Masterpieces of Women's Literature The Woman Warrior Analysis.
Brave Orchid relates how on the night when Kingston's aunt gave birth to an illegitimate child, the people of the Chinese village in which the aunt and her family lived ransacked the family's house, killed all of their livestock, and destroyed their crops. Shunned by her family, the aunt gave birth in a pigsty, alone.
The Woman Warrior essays Throughout the book, The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, the generation gap between the narrator and Brave Orchid is evident. The narrator feels that her mother’s culture values have no relevance in America. In the chapter, At the Western Palace, Brave Orchid.
Brave Orchid’s name even encompasses the idea of the woman warrior. She is “brave” like men are expected to be but retains the mysterious feminine qualities and refinement of an “orchid.” Like Ts’ai Yen and Fa Mu Lan, she is a mother and a soldier, sacrificing neither identity for the other.
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.
Brave Orchid, with this story, wants to prod Maxine to go and do something as for the good of her family and community and not just for herself. Maxine thinks that she, like Fa Mu Lan, is a woman warrior, but realizes that the story doesnt make the transition from Chinese to American very well.
The Woman Warrior Argumentative Essay Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior is a series of narrations, vividly recalling stories she has heard throughout her life. These stories clearly depict the oppression of woman in Chinese society.
Brave Orchid s story of the woman warrior proves how stories and legends of tradition Chinese culture can create alternative, subversive voices for women who otherwise would spend their life in silence due to the dominance of a patriarchal society.