I can still remember things my parents or friends said or did from the time I was a young child. And now I can tell how some of these actions have shaped who I am today. Likewise, author Maxine Hong Kingston reminisces and describes her youthful days and the process it took to figure out who she was. Kingston was told stories frequently by her mother, Brave Orchid, as she was growing up. The influence those “talk-stories” had on Kingston made her realize how powerful the tool of storytelling was. She could control what her audience’s sense of reality by what she said. Having gone through a period of silence in her childhood, Kingston is now eager to freely express herself and she does so in her unique arrangement of stories. This is the purpose of Maxine Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts—to summarize the path of her past that led her to her future.
Being the first generation to be born in America from her Chinese family, Maxine Hong Kingston struggles with balancing her family’s heritage and culture against American expectations—she feels pressure from all sides. Not only does she feel her race defines her, but she also feels oppressed due to the fact that she is a woman. Maxine wrote: "I’m not a bad girl,' I would scream. 'I'm not a bad girl. I'm not a bad girl.' I might as well have said, 'I'm not a girl"' (46). Sadly, Kingston felt like she was born with an unfair set back. When she was young she hoped and dreamed of overcoming the disadvantages of being female, and as she grew older she became even more determined to do so. At first, however, she was unsure about her true identity, and Maxine Kingston reveals in her collection of stories what has made her and we are allowed to see the effects of events during and even before her lifetime. Full of endearing anecdotes and intensely personal thoughts and elements, The Woman Warrior spares no details. Maxine Kingston is willing to share everything from musings about her physical deformities and the short comings of her personality to heated conflicts within her own family. Kingston even incorporates myth to represent the influence her background had on her. Maxine’s childhood fantasies of greatness let us see into her inner thoughts and wishes.
This composition promotes self confidence and independence. In the end Maxine Kingston had decided she never wanted to have to rely on a husband but instead would always remain self-sufficient. Fighting the natural assumption that she would inevitably become a submissive wife, Kingston is horrified to find out her parents are trying to marry her off to shady characters. She then promptly makes it clear to her family that she is a driven woman who is determined to make a place for herself through her career and leaves their household in order to avoid being married off. The Woman Warrior derives its title from Kingston’s desire to stand up for herself and do noble deeds on her own. She finds inspiration all around her: in the legends of Fa Mu Lan, her mother’s bravery, and her own personal strengths.
Her style is unique and therefore can be hard to follow at times, but is good for broadening your horizons with literature. Because she uses her personal experiences, stories about her family both past and present, as well as mythological tales it can be difficult for the reader to distinguish between what truly happened and her imagination. Maxine Kingston also uses some unusual terms in The Woman Warrior. For example, she uses the term “ghost” to mean restless spirits like we normally would, but Kingston also uses the word to refer to any non-Chinese American she encounters in her neighborhood. The Woman Warrior reads well as a novel and its assortment of short stories keep the reader well entertained. Though some of the material can be unpleasant, it is not graphic and is comparatively cleaner than other books in the senior compilation. I would recommend The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts to anyone interested in feminism, racial and cultural differences, unusual writing techniques, or the discovery of one’s individuality.
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