Maxine Hong Kingston, The

Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A

Girlhood Among Ghosts:
The Woman Warrior focuses on the stories of five women—Kingston's long-dead aunt, "No-Name
Woman"; a mythical female warrior, Fa Mu Lan; Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid; Kingston's aunt,
Moon Orchid; and finally Kingston herself—told in five chapters. The chapters integrate Kingston's
lived experience with a series of talk-stories—spoken stories that combine Chinese history, myths,
and beliefs—her mother tells her.

The first chapter, "No-Name Woman," begins with one such talk-story, about an aunt Kingston
never knew she had. Because this aunt had brought disgrace upon her family by having an
illegitimate child, she killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well in China. After
hearing the story, which is told to her as a warning, Kingston is never allowed to mention her aunt
aloud again, so she decides to create a history of her aunt in her memoir. She imagines the ways that
her aunt attracted a suitor, comparing her aunt's actions of quiet rebellion against the community to
her own rebellion. Kingston also recreates her aunt's horrible experience of giving birth in a pigsty
and imagines her aunt's ghost walking around with no one to give it gifts, as was Chinese custom.
In the end, Kingston is unsure whether she is doing justice to her aunt's memory or just serving her
own needs.

"White Tigers" is based on another talk-story, one about the mythical female warrior Fa Mu Lan. Fa
Mu Lan, whose story is told through Kingston's first-person narrative, trains to become a warrior
from the time she is seven years old, then leads an army of men—even pretending to be a man
herself—against the forces of a corrupt baron and emperor. After her battles are over, she returns to
be a wife and mother. The story of Fa Mu Lan is contrasted sharply with Kingston's own life in
America, in which she can barely stand up to her racist bosses. Kingston realizes, however, that her
weapons are her words.
"Shaman" focuses on Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid, and her old life back in China. Brave
Orchid was a powerful doctor, midwife, and, according to the talk-story, destroyer of ghosts back in
her village. To a young Kingston, Brave Orchid's past is as astounding as it is terrifying, and many
of the images from her mother's talk-story—Chinese babies left to die, slave girls being bought and
sold, a woman stoned to death by her villagers—haunt Kingston's dreams for years to come. At the
end of the chapter, Maxine visits her mother after being away for many years. The two arrive at
some kind of understanding after many years of disagreement and conflict, and Brave Orchid is
warm and affectionate towards her daughter for the first time in the memoir.

The title of "At the Western Palace" refers to another of Brave Orchid's talk-stories, about an
emperor who had four wives. It is an analogy for her sister Moon Orchid's situation: Moon Orchid's
husband, now a successful Los Angeles doctor, had left her behind in China and remarried in
America. Brave Orchid urges her sister into a disastrous confrontation with the man to demand her
due as his wife. As a result, Moon Orchid, who does not speak a word of English, is left to fend for
herself in America. She eventually goes crazy and dies in a California state mental asylum.

The final chapter of the memoir, "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe," is about Kingston herself.
This section focuses mainly on her childhood and teenage years, depicting her anger and frustration
in trying to express herself and attempting to please an unappreciative mother. There are a number
of characters whose personalities highlight many of her Kingston's own characteristics, including a
silent Chinese girl whom Kingston torments as a little girl. In a pivotal moment in the chapter,
Kingston, after unsuccessfully trying to express her feelings one at a time, erupts at her mother with
a torrent of complaints and criticisms. Later in her life, however, Kingston comes to appreciate her
mother's talk-stories. At the end of the chapter she even tells one herself: the story of Ts'ai Yen, a
warrior poetess captured by barbarians who returns to the Chinese with songs from another land. It
is a fitting conclusion to a text in which Kingston combines very different worlds and cultures and
create a harmony of her own.

Indepth Facts:
narrator Kingston herself is the narrator, at various stages in her life. However, the chapter "At the
Western Palace," which details an episode told to her second-hand, is written in the third-person,
and the chapter "White Tigers" is Kingston's retelling and recreating of a myth in the first person.
The narrator is sometimes difficult to pin down because so much of the book derives from talk-
stories told to Kingston by her mother.

climax The closest thing there is to a climax is Kingston's rebellious outburst against her mother in
"A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe." Another pivotal moment is Moon Orchid's confrontation with
her estranged husband in "At the Western Palace."

protagonist Kingston and Brave Orchid, the only characters who appear in every chapter, serve as
dual protagonists. "Shaman" focuses on Brave Orchid's life, while "A Song for a Barbarian Reed
Pipe" focuses on Kingston's.

antagonist Brave Orchid also serves as an antagonist throughout the book. Her talk-stories are
responsible for much of Kingston's difficulty adjusting to life in America.

setting (time) 1924–1975, from the time Kingston's father leaves for America until the time she
writes the memoir
setting (place) The events recollected in "No-Name Woman" take place in the New Society Village
in China, and much of "Shaman" is set at Brave Orchid's medical school in Canton. The rest of the
work (not including the imaginary story of Fa Mu Lan) is set in Stockton, California, where
Kingston grew up.

point of view The story is, for the most part, told from Kingston's point of view, although "At the
Western Palace" is told in the third person. In "White Tigers," Kingston takes on the persona of Fa
Mu Lan, the woman warrior.

falling action Brave Orchid's talk stories about her mother; Kingston adds her own talk story about
the Chinese poetess Ts'ai Yen, whose story serves as a metaphor for writing the memoir.

tense Immediate past (real-time narration) blended with present tense

foreshadowing Foreshadowing is not a major literary device in The Woman Warrior, as the story
does not proceed in linear fashion or move in any one direction. We might say that the fact that
Kingston is constantly silenced as a little girl—a theme that appears in a number of different
chapters—foreshadows and anticipates her eventual outburst at her mother in "A Song for a
Barbarian Reed Pipe."

tone Kingston's tone is sometimes angry and frustrated, and childlike at times. More often than not
she displays a kind of bitter but perceptive irony about her childhood and her family.

themes The role of women in traditional Chinese society; silence and voice; growing up Chinese-
American; the individual vs. the community; writing and speaking as triumph

motifs Ghosts; warriors; talk-story

symbols Circles; birds; mountains; the white horse; bound feet; ideographs