The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

The Woman Warrior was authored by Maxine Hong Kingston, a first generation Chinese immigrant, and published in 1976. This book can be understood in the historical context of the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and the 1949 Communist Takeover of China. The May Fourth Movement influenced a new wave of Chinese novels, many featuring a first-person point of view and themes of individualism and self-examination. This new literary and cultural movement led to a shift in attitude towards the education of women. In The Woman Warrior, Kingston’s mother Brave Orchid, decides to pursue a medical education which can be understood in this historical context. However, despite her progressive education, Kingston’s mother remained a traditionalist in many aspects of her life. The May Fourth Movement of 1919 also marked the emergence of the Chinese Communist Party. In “White Tigers” Kingston briefly touches the brutal treatment of her landowning, Chinese family members. Their letters, detailing the torture and execution of her relatives, further illustrate the contrast between her childhood tales and the reality of her life in America.As a whole, I believe the rich detail and shifts between fantastical descriptions of folklore and Kingston’s reality make the Woman Warrior interesting to read but ultimately difficult to comprehend without further analysis. The book is split into five chapters, each detailing an influence on Kingston’s life whether it be a Chinese legend told by her mother or an exaggerated account of her life in America. The first part, No Name Woman, recounts the tragic death of Kingston’s paternal aunt, who was driven to suicide by her “shaming” of her community and family by having a baby out of wedlock. The second, White Tigers, is a story about the female warrior Fa Mu Lan presumably told to Kingston as a child by her mother. Shaman, the third chapter, shifts from a story about Brave Orchid’s medical education and her ghost stories to her life in the United States.At the Western Palace focuses on Kinston’s maternal aunt Moon Orchid who is pushed to seek out her husband in America but ultimately fails to rekindle her marriage. The final part, a Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, is the most autobiographical, told from the first person point-of-view of Kingston.These powerful stories together illustrate the traditional role of women in Chinese society and Kingston’s struggle to find her own identity within those norms. The contrasting stories of Fa Mulan, her aunts, and her own life emphasize Kingston’s effort to find her own voice, both literally and figuratively. The novel’s content, as well as the passion with which Kingston writes, brings life to these stories, and ensures that they are powerfully alive on the page, making a lasting impression on the reader.

I’m ashamed. I read Maxine Hong Kingston’s celebrated book The Woman Warrior and felt nothing. Maybe it’s because I’m not a woman; maybe it’s because I couldn’t decipher the Chinese parables that make up much of the book; maybe it’s because it simply was not what I expected. I’d thought it was a memoir—and it is, to some extent—but it is filled with flights of Chinese fancy. I do think I gained some insights into Chinese culture, but what I saw made me not like her mother much at all, with her firmly rooted old-world Chinese ways. Of the five sections of the book, the one titled At the Western Palace was the most captivating. But it portrayed Kingston’s mother as a pushy, demanding woman, lording it over her sister. Not a pretty picture. And then the last section showed a childhood Kingston as a total, cruel bully. I got the message. She was a product of her mother and had fairly good intentions with her bullying and even learned from it. But by then, for me, it was too late. So I left the memoir feeling like there was something wrong with me for not getting the message, for not liking a book that was a bestseller and won great acclaim, for feeling like a racist because I did not like the Chinese ways painted in the book for us readers.

This book was difficult to get into. But about half way, it came together for me. This is The story of immigrant parents and their American born children. When the cultures are as different as Chinese and American, it’s easy to see how confusing this could be for a child. To survive in America you had to be tough and you had to do it all alone without the support of family, village or traditions, often not speaking English. This can easily be the story of any immigrant group trying to navigate life in America. Hopefully it inspired compassion in the reader.

As a student of literature, I have had to read Kingston's "No Name Woman" numerous times as it is widely anthologized. This story represents the first of five sections in "The Woman Warrior."Recently, when I got to develop my own directed study course in "hyphenated literature," I chose this book as part of the list because I remembered how much I enjoyed the aforementioned piece.I will put it like this: I am tremendously glad I read the book and feel it has enriched me as a professional reader. That being said, it is by no means a breezy beach read. It is very literary, and at times difficult. Nonetheless, this is an important book for those who wish to understand and embrace multiculturalism.Another point of interest concerning this book is, though it is listed as a memoir, it is also packed with fantasy, Chinese myth, and some well-blended fiction. The array of genres will help you to keep the pages turning...at least this was the case for me.Lastly, this is not "The Da Vinci Code" i.e. a pulse pounding #1 international best seller. Nevertheless, this is a story that clearly HAD to be told, and one that SHOULD be read.

as expected

As described

The Woman Warrior is one of the most common taught texts in undergraduate classes. It is a memoir, not a novel, but this line is blurred throughout the book, as Kingston's narrator often recedes into the background of the story, leaving the action to be told in third person. Kingston narrates a compelling account of her childhood as a Chinese-American girl by weaving together her personal history with her family's history, Chinese history, and Chinese myth.I bought this book because it was required reading for a class, but I would also recommend reading it for personal enjoyment. It is a well-written and compelling book.My book arrived in good condition and within the expected shipping time, although I received a different edition from the one in the picture.

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston dives deep into the cultural intersection of Chinese and Western culture. Told through old traditional tales and her own experiences, the book is insightful, passionate and ageless.

Wenn man über den anfang hinaus ist, kann man eigentlich gar nicht mehr aufhören zu lesen bis man damit fertig ist, die geschichte, die maxine hong kingston erzählt ist packend, interessant und stellenweise - wie ich fand - sogar witzig. das buch regt zum nachdenken an, aber eben nur, wenn man bereit ist, sein eigenes denken in frage zu stellen oder für eine weile hinter sich zu lassen, um in die geschichte vorbehaltslos eintauchen zu können!fazit: nicht das beste, was ich jemals gelesen habe, aber trotzdem ein sehr gutes buch, welches ich überhaupt nicht abgedroschen fand, obwohl ich zu dem thema schon mehrere bücher gelesen habe.