no name woman literary analysis essay

The Woman Warrior

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Analysis of Main Topics Presented in No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston

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Published: Dec 3, 2020

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Works Cited

Hong, M. H. (1976). The woman warrior: Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts. Vintage.
Hong, M. H. (1997). The warrior heroine in Asian American culture. In K. Fung (Ed.), Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy (pp. 168-183). Guilford Press.
Hsu, R. Y. (1989). Maxine Hong Kingston's the woman warrior: A casebook. Oxford University Press.
Jussawalla, F., & Gwynn, R. S. (1994). Literature: A pocket anthology (3rd ed.). Longman.
Krumholz, L. R. (1983). Autobiographical strategies: Subjectivity and voice in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. MELUS, 10(4), 3-13.
Lim, S. H. (2009). Maxine Hong Kingston's the woman warrior: A challenge to traditional criticism. Routledge.
Liu, A. Y. (1993). Voices of the self: A study of language competence. SUNY Press.
Lohafer, S. (1998). Reading for the plot: Design and intention in narrative. University of Massachusetts Press.
Pai, H. H. (1989). Maxine Hong Kingston. Twayne Publishers.
Wang, Q. (2015). Gendered embodiments and diasporic identity in Maxine Hong Kingston's the woman warrior. Feminist Studies, 41(3), 590-612.

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The Woman Warrior

by Maxine Kingston

The woman warrior summary and analysis of chapter 1: no name woman.

The book is a collection of Maxine Hong Kingston's memoirs, so it is technically a work of nonfiction. But the author is careful never to mention her name in the narrative. This is presumably because the book, while grounded in truth, does not maintain a clear boundary between reality and fantasy. In light of these facts, we shall call the narrator of this book "the narrator," not "Hong Kingston," reserving the latter name for the author.

The book begins with the voice of the narrator’s mother saying, “You must not tell anyone…” She tells her daughter a dark family secret; in China, her husband’s sister drowned herself in their well. After that, the family kept secret not only the suicide, but also the sister-in-law’s very existence. She goes on to recount this sister’s birth. In 1924, her father, husband, and brothers-in-law left to seek fortune in California, “the Gold Mountain.” Like most of the men in their village, they sought money elsewhere because the village crops were suffering. The mother stayed behind with the other women, living with her sister-in-law. Some time later, she noticed that her sister-in-law was pregnant. Neither she nor anyone else in the village discussed it; the sister-in-law’s husband had been gone for years, so her pregnancy was disgraceful to the village.

On the night that the sister-in-law was to give birth, the villagers stormed their house, dressed to scare. After slaughtering the animals, they swarmed the house and destroyed everything they could find. They stole what they had not ruined before leaving. That night, the sister-in-law gave birth amid the mess from the raid. The next morning, the narrator’s mother found her and her newborn baby drowned in the family well. At the end of the story, we learn its intended moral. The mother tells her daughter, “Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don’t humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful.” She is warning her daughter against promiscuity and against shaming her family.

Now we hear the narrator’s voice. She explains that her mother usually invoked stories from her homeland of China to teach life lessons. The narrator and her generation, by contrast, were first-generation Chinese-Americans. They had to navigate two cultures in order to form a unique identity. Because the narrator is forbidden to ask about her aunt, she fills in the gaps in the story with her imagination. In her first version of the story, she says her aunt was a rape victim because “women in the old China did not choose [with whom to have sex].” She vilifies not only the rapist but all the village men because, she asserts, they victimized women as a rule: “The other man was not, after all, much different from her husband. They both gave orders; she followed. ‘If you tell your family, I’ll beat you. I’ll kill you. Be here again next week.” To make matters worse, the aunt would not have been able to hide from her rapist because the village was small; he may have been a vendor she had to visit daily. Her fear must have been constant and inescapable. The narrator considers the ways in which Chinese culture alienates those who have erred. Her own parents used to talk about an “outcast table,” where family members who had shamed the family had to eat alone.

The narrator puts aside her rape theory to imagine her aunt as a freely sexual woman, who groomed herself carefully in order to attract attention from men. She pictures her aunt drawing stares from all the village men, longing for a lover, and dying in silence to protect her baby’s father. Her actions would have threatened the village’s tradition of pairing couples from birth in order to ensure stability and conformity. The aunt’s adultery was a deviation, but it was considered “a crime” because the village was going through hard times. By giving birth to an illegitimate child—an outcast—the aunt had robbed the village of a legitimate person who would grow up to “feed the old and the dead” and “look after the family.”

The narrator imagines the end of her aunt’s life. Her family cursed her after the raid, yelling, “Ghost! Dead ghost! Ghost! You’ve never been born.” She gave birth alone in a pigsty, her newborn child a “little ghost,” an outcast like its mother. The protagonist explains that her aunt showed her child love and mercy by drowning it along with her. She could have simply abandoned her baby, but “mothers who love their children take them along.” The aunt knew that her child would grow up to be a pariah and wanted to spare it the shame that had killed her, made her a ghost, even before she died. Moreover, the baby was probably a girl. Had it been a boy, the preferred sex, her aunt might have had hope for its future and left it in the care of the village.

The narrator notes that by following her mother’s orders never to mention her aunt, she has been complicit in her aunt’s unfair punishment. She says that even in the ghost world, her aunt must be an outcast. She pictures her lonely, scrounging leftover offerings that other ghosts’ relatives leave them. To the narrator, writing about her aunt is a kind of penance for participating in her continuing castigation. Sometimes she fears that her aunt’s ghost is malevolent, striving to harm her for exposing her shame to readers.

“No Name Woman” introduces us to some of the book’s major themes. The first of these is silence. With the opening words of the book, “You must not tell anyone.” the narrator’s mother inducts her into a long tradition of keeping things secret. As the narrator explains, keeping silence is not passive; it can involve willing oneself to forget something or someone. Because the narrator does as she is told and keeps the silence about her aunt, she too shames her aunt and denies her the right to be remembered. She feels so complicit just for keeping the silence that she is afraid her aunt’s ghost wants to harm her. In the book’s final chapter, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe,” we see just how much the code of silence torments the narrator; she takes out her frustration by taunting and assaulting a reticent classmate.

The second theme Hong Kingston introduces in “No Name Woman” is that of female power. In one sense the aunt is a powerless character, so powerless that she is given no name and no right to have existed. In another sense, she is too powerful to be named or remembered. Besides, as a woman, the aunt had the biological power to bring a baby into the world, and she had the social power to let her pregnancy affect the whole village. The villagers considered her baby not only an annoyance but an actual threat to their security. In hard times, this illegitimate “ghost” would spend its life as a dead weight, draining their resources and disturbing their traditions. The narrator explains that in the village community, individual power and not just female power frightened the villagers: “The villagers punished [the aunt] for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them.”

No one knows the power of giving birth better than the narrator’s mother, who has given birth to eight children as well as delivered countless others. She tells her daughter not to get pregnant out of wedlock and end up a “ghost” like her aunt. The narrator tells us, “Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fits in solid America.” First-generation Chinese-Americans, she says, must try to incorporate their parents’ “old Chinese” wisdom into their American lives. Despite the need for translation between generations, the narrator likely did not have to do much to apply her aunt’s story to her own life. It would have been the mid-1950s when her mother told her the story, a time before second-wave feminism, when “old Chinese” and American views on pregnancy out of wedlock were actually not so different from today’s American society.

The villagers never tried to find the man who got the aunt pregnant. The narrator even suggests that he helped raid her house. The double standard works in both countries. Whereas men are expected to seek adventure and throw tradition to the wind, women are expected to stay home and keep tradition: “The heavy, deep-rooted women were to maintain the past against the flood, safe for returning.” Hong Kingston uses imagery of women like trees holding strong against a flood of modernization. They are treated as the weaker sex but are expected to be the ones with moral strength.

The word “ghost” has several different meanings in the narrative. A ghost can be a disembodied spirit, an outcast, a non-Chinese person, or the memory of a person who died. In America , ghosts are non-Chinese people, “White Ghosts” or the slightly less intimidating “Black Ghosts.” They are ghosts to the immigrant Chinese people because their customs are hard to understand. In America, memories of the dead can also haunt people, such as Brave Orchid ’s first two children, “no name” aunt, and later, Moon Orchid . In China, all kinds of ghosts are abundant. The narrator explains, “In the village structure, spirits shimmered among the live creatures.” “No name” aunt is a ghost during her lifetime because she is an outcast. The narrator claims that her aunt’s ghost—her spirit—is haunting her. By this, she can mean either her aunt’s spirit or simply the memory of her.

The narrator does not usually cast ghosts in a positive light, and she sets this tone when she talks about her aunt’s ghost. She supposes it is angry with her for breaking the silence and exposing her shame for all to see. The fact that the narrator’s family tries so hard to forget the aunt proves that her ghost torments them, too. They keep her spirit away by continually denying that she ever existed. That ghosts can sometimes be vengeful does not mean that they are not helpful. The narrator calls her aunt “my forerunner” and explains, “Unless I see her life branching into mine, she gives me no ancestral help.” The narrator is not so much afraid of her aunt’s ghost as she is reverent of it. She defends her aunt for at least escaping, if not taking a stand against, the sexist traditions that took away her right to her identity.

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The Woman Warrior Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Woman Warrior is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The narrator constantly dearches for the sign of a bird.

What is the story of the crane boxer?

In the chapter, White Tigers, the narrator tells a story about the woman who invented white crane boxing. Legend says that the woman was a fighter, trained by “an order of fighting monks.” One morning, she tried to use her fighting pole to move a...

Describe a meal scene.

In the novel, Brave Orchid is determined to make her children brave eaters. In order to do this, she would keep serving them the same piece of food meal after meal until they ate it.

Study Guide for The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior study guide contains a biography of Maxine Kingston, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior Summary
Character List

Essays for The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Woman Warrior by Maxine Kingston.

Becoming a Warrior Amidst Cultural Confusion
The Past and the Present in Kingston's "Woman Warrior" and Sylvia Plath's Poetry
Breaking the Silence
The Woman Warrior in "Shaman" and "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens"
The Problem With Legacies: Analysis of Chapter One, The Warrior Woman

Lesson Plan for The Woman Warrior

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to The Woman Warrior
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
The Woman Warrior Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Woman Warrior

Introduction
Plot summary
Language and narrative voice

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The Woman Warrior: Analysis Of No Name Woman

Category Literature
Subcategory Book
Topic The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior: Memoir of Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir written by Chinese-American author Maxine Hong Kingston that focuses on female characters from various backgrounds, tales, and traditions. The events of the book unfold in a non-chronological order, with stories taking place either in China or America. Despite the distance and the two opposing lands, The Woman Warrior is Kingston’s own biographic tale that addresses her experience as a hyphenated Chinese-American identity as she grows up in America. It portrays a female coming of age story against the backdrop of the misogyny of the Chinese heritage (Ahokas 106)

In the first chapter of the memoir that is titled No Name Woman, Kingston narrates the unfortunate life and death of her father’s youngest sister whose existence was erased upon being impregnated by a man who was not her husband and giving birth to illegitimate child. After giving birth to her child in a pigsty, she drowned herself in the village’s well together with her new-born baby. This story is actually told by her mother who in return warns her not to tell it to anybody else and to pretend as if she has never heard of it before and to never speak of her aunt especially in the presence of her father.

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In many ways, the story of her aunt has several underlying meanings and motifs that echo throughout the whole narrative of this memoir. It acts as a preface for Kingston’s memoir, an anecdote.

Firstly, aligning the context with the title, one of the most prominent significance of her aunt’s story towards the whole text is the undoubted strength of woman as a fighter and a lover—a true warrior in a world with a misogynistic backdrop. In a world where females are silenced and victimized, her aunt took upon her own self to decide her own fate—committing suicide. Despite its morbidity, Kingston’s aunt’s power of deciding her own fate echoes throughout the text. In the next mythical-woven chapter The White Tiger, Kingston merges her voice with Mulan’s—a female warrior from China who trains for years to finally take upon her father’s position as a general in war and chooses to return home as a wife and mother after fulfilling her filial duties—fighting as a warrior and returning home as a lover. The warrior figure is also incorporated into Shaman, a chapter that centres upon Kingston’s mother, Brave Orchid as upon herself to revenge the whole village, but taking her beloved child with her. Brave Orchid confronting the sitting ghost, and Kingston confronting her mom, her aunt confront.

Another crucial preoccupation that is asserted throughout the text is the invention of the author’s self. Through the talk stories, she “remomerates and reconstructs . . . [her] child’s and later [her] teenager’s and adult woman’s yearnings, hopes, dreams.” (Suciu 5) From someone whose morals and achievements are based off of talk stories ranging from cultural myths or historical accounts, Kingston in the end accepts herself as a fully grown, complete individual. The significance of this with the opening chapter is that instead of just retelling another talk story, she reimagines and reinvents the life of her aunt. Through the little details of her infidelity, she conjures up multiple perspectives and fictional possibilities of what could have actually happened to her aunt.

The story of her aunt starts off with the descriptive accounts of her mother and later followed by her own interpretations and reimaginations. This structure is actually parallel to the whole context of her memoir. The memoir starts off with talk stories— from the tale of the supposedly non-existent aunt to the mythical tale of the female warrior Fa Mulan who disguises herself as a man to carry out her filial duties towards her father. The next part is another talk story focusing on her mother, Brave Orchid and her years as a medical student and practitioner in China. Even in the following chapter where the story focuses on Moon Orchid and her unsuccessful attempt in taking her Americanized husband, Kingston retells this story as heard from her brother.

However, in most part of the last chapter, Kingston tells her own story. Kingston progresses from “rewrit[ing] her mother’s talk stories” (Bolaki 39) to writing her own.

Not only she illustrates her aunt as a rebellious figure, her very action of immortalizing her aunt’s tale and existence onto paper is an act of rebellion itself. Through her imaginative rebirthing of her aunt, Kingston betrays her mother, her family, and her Chinese tradition (Johnston 139) that imposes silence.

In the first chapter of the memoir, she highlights the toxic tradition of silence that is practised by the Chinese people. Upon telling Kingston the story of her aunt, Kingston’s mother made it clear how she had noticed the baby bump on her aunt’s stomach but proceeded to pretend as if it was nothing. The villagers as well, considering that there were no strangers among them and that they are closely there must have seen her body growing over the month but “[n]o one said anything.” Surprisingly, it never occurred among any of them to actually ask or to seek for the truth. What harm is there in asking?

Unlike Kingston who tells the story of her aunt as a means of giving justice, Kingston’s mother tells this story to her as a means of caution. However, to Kingston’s claim, it is done out of necessity as the story of her aunt serves as a warning to teenage Kingston who had just started to menstruate. If Kingston were to engage in the game of silence and pretend, she too would have participated in the family’s life-long punishment towards the aunt.

Her rebellion also develops gradually. When she first heard the story of her aunt, she “cannot ask” (Kingston 9) what her aunt was wearing despite her curiosity because it would mean breaking the silence. However, in the last chapter, she eventually speaks out to her mother about the many things that she has always wanted to ask and to clarify. This is another proof that

Kingston was also confronting and breaking harmful stereotypes in (Ahokas 104)

Lastly, the story of her aunt highlights how the foreign Chinese culture still holds her feet within the familiar American soil.

With such a strong opening chapter, Kingston deliberately shows her stance that flows effortlessly until the end. She rebelled throughout her writings, doing what she can to provide justice for those faced with injustice and to provide voice for those who are unheard. The Woman Warrior’s first chapter clearly provides a foreground for the entire content of the book—that is of a strong female character who will rebel and fight against these written or unwritten rules that traditions are imposing on women. Kingston’s rebellious nature runs a free course throughout the whole text. She takes up this huge treacherous act upon her back and carries it as a responsibility. Deliberately breaking the silence of her aunt, she fulfils her commitment as a writer and as a fighter who at the same time, strives as a lover who celebrates the heritage of her culture regardless of its perfection.

Works Cited

Bolaki, Stella. “‘It Translated Well’: The Promise and the Perils of Translation in Maxine Hong Kingston’s ‘The Woman Warrior.’” MELUS, vol. 34, no. 4, 2009, pp. 39–60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20618099.
Johnston, Sue Ann. ‘Empowerment Through Mythological Imaginings in Woman Warrior.’ Biography, vol. 16 no. 2, 1993, p. 136-146. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/bio.2010.0369.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. New York: Vintage International, 1976.
LI, DAVID LEIWEI. “The Naming of a Chinese American ‘I’: Cross-Cultural Sign/Ifications in ‘The Woman Warrior.’” Criticism, vol. 30, no. 4, 1988, pp. 497–515. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23112091.
Miller, Margaret. ‘Threads of Identity in Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior.’ Biography, vol. 6 no. 1, 1983, p. 13-33. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/bio.2010.0678
Suciu, Andreia Irina: Voices and voicing in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The woman warrior. Americana: E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary, (10) 1. (2014)

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She Has Never Been Born: Textual Crypts in “No Name Woman”

Written By Jared Lynch

In the introduction to her book Gothic Hauntings: Melancholy Crypts and Textual Ghosts , Christine Berthin discusses the findings of French psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok. They explain that when haunting is transgenerational, it “takes the shape of a secret transmitted within a family or a community without being stated because it is associated with repressed guilt, shame or is the result of a trauma that has not been worked through” (4). When the ghost is transferred, it becomes “a lost object to the unconscious of the child, the living subject or ‘phantom carrier’” (4). This transgenerational concept of haunting is evident in Maxine Hong Kingston’s chilling essay “No Name Woman” in which Kingston learns from her mother that her father had a sister who had committed suicide after bringing shame to her family. Kingston’s mother tells her, “‘We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born’” (2704). This transference of the No Name Woman’s story from mother to daughter marks the inheritance and continuation of a repressed specter, and Kingston becomes a “phantom carrier.”

Kingston’s aunt became pregnant, despite the fact that her husband had been gone for years. Her actions disrupted tradition and brought shame to her family who, disgraced by her infidelities, dismissed her existence entirely. In their minds she was already dead, and they said to her, “You’ve killed us. Ghost! Dead ghost! Ghost! You’ve never been born” (2710). Her family denied her presence, but they kept her, forcing her to take meals at the “out-cast” table where “the Chinese family…hung on to the offenders and fed them leftovers” (2707). Throughout the remainder of her life she was a walking, breathing ghost, despite the presence of the life growing inside her. On the night the child was to be born, the villagers raided the house and slaughtered their stock, smearing the blood of the animals on the doors and walls. Kingston’s mother reflects, “‘We stood together in the middle of our house…and looked straight ahead’” (2705). Later that night, after the villagers had left, her aunt gave birth to the child in the pigsty. The next morning Kingston’s mother discovered the bodies of her aunt and her child in the bottom of the family well. She tells Kingston, “‘Don’t let your father know I told you. He denies her’” (2705). After her death the No Name Woman loses her placement in the physical world entirely, until she inherits a “phantom carrier.”

The author perpetuates this concept of haunting by internalizing and embodying the spirit in her essay. The spirit is housed in the pages, and through reading “No Name Woman,” the reader also becomes a “phantom carrier,” continuing the existence of the ghost. Berthin writes, “the phantom, or unconsciously inherited secret, lodged in the ego of a subject or protagonist as in a crypt, remains untold but distorts the text of the ‘phantom carrier’s’ life with alternative and lateral meanings” (5). The physicality of the essay provides a crypt for the phantom to inhabit. She is a physical entity once again that cannot be ignored, incarcerated in a cyclical redundancy of resurgence, truly embodying the essence of haunting and resurfaced repression.

In her life, Kingston’s aunt marked a disruption in the linearity of her family’s timeline, and, after her suicide, they drove away her memory, refusing her a home even in death. Kingston writes that her aunt’s ghost is “drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her” (2712). The disruption has surfaced, and the reader participates in continuing the resurfacing of the No Name Woman. Through inhabiting the essay, the ghost wanders across the retelling of events in her life that led to her sorrowful death. The author, the words, and the reader provide her with life in a melancholy posthumous existence. Kingston again acknowledges her presence at the end of the essay writing, “I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her, and she was a spite suicide” (2712). Although the author has provided the ghost with physicality, and therefore empowered her, she has forced the No Name Woman to reside in eternal torment, where she continues to be a “spite suicide” until the physicality of her crypt is destroyed, and the words are no more, or until there are no more eyes to read the words, never drifting far from her watery grave.

Works Cited

Berthin, Christine. Gothic Hauntings: Melancholy Crypts and Textual Ghosts. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. “No Name Woman.” From The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976). The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vol. E. 5th ed . Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 2704-12. Print.

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No Name Woman Essay Summary By Maxine Hong Kingston’s

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston's

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Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir “The Woman Warrior” was released in 1976. “No Name Woman,” one of the book’s most notable chapters, tells the tale of Kingston’s aunt, who was shunned and removed from the family history because of what was thought to be an act of adultery in her Chinese town.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- In “No Name Woman,” Kingston investigates issues relating to gender, cultural identity, and the impact of silence. As Kingston’s mother tells her the tale of her unnamed aunt at the beginning of the chapter, she warns her not to divulge the woman’s existence to anybody.

The unidentified aunt, often known as “No Name Woman,” is portrayed as an enigmatic character whose acts go against the norms and expectations that are traditionally placed on Chinese women.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- According to the tale, No Name Woman gets pregnant when her husband is gone, which led many to believe that she had an extramarital relationship. The town executes a harsh penalty by plundering and destroying her family’s home because of rigid cultural norms and a desire to avoid social embarrassment. No Name Woman is ultimately pushed to kill herself and her unborn child.

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No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Through this story, Kingston explores how her community’s silence and the weight of cultural expectations affect her. She muses on the significance of No Name Woman’s tale, which serves as a metaphor for the perils of breaking social conventions and the effects of residing in a society that places a premium on reputation.

Kingston also explores her own Chinese-American identity and the tensions she feels between her culture and the individualistic norms of American society. Kingston aims to recover her aunt’s voice and shed light on the oppressive forces that silenced her by uncovering the tale of her forgotten aunt.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- In “No Name Woman,” Kingston uses vivid and lyrical language to generate empathy in the reader and to portray the emotional impact of her aunt’s narrative.

The chapter offers a compelling examination of the difficulties associated with forming a cultural identity, the predicament of oppressed women, and the significance of recovering individual and social histories.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Overall, “No Name Woman” is an important chapter in “The Woman Warrior” that explores issues related to gender, cultural identity, and the negative effects of silence. Kingston’s examination of her aunt’s narrative questions prevailing societal conventions and urges readers to consider the power relationships that influence and limit women’s lives.

AboutMaxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston is a highly acclaimed Chinese-American writer and activist. She was born on October 27, 1940, in Stockton, California. Kingston’s works explore themes of cultural identity, gender, and the immigrant experience, often drawing upon her Chinese heritage and her own experiences growing up in a Chinese-American household.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- One of her most renowned works is “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,” published in 1976. This memoir, which blends autobiography with folklore and mythology, became a bestseller and received critical acclaim for its exploration of the Chinese-American experience and the challenges faced by women within that context.

Maxine Hong Kingston has also written other notable books, including “China Men” (1980), a companion volume to “The Woman Warrior” that focuses on the experiences of Chinese-American men in the United States, and “Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book” (1989), a novel set in the 1960s countercultural movement.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Throughout her career, Kingston has received numerous awards and honors for her literary contributions. She has been recognized with the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the National Medal of Arts, among others. Her works have had a significant impact on Asian-American literature and feminist discourse, as she tackles issues of cultural heritage, identity, and gender in a compelling and thought-provoking manner.

In addition to her writing, Maxine Hong Kingston has been an active advocate for social justice and human rights. She has been involved in various activism movements, including the anti-war movement and feminist causes.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Maxine Hong Kingston’s works continue to be studied and celebrated for their profound insights into the complexities of cultural identity, gender, and the immigrant experience. Her literary contributions have left a lasting impact on the literary world and have opened up conversations about diverse voices and the intersectionality of identity.

“No Name Woman” is a compelling and thought-provoking chapter in Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir, “The Woman Warrior.” Through the retelling of her forgotten aunt’s story, Kingston delves into complex themes of gender, cultural identity, and the power of silence. The chapter serves as a powerful critique of societal expectations and the oppressive forces that silence women’s voices.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- By shedding light on her aunt’s tragic fate and the consequences of deviating from cultural norms, Kingston challenges traditional values and invites readers to question the power dynamics that shape women’s lives. Through vivid and evocative language, she captures the emotional impact of her aunt’s story and creates a sense of empathy in the reader.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Furthermore, “No Name Woman” also explores Kingston’s own journey of reconciling her Chinese heritage with the individualistic values of American society. It highlights the conflicts and tensions she experiences in navigating her cultural identity, and it serves as a catalyst for her to reclaim her aunt’s voice and history.

No Name Woman Essay By Maxine Hong Kingston’s- Overall, “No Name Woman” is a poignant chapter that resonates with readers and encourages reflection on issues of gender, cultural expectations, and the importance of reclaiming silenced narratives. Kingston’s memoir is a powerful testament to the significance of personal and collective histories, and it prompts us to consider the impact of cultural forces on individual lives.

Q: What is the significance of the title “No Name Woman”?

A: The title “No Name Woman” emphasizes the erasure and silencing of Kingston’s aunt from her family’s history and from society at large. By denying her a name, she is stripped of her individual identity and reduced to a symbol of shame and secrecy. The title also highlights the anonymity and invisibility that many women in patriarchal societies face when their actions challenge societal expectations.

Q: How does “No Name Woman” reflect the theme of cultural identity?

A: “No Name Woman” explores the complexities of cultural identity through the lens of Kingston’s Chinese-American heritage. The story of her aunt serves as a reminder of the cultural norms and expectations that shape the lives of Chinese women, contrasting with the individualistic values of American society. Kingston grapples with the conflicts and tensions between these two cultural identities, seeking to reconcile them and find her own voice.

Q: What is the role of silence in “No Name Woman”?

A: Silence plays a significant role in “No Name Woman” as it represents both the power of cultural norms and the suppression of women’s voices. The secrecy and silence surrounding Kingston’s aunt’s story perpetuate the cycle of shame and erasure, ultimately leading to her tragic fate. Through her writing, Kingston challenges the oppressive nature of silence and seeks to give voice to the silenced women in her family and culture.

Q: How does “No Name Woman” relate to broader feminist themes?

A: “No Name Woman” addresses feminist themes by examining the limitations and expectations placed on women in patriarchal societies. It highlights the double standards and oppressive practices that deny women autonomy and subject them to harsh judgments and punishments. Kingston’s exploration of her aunt’s story serves as a call to challenge and dismantle these gendered power dynamics and to reclaim women’s voices and histories.

Q: What impact does “No Name Woman” have on the reader?

A: “No Name Woman” leaves a profound impact on the reader by eliciting empathy, provoking reflection, and raising awareness of the injustices faced by silenced women. The chapter prompts readers to question societal norms and power structures, and it encourages a deeper understanding of the complexities of cultural identity and gender dynamics. Ultimately, it inspires readers to consider the importance of reclaiming silenced narratives and amplifying marginalized voices.

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Rebellion in “No Name Woman” by Maxine Kingston Essay

The story of a woman with no name is supposed to be kept secret; the very fact that this story is related in a published memoir is a rebellious act. A powerful beginning, the “No Name Woman” mocks all attempts to silence the voices of women who rebelled – either passively or actively – against the sadistic patriarchal Chinese society of the 1930s that subjugated them. Rethinking and remastering her mother’s talk-stories, the author bears witness to the oppression of women’s bodies, minds, and spirits that they managed to withstand.

Bodily oppression is probably the easiest and most obvious means of subjugation a society can practice, yet the author portrays a brave and self-defying response from the No Name Woman. As a woman reconsidering the story of her aunt, she creates fantasies depicting whatever could possibly happen to her aunt, what she had suffered for and why. In one such fantasy, the author is creating an image of rape: “The other man was not, after all, much different from her husband. They both gave orders…” (Kingston 26). Such imagery and the wording serves to represent the lack of control over their bodies which were regarded as sources of physical pleasure and machines for producing children. The uncontrollability is also evident in other fantasies where the woman is in pain from labor, starvation or beatings. However, in a more optimistic fantasy involving the unnamed woman’s affair, she follows her bodily passion – an act of rebellion wherein she rejects the societal control and dispenses with her body as she chooses to.

If bodily control brings physical pain, the oppression of the mind brings angst, insecurity, and humiliation, which makes it another effective means of subjugation women had to experience. Women were in the state of constant surveillance, which is a scary truth best illustrated by a short yet agoraphobic phrase: “Villagers are watchful” (Kingston 24). A parallel with the notorious Big Brother can be easily drawn here, as can be the dystopian expectations and obligations Chinese society imposed on women as workers – and little else. Doing what was expected of them, women knew that a single wrong step would be noticed at once by the watchdog villagers, and that would mean inevitable disgrace. Following one’s feelings as the author’s aunt did was an abomination, especially if it involved adultery. Yet, the nameless fantasy aunt not only follows her feelings, she also decorates herself to appear attractive to the one she supposedly loves in a society where most women looked like “great sea-snails” (Kingston 27). If anything, it is a barefaced mockery of the standards of a society where women are shamed for wanting to be beautiful.

After her body and mind were so atrociously broken, the No Name Woman has little to rely on but her spirit of a human being standing alone against the evil. By taking control of their bodies and squeezing them into the frames of faulty expectations, the society was trying to pump the idea of their uselessness into women’s heads – and thus take over their willpower, as the following illustrates: “To be a woman, to have a daughter in starvation time was a waste enough” (Kingston 25). It can be argued that by taking her own and her child’s lives the woman was trying to escape the disgrace and further punishment, which makes it a display of weakness. This, however, is not the case as the act of ending one’s life is something that takes much courage. At that, her suicide is the last and probably the most powerful rebellious act, the climax of her misery and the evidence of her might. Realizing that she was doomed as well as her child (who possible turned out to be a daughter), she showed the world and the stagnant society that she was, after all, the one in control.

A story within a story, the memoir speculates on the issue of subjugation and rebellion – which, as it were, turns out to be a success in the long run. Indeed, the logical conclusion to the No Name Woman’s life would be complete forgetfulness, as her relatives hoped. The author’s mother, on the other hand, regarded her experience as a tell-tale warning against disgraceful behaviors. Still, the message that a girl and further – a woman gets from her aunt’s story is quite the opposite to what was intended: “Attraction eludes control so stubbornly that whole societies designed to organize relationships among people cannot keep order” (Kingston 28). Seeing the inconsistency of the oppressive society’s ways, the author admires her forerunner’s courage and regards her rebellion as a pattern to follow rather than a scarecrow to shun.

Half a century had to pass before the No Name Woman’s story was told. The author muses that she is the only one tending to that ghost of a woman. Yet, dead and broken as she might be, she lived a life of a rebel whose courage and willpower was invincible even with the whole world against her.

Kingston, Maxine. “No Name Woman.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Eds.

Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Eighth edition. New York: Pearson, 2011. 23-33. Print.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Rebellion in “No Name Woman” by Maxine Kingston." August 9, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/rebellion-in-no-name-woman-by-maxine-kingston/.

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No Name Woman Analysis

Literary analysis of no name woman short story the chinese society has a tendency to maintain the cultures of their homeland despite the changing times. however, the dynamism of the modern world catches up with the reactionary nature of a society forcing them to mould into the workings of the new world. such was in the case of maxine hong kingston’s key character in the story titled “no name woman”. the “no-name woman” mentioned in the story went through a life tragedy that saw to the end of her life. this instance pushed her to the wall to the point where she saw that taking her own life was the only solution to her problems. the difficult circumstances that plagued her revealed a lot about her; this is so despite the fact that the narrator knew little of her unnamed aunt. the actions the unnamed aunt took showed that she was a selfless and yielding person. the no name woman by maxine hong kingston.

The unnamed main character of the story agreed to be joined in matrimonial companionship without a choice showing that was yielding to customs and traditions. The interests of the woman were to find love as the narrator explains how love blooms out of other subtleties, and rarely out of arranged marriages. These inadvertent forced marriages together with the uncertainty of ever knowing one’s spouse since they will be far away most of the time made marriage a nightmare. The acceptance to join such a union that leaves her in solitude showed how yielding the character was.

The Chinese culture demanded women to be submissive to men and their orders making her to be yielding to other people’s requests. The narrator looks at the various reasons a woman would cheat on her husband, and amongst them is the coercion into promiscuity. Furthermore, this might have prevented her from revealing the identity of the lover who was responsible for her pregnancy; he might have compelled not to do so. This shows how yielding the aunt was as she had been bred to act in such a manner. The result of this was the consequent blame on her for all the vices that her act implied. She accepted the blame for the act without revealing the intricacies that led to the occurrence of this predicament from everyone: family, friends and neighbors. This shows society has molded her into a submissive and yielding person.

The fact that the narrator’s aunt did not reveal the identity of the man responsible for her pregnancy showed how selfless she was. She could have shared the burden and shame of having an illegitimate child. This could have given her a chance to explain whatever circumstance that led to the eventuality; however, she chose to keep her lips sealed. This showed she was willing to suffer for both her and her secret love, proving her selflessness.

The committing of suicide by the aunt together with the killing of her newborn baby also had some element of selflessness in it. If she left her baby behind, it would have had the difficulty of being viewed as an outcast. The Chinese family set aside the outcasts and related with them minimally. This would have affected her child’s life in all aspects, and thus taking its life together with hers showed that she considered the child’s future too. Therefore, she was indeed selfless.

Summary of “No Name Woman”

Conclusively, the unnamed aunt was a person with no limits to how submissive and selfless she could be as illustrated by her matrimonial commitment to a lonesome marriage. In addition, taking the full blame for actions that she did not partake in alone showed she was selfless enough not to put other people in trouble. Her culture demanded her to be submissive, and this came with the unquestioned giving into any situation despite her own interests. These instances prove that she was yielding and selfless in nature.

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Comparative Literature 043-01

Experience as Importance: No Name Woman and Showalter’s Poetics

William Tamplin

Professor Francomano

15 November 2011

In Elaine Showalter’s essay “Toward a Feminist Poetics,” she outlines a critical discourse with which to discuss women as both readers and writers. She assigns the term “gynocritics” to the practice of constructing “a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature, to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt male models and theories” (Showalter 131). Maxine Hong Kingston’s essay “No Name Woman” tells of the author’s paternal aunt’s experience of having a child out of wedlock in rural China in the early twentieth century, the societal repercussions of the event, and the author’s lifelong experience of being haunted by her aunt’s ghost but nevertheless compelled to tell of her aunt’s experience. In this essay I will show how Kingston’s essay embodies the themes and structures of Showalter’s gynocritics, locates itself within Showalter’s “Female” phase of gynocritics, and emphasizes Showalter’s claim of experience as importance through the retelling of her aunt’s experience.

After recognizing the threats posed to feminist criticism by both the Academy and “the activist’s suspicion of theory,” Showalter outlines “a brief taxonomy, if not a poetics, of feminist criticism, in the hope that it will serve as an introduction to a body of work which needs to be considered both as a major contribution to English studies and as part of an interdisciplinary effort to reconstruct the social, political, and cultural experience of women” (127, 128). Showalter makes a distinction between what she terms feminist critique and gynocritics; the former deals with “woman as the consumer of male-produced literature,” the latter with “woman as the producer of textual meaning” (128). If feminist critique is an inquiry into the “ideological assumptions of literary phenomena,” gynocritics deals with female literary creativity, history, language (128). The feminist critique, forever fixated on the past, is “political and polemical” while gynocritics, forever imagining a new female literary future, is “self-contained and experimental” (129).

Central to gynocritics is the development of new models according to the “newly visible world of female culture” (131). Showalter applies gynocritical models to the literary experience of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and states that, in order to interpret correctly the “themes and structures of women’s literature,” we must understand the “framework of the female subculture,” an understanding we can apparently gain through reading literature (133). Showalter shows that the awakening from Victorian womanhood in fiction “is much more likely to end in drowning than in discovery” (133). In Victorian woman’s fiction, the protagonists “wake to worlds which offer no places for the women they wish to become; and rather than struggling they die” (133). Such literature recalls thematically unhappiness, suicide, violence, and self-destruction and structurally “the fulfillment of the plot” as a “visit to the heroine’s grave by a male mourner” (134). Showalter identifies such writing as “the reclamation of suffering” in a larger quest to “discover the new world” (134). Showalter cites the poet Adrienne Rich whose writing “explores the will to change” and “challenges the alienation from and rejection of the mother that daughters have learned under patriarchy” (135).

In “No Name Woman” Kingston tells of her aunt who, in rural China in 1924, became pregnant at time of drought, famine, and war, upset the social order of her village, brought shame upon her family, and after an attack by the villagers on her family, drowned both her child and herself in the family’s well. Rural Chinese society at the beginning of the twentieth century “offered no place for the woman” Kingston’s aunt wished to become (133). As opposed to struggling and attempting to raise the child among an atmosphere of ridicule, she chooses death. Immediately one can notice parallels between the experience of Kingston’s aunt and the Victorian woman who woke to the strictures of her society. The fulfillment of the plot in the Victorian literature Showalter cites is a “visit to the heroine’s grave by a male mourner,” and the fulfillment of the plot of Kingston’s struggle with her past occurs in her recognizing her aunt’s suicide and, if not literally, than mentally “visiting the heroine’s grave” (134). We can thus read Kingston’s writing after so many years of silence as the “reclamation of suffering” which Showalter cites as the beginning to discovering the “new world” of gynocritics (134).

Showalter in her essay divides the female literary tradition into three “phases…which correspond to the developmental phases of any subcultural art” (137). The last of these is the Female phase, in which women “reject both imitation and protest – two forms of dependency – and turn instead to female experience as the source of an autonomous art, extending the feminist analysis of culture to the forms and techniques of literature” (139). The literature of this phase “[celebrates] consciousness” and is marked to some extent by “withdrawal and containment” (139).

In the light of Showalter’s definition, Kingston’s essay is a fine example of Female writing. It neither imitates male literature nor protests male superiority as much as it does relate the experience of a woman who was denied a voice by the society to which she belonged and her relatives, too ashamed of her pregnancy and suicide to mention her to anyone except as an example of how not to behave. At the end of her essay, Kingston relates her mother’s words about Kingston’s aunt: “Don’t tell anyone you had an aunt. Your father does not want to hear her name. She has never been born” (Kingston 18). Kingston writes that “[my family wants] me to participate in her punishment. And I have” (18). Her aunt’s real punishment was “the family’s deliberately forgetting her,” and Kingston “alone [devotes] pages of paper to her” (18, 19). Kingston reiterates that she is “telling on [her aunt]” (19). By telling her aunt’s story whose details she had to invent, she celebrates consciousness in the spirit of Female writing, even if doing so means her “withdrawal and containment” within this painful memory (Showalter 139).

Showalter situates feminist literary criticism with respect to Marxism, structuralism, and the “manly and aggressive” schools of “neoformalism and deformalism, affective stylistics, and psychoaesthetics,” among others whose existence their complexity justifies (140). Such scientific criticism, according to Showalter, “struggles to purge itself of the subjective,” and serves as a place where the “experience of women can easily disappear, become mute, invalid, and invisible, lost in the diagrams of the structuralist or the class conflict of the Marxists” (141). Showalter’s thesis that experience is important is based on the recognition that “the questions we most need to ask go beyond those that science can answer” (141). According to Showalter, we need to “seek the repressed messages of women in history, in anthropology, in psychology, and in ourselves, before we can locate the feminine not-said” (141).

Kingston recognizes the importance of experience in the very fact of her writing. Kingston recognizes her aunt’s desperation as a woman impregnated out of wedlock in the rural, drought-ridden China of 1924 and the consequences her pregnancy exercised in the life of both her and her village. Kingston’s account, situated outside structuralist and Marxist analysis, does not allow her aunt’s experience to “disappear, become mute, invalid, [or] invisible” but gives it life simply through its telling (141). Kingston’s recounted nothing if not one of the “repressed messages of women in history” (141).

Though Showalter’s critical discourse assumes an Anglo-American cultural context, it is readily applicable to the story of Kingston’s aunt (if not anything else). Showalter’s discourse illuminates the presence of the themes and structures of gynocritics in Kingston’s account, and, in addition to locating Kingston’s essay within the Female phase of a women’s literary tradition, validates her essay by recognizing the importance of experience. Showalter’s discourse provides an inimitable framework with which to read Kingston’s work.

Works Cited

Showalter, Elaine. “Toward a Feminist Poetics.”

Kingston, Maxine Hong. “No Name Woman.” The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts . New York: Vintage Books, 1996. Print.

9 thoughts on “ Experience as Importance: No Name Woman and Showalter’s Poetics ”

clear thesis, we as readers know what you will be discussing in this essay

good summary of showalter’s theory of female writing and reading

convincing argument on how showalter’s and kingston’s works overlap

i found this point in your essay really interesting as you talk about how the act of writing and even the author herself evokes showalter’s essay

Like Hanaa said, your thesis is clear; however, I’m having trouble finding the link between your text of analysis and showalter’s postulate. I understand that that’s the purpose of the essay, but I’m finding it a bit difficult to prepare for what I’m about to read (if that makes sense). Perhaps what I’m looking for is a more direct address in regards to the tie between the two.

I am making the assumption that this is where your essay really kicks off – it sets up the outline for the connections between text and theory. I felt it took too long to get to this point though. And while I understand the need for a foundation to build on top of, I think the introductions should be a bit more compressed.

This paragraph was very powerful! Your final statement does an effective job of emphasizing the essence of female empowerment, even though it is via punishment.

As aforementioned, I find this point that re-telling of an exiled ancestor indirectly empowers her fascinating. Great job!

I made this statement earlier (or one along a similar train of thought), but your introduction seems to be thicker than your actual argument. I dont mean that your essay lacks substance, but that the distribution of space and focus seems a bit uneven. Nonetheless, it does not change the fact that this was very well-written. Great job!

Maxine Hong Kingston

Literature Notes
The Theme of the Voiceless Woman in The Woman Warrior
Book Summary
About The Woman Warrior
Character List
Summary and Analysis
No Name Woman
White Tigers
At the Western Palace
A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe
Maxine Hong Kingston Biography
Critical Essays
The Woman Warrior in its Historical Context
The Woman Warrior in the Chinese Literary Context
Full Glossary for The Woman Warrior
Essay Questions
Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays The Theme of the Voiceless Woman in The Woman Warrior

Fundamental to The Woman Warrior is the theme of finding one's own, personal voice. Interspersed throughout the memoir's five chapters are numerous references to this physical and emotional struggle. For the many women who are voiceless, Kingston supplies the language these silent women need if they are to discover viable, individualized identities.

Beginning with the first chapter, "No Name Woman," Kingston breaks the family-imposed silence that surrounds the secret of an aunt, whom she names No Name Woman, who became pregnant by someone other than her husband. No Name Woman refuses to name the father of her child, protecting him with her silence, which simultaneously victimizes her: A nameless woman suggests someone with neither a story nor a voice. However, by hypothesizing how her aunt became pregnant, and by writing her aunt's story, Kingston in effect gives this silenced woman a voice. For Kingston, "the [aunt's] real punishment was not the raid swiftly inflicted by the villagers, but the family's deliberately forgetting her. . . . My aunt haunts me — her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her." Although Kingston never learns what her aunt's real name was, the symbolic act of naming the woman No Name Woman honors this forgotten ancestor's memory.

If women do not have voices in traditional Chinese culture, then the talk-stories and legends that mothers pass on to daughters may indeed be considered subversive tales and instructions. One such talk-story, the legend of the Chinese woman warrior Fa Mu Lan, is a constant reminder to young Kingston that women can transcend socially imposed limitations. "White Tigers" is, in part, the story of Kingston's childhood fantasy of transcending a life of insignificance. As a child, Kingston imagines herself to be like Fa Mu Lan, who saves not only her family but her community. Brave Orchid's tale of this woman warrior exemplifies how talk-stories and legends create alternative, subversive voices for women who otherwise would remain silent their entire lives, dominated by a patriarchal world.

Kingston's young adult life, however, remains a voiceless one. Juxtaposed with her fantasies of warrior grandeur in "White Tigers" are recollections of whispered protest at one of her employer's racist attitudes, which she challenges using a "small-person's voice that makes no impact." Refusing to type invitations for a different employer who chooses to hold a banquet at a restaurant being picketed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress of Racial Equality, two political groups active in fighting racism, Kingston is immediately fired. But again her protest is whispered, her "voice unreliable."

Kingston's empowering women by creating individualized voices for them also extends to her own mother. Because Brave Orchid, despite her many years in America, does not speak English, she is effectively voiceless in her new world. Through Kingston, however, Brave Orchid's achievements are vocalized and recorded, as are all of the women's lives in The Woman Warrior . Kingston's memoir reveals Brave Orchid's sacrifices and lifts her out of the nameless Chinese crowd living in America. Ironically, however, this process of voicing women's experiences threatens Kingston's own self-esteem, especially in her relationship with her mother. For example, when a delivery boy mistakenly delivers pharmaceutical drugs to the family's laundry business, Brave Orchid is livid: Certainly, she thinks, the drugstore purposefully delivered the drugs to bring bad luck on her family. Brave Orchid forces Kingston, as the oldest child, to demand "reparation candy" from the druggist, a chore that Kingston finds embarrassing. "You can't entrust your voice to the Chinese, either," Kingston writes; "they want to capture your voice for their own use. They want to fix up your tongue to speak for them." In addition, Kingston's embarrassment stems from her perception that Chinese sounds "chingchong ugly" to Americans, like "guttural peasant noises."

Unfortunately, the personal cost of remaining silent, of not speaking "chingchong ugly" Chinese, is great, as Kingston's tale of Moon Orchid, her aunt, reveals. Moon Orchid's tragic story in "At Western Palace" depicts a woman, deserted by her husband, who has so completely internalized the patriarchal view that women should always remain silent and never question male authority that she literally is silenced to death. The episode in which Moon Orchid reluctantly confronts her Americanized husband demonstrates how essentially voiceless a Chinese woman is who lives in a traditionally patriarchal society. Facing her husband after decades apart, Moon Orchid is unable to voice her years of rage and grief: "But all she did was open and shut her mouth without any words coming out." Later in the scene, Moon Orchid's husband explains to her, "I have important American guests who come inside my house to eat. . . . You can't talk to them. You can barely talk to me." Despite Moon Orchid's incessant talking in front of Brave Orchid's children, she is utterly mute while under the dominion of her husband. Ironically, even in the madness to which Moon Orchid succumbs after surviving her husband's emotional abuse, she is unable to talk. Again, Kingston, by writing Moon Orchid's story, puts the voice back into Moon Orchid's life.

In the memoir's last chapter, "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe," Kingston relates her own search for a personal, individualized voice. If she finds that traditional Chinese society silences women, she also discovers that well-behaved females in American society are equally expected to be quiet. In order to feel even partially accepted in American culture, young Kingston retreats behind an emotional wall and loses her voice: "We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine. Apparently we whispered even more softly than the Americans. . . . Most of us eventually found some voice, however faltering." Despite this whispering, Kingston, even as a child, knows the consequences of being voiceless. In one poignant and painful episode, she describes the hatred she felt for another Chinese girl who refused to speak and the physical bullying she meted out to get this silent girl to talk. Ironically, her hatred for the girl is all the more vivid because this silent girl is so much like her — physically, emotionally, and socially. She fears becoming exactly like this voiceless (and nameless) girl, who serves as Kingston's alter ego.

In other aspects of her family life, Kingston feels the need to maintain a veil of secrecy. For example, because her parents came to the United States at a time when Chinese immigration was illegal, they and many other Chinese living in America kept a code of silence, a "never tell" policy regarding their cultural origins and history. However, this voicelessness further marginalizes Kingston and other first-generation Chinese Americans. For Kingston, writing The Woman Warrior is a cathartic and emotional experience, a form of therapy for herself and her family. Talking about her past becomes her cure for silence, her method of achieving an individual voice and a personal place as a Chinese-American woman in society.

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How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

Who is telling the story?
How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

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The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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No Name Woman
prodigal wastefully extravagant. tractably easily led; malleable. proxy a stand-in, or substitute; although the rooster that No Name Woman's soon-to-be-husband sends to her is intended to be a goodwill gesture, that he sends a rooster rather than meeting her himself indicates traditional China's low regard for women.
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Table of contents

Language choices

Narrative voice

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Essay question example

Thesis statement example

Finding textual evidence

The introduction

Paragraph structure

Topic sentences

Using textual evidence

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Cite this Scribbr article

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Jack Caulfield

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