Blog 6: The Woman Warrior

The excerpt “No Name Woman” from Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel, The Woman Warrior, shows a lot of connections to gender issues and the struggles faced specifically by Chinese women. Through the narration we learn about the life of Kingston’s aunt, her struggles, and the lasting affect her life had on Kingston’s family, while also detecting the pressures and somewhat oppressive conditions under which she lived as a woman at the time.

  In reading the story of Kingston’s aunt, readers clearly can pick up on the patriarchal nature and values that were instilled in the culture at the time. It seemed the women had many more standards and rules to abide by, but the men didn’t have the same expectations or repercussions. Because it was thought that Kingston’s aunt had become pregnant with another man’s child at her own will, she was cast aside as an outsider for seeming to act on her desires and disobeying cultural expectations and values. I think this shows how the female identity was linked to the family name and cultural traditions, and was really blurred together with these two elements, thus leaving women with little ability to be individuals with their own assertive control and expressiveness. For example, Kingston wrote, “The work of preservation demands that the feelings playing about in one’s guts not be turned into action” (Kingston, 1510). In many ways it seems they were solely defined by their relationships to others, and roles they held and were expected of, leaving little room to be an unconfined, expressive individual. As it was written in the story, “The villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them” (Kingston, 1513).

I think this story further caused Kingston to question her own identity as both a woman and as a first generation Chinese American, as well. For she was likely conflicted by the traditional Chinese culture, and her own American culture, and the story of her aunt was likely told to her to serve as a lesson and reminder to live up to these ideas and traditions of her family. For, if her aunt’s actions were done by her own choices, she represented the fate of a would-be outcast woman who strayed too far from the expectations of society. With that being said, I think Kingston’s act of bringing this story to light was also an act of calling this culture and society into question, as she had written that she had participated in her aunt’s punishment, and kept silent for too long. I think the timing of the publication is especially telling, given that her novel was published during the second wave feminist movement.

I find this very relatable to today, as I think this is linked very closely to some of the ideas in our own patriarchal society. There’s definitely still inequalities between men and women today, and in many cases, society continues to chastise and look down upon many women who deviate from the norms and expectations that society has of women. However, society remains much more lax when it comes to men and the expectations of them. Similarly, such sentiments were echoed in the story when Kingston wrote, “They expected her along to keep the traditional ways, which her brothers, now among the barbarians, could fumble without detection.” (Kingston, 1510).