Identity In Woman Warrior

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In the memoir Woman Warrior, Kingston presents two opposing cultures;, the Chinese culture valuing silence and conformity, and the American culture valuing confidence and individuality. Maxine’s character is placed in overlapping cultures to illustrate the struggle of a person in her position trying to identify with a single cultures and attempting to change their identity in order to belong find in a community. Kingston enlightens the reader on how this given person’s struggle will end once they discover their own unique culture and identity. Throughout the memoir, two clearly opposing cultures present themselves in the way they view silence. The first of these two cultures is her family’s Chinese tradition. As Maxine is speaking her mind, her mother pushes her away by saying “‘I can’t stand this whispering… I wish you …show more content…
After recalling the secrecy of her family, she notes her struggle to side with a single culture, “sometime I hated the ghosts for not letting us talk; sometimes I hated the secrecy of the chinese” (183). ‘Sometimes’ suggests that her feelings vary under different circumstances. She does not take sides depending on her views because she is constantly changing her identity so she can fit into both cultures. While she tries embracing the values of both her family and her country, she is actually is not fitting into either. After she tries acting with American values at her home, Maxine is silenced but feels “something alive and tearing at [her] throat” (200). Something ‘alive’ has a purpose, there is something deep inside struggling to break through and gain a voice, although the voice has been caught in the wrong setting. Maxine cannot express herself properly and feels misunderstood because she does not entirely belong in a single community. She is caught between the two cultures, unable to fit into either and yet struggling to embrace

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She did not accept the Chinese view of women, which is what motivated her to be the strong, woman she envisioned herself to be; the Woman Warrior. Kingston struggles with fear and envy when she learns about the slave girl that her mother bought; she develops the fear she, too, will be sold to China by her parents (Cheung 116). At the same time, she envies the slave girl…

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the suppression of one’s feelings. On the other hand, Chinese culture values allegiance to familial and conventional rules and expectations, which forces individuals to stay silent to protect their honor and to adhere to etiquette. In the memoir Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, Maxine, a girl raised according to Chinese conventions but growing up in an American world, must reconcile the extreme differences between the two worlds and develop a coherent sense of self. Kingston recounts how Maxine…

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