father had a sister who killed herself. For we too are simply ordinary people with a universe passing by us and through us. At the same time, the braiding of gender and ethnicity in these texts produces an unusually resonant doublevoiced discourse, one that upsets. The concept of silence has been associated with women for a long time so much so that it is often taken as an overtly gendered term. As a firstgeneration american, kingston had to learn how to live in two distinctly contrasting societies. Empowerment through mythological imaginings in woman. It was published in 1976 to great critical acclaim, winning the national book critics circle award for nonfiction. Kingston acknowledges the complexity of silence and speech by showing that the dual power of both actions to affirm or wound depends entirely on perspective.
She and other chinese girls feel ill at ease in english due to not hearing. Warrior 1975 and china men 1982, by maxine hong kingston, as contentious instances of gender interruption. Relyingheavilyonmichelfoucaults discussionsofmeaningmaking artifacts and cheryl glenns 2004 booklength work on silence, this essay places kingston in the context of poststructuralism while also emphasizing that. Silence as rhetorical choice in maxine hong kingstons uc press. Even her unlikely name, brave orchid, connotes the paradox of masculine courage in a delicate feminine flower.
Maxine hong kingston s the woman warrior and margaret atwoods the handmaids tale illustrate how women can transcend the socially expected, and often forced, silence of their dominant cultures by becoming champions of speech. Identity through silence points out that some things might be enhanced to show. In the end of woman warrior, her shy girl character finds reso lution as she breaks female silence and inherits an oral tradition that she carries on as a written. Interpreting silence and voice in maxine hong kingston s the. Kingston graduated from the university of california at berkeley. For kingston, writing the woman warrior is a cathartic and emotional experience, a form of therapy for herself and her family.
The woman warrior by maxine hong kingston essay 793 words 3 pages. In addition to being a canonical work, the woman warrior is considered a landmark in chineseamerican literature. Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts, invites readers into the life of one asian american writer. Silence could make it seem as though someone had never existed, as in the case of no name woman. In the context of chinese american representations particularly by maxine hong kingston which is the area of focus in this paper it assumes a significant role. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born. Maxine hong kingston long ago in china, knotmakers tied string into buttons and frogs, and rope into bell pulls. Kingston s book reveals the role of storytelling in the construction of ethnic and gendered identity as the author narrates. Shinn arizona state university maxine hong kingston is one of the many contemporary american novelists of noneuropean ethnicities and one of many women novelists who have found in mythology and folklore both stories and. We readers are introduced to the narrator, who we might assume is the author maxine hong kingston since the subtitle of the book calls itself a memoir. As a little girl, she came to america with her family. Maxine hong kingston explores her life as a chinese student in an american school where together with other chinese students, they form a linguistic minority and how they struggle to cope in school. When she moved to america, her biggest difficulty was speaking english. Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts is maxine hong kingston s first and most famous book.
The misery of silence revision in her illustrative essay, the misery of silence, maxine hong kingston talks about the culture shock that foreigners could experience, when moving to a new country. Maxine hong kingston 1940 axine hong kingston burst onto the literary scene in 1976 with an extra ordinary and innovative bookthe woman warrior. In the context of chinese american representations particularly by maxine hong kingston which is the area of. Kingston has written three novels and several works of nonfiction about the experiences of chinese americans. Hisaye yamamoto, maxine hong kingston, and joy kogewa.
Forming an identity through silence written in 1975, maxine hong kingston s autobiography, the woman warrior. M axine hong kingston, born maxine ting ting hong, is the third of eight children. Maxine hong kingston begins the woman warrior with the tale of her nameless aunt, a woman engulfed by defeating silence. The woman warrior by maxine hong kingston essay example. Maxine hong kingston humble independent school district. The narrator is the girl among ghosts, and she controls her story. Silence can be powerful and affirming to one person and simultaneously confusing and painful to another. The triumph of maxine hong kingston, frontiers, vol. For her own part, kingston decisively comes down on the side of valuing speech. The theme of the voiceless woman in the woman warrior. Maxine hong kingston is an internationallyrecognized contemporary chineseamerican writer, academic and activist whose writing has received critical acclaim for its original style of fusing fiction with nonfiction, and truth with imagination. In this paper i will argue that, silence is used in the woman warrior. Controversial enactments of gendercrossing in maxine hong.
Her body would stop reacting, and she would lose her voice. In this autobiographical work, kingston uses the stories of five unique. Kingston, who was born in california of chinese immigrant parents, uses. In some instances, the unwillingness to talk can lead to madness, as in the case of kingston s aunt, moon orchid. Talking about her past becomes her cure for silence, her method of achieving an individual voice and a personal place as a chineseamerican woman in society. You must not tell anyone, my mother said, what i am about to tell you. Written as a girls childhood experience, the woman warrior recounts the life experience of maxine hong kingston, a chinese american woman who was born in the united states and grew up in the chinatown in stockton, california.
Pdf interpreting silence, articulation, and resistance in. In the opening lines of no name woman, the first essay 1 in maxine hong kingston s memoir the woman warrior, the narrators mother issues a stern directive to her chineseamerican daughter. Maxine hong kingston we live with ghosts or spirits all around us, they are a sense of history that bonds all of us. The book blends autobiography with old chinese folktales the woman warrior won the national book critics circle award and was named one of time magazines top nonfiction books of the 1970s. Maxine hong kingston, the woman warrior, ethnic literature, chinese. In this context, silence is a creation of dissimilarities between american and chinese culture greatly affect students of the linguistic minority. Tonguetied is an anthology that gives voice to millions of people who, on a daily basis, are denied the opportunity to speak in their own language. Chineseamerican identity in maxine hong kingston s the woman warrior. In my thesis i examine how maxine hong kingston depicts a young girls tough search for selfidentity in her book the woman warrior. The feminist topos of imposed silence, distrust of received knowledge, and multivocality find ardent expression inthe woman warriorandchina men.
Finally an emperor outlawed this cruel knot, and the nobles could not order it anymore. Maxine hong kingston the misery of silence maxine hong kingston b. This paper firstly surveys how the work has instigated the pen warsin asian american literature, and makes a comparison with alice walkers the color purple. Interpreting silence and voice in maxine hong kingstons. Miseryofsilence maxinehongkingston themiseryofsilence. October 27, 1940 is a chinese american author and professor emerita at the university of california, berkeley, where she graduated with a ba in english in 1962.
This thesis explores the narrative strategies employed in maxine hong kingston s memoir, the woman warrior. When maxine was little, her mother, brave orchid, had silence in the woman warrior, by maxine hong kingston, captures readers with her own interpretation of what it was like to grow up as a female chinese american. If i had lived in china, i would have been an outlaw knotmaker. No name woman by maxine hong kingston you must not tell anyone, my mother said, what i am about to tell you. In the woman warrior, by maxine hong kingston, captures readers with her own interpretation of what it was like to grow up as a female chinese american. How femininity in chinese and american culture confused. Her parents were born in china but came to the united states in the 1920s and ran. In kingston s characterization, chinese people associate silence with weakness and insanity, and all of the evidence that kingston. Pdf interpreting silence, articulation, and resistance. Name woman is her transformation of a silence into voice. Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts is a book written by chinese american author maxine hong kingston and published by alfred a. In her essay no name woman, maxine hong kingstons mother bluntly tells her a family secret. Kingston busts out her famous pair of questions in paragraph 12 of.
Maxine hong kingston is widely recognized as one of the most important chinese american female writers in the late twentieth century. In her illustrative essay, the misery of silence, maxine. An example of this is in the woman warrior by maxine hong kingston, which is a novel filled with chinese cultural tradition. Many of these immigrants internalize this battle into silence. Hesitantly, with a quiet and wavering voice, i said. Silence as rhetorical choice in maxine hong kingston s the woman warrior authors. At the same time, the braiding of gender and ethnicity in these texts produces an unusually. Pdf interpreting silence, articulation, and resistance in maxine. There was one knot so complicated that it blinded the knotmaker. Department of english and modern european languages. These stories are extremely important to cofer and stone. The quiet girl character analysis in the woman warrior litcharts. Written in 1975, maxine hong kingstons autobiography, the woman warrior.
Of the three authors analyzed in this book, maxine hong kingston most openly reveals her feminist leanings. The woman warrior hybrid identity english literature essay. Hisaye yamamoto, maxine hong kingston, joy kogawa cornell university press, 1993. Taking maxine hong kingstons controversial book the. Maxine explains to us how she feared silence and how she struggles to come to speech so she wont end up like her two aunts. The silence kingston expresses in english is out of fear of hearing her voice in a language that she has not yet claimed completely as her own. Maxine hong kingston begins her search for a personal identity with the story of an aunt, to whom this first chapters title refers. Girlhood among ghosts four levels summary bba notes. Maxine hong kingston reveals to the reader a different side to family. Maxine hong kingston essay example for students 506. History, memoir, and fiction in maxine hong kingston s the fifth book of. In her seminal work, the woman warrior,1 maxine hong kingston explores this. Interpreting silence, articulation, and resistance in maxine hong kingstons the woman warrior.
Singing silence on the planet with maxine hong kingston s the woman warrior yuko yaguchi abstract kingston s the woman warrior, although highly controversial, holds an exceptional seat of canon in asian american literature. Firstperson accounts by amy tan, sherman alexie, bell hooks, richard rodriguez, maxine hong kingston, and many other authors open windows into the lives of linguistic minority students and their experience in coping in school and beyond. Maxine hong kingston, china men axine hong kingston s story in china men about the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the united states is filled with both pride and a keen sense of deprivation. This paper will take particular interest in three parallels between the two texts. Rabines suggestion that neither title maintains traditional. Kingston takes her readers on a journey into the life of struggling chinese americans. She shows us how difficult it was to fit into two different societies. University of california press on behalf of the international society for the history of rhetoric stable url. In kingstons story the chinese immigrants see white americans as. Ironically, the first thing we read is kingston s mothers warning kingston, you must not tell anyone. Kingston bullies her into talking by calling her a sissygirl and pinching her cheek.
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