In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Kingston takes a family
story and makes it into a story about Chinese history and culture. She does
this by taking part of a story her mother told her and fills in the blanks
using her cultural knowledge with different scenarios of how her family issue
could have happened. By doing so she is carrying on her aunt’s legacy. She
says, “My aunt haunts me- her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years
of neglect, I alone devout pages of paper to her” (1515).
Everyone has at least one family secret that they know they
should keep to themselves. I know my family has quite a few and they are slowly
becoming common knowledge with each new generation. I think it is because as
time passes we are faced with choices. Whether or not we think that these
stories should be told. Kingston chose to tell her aunt’s story even though she
knew her family never wanted anyone to know that the aunt even existed. Kingston
also had to choose between her Chinese traditional values and new American
values as she said, “If I made myself American-pretty so that the five or six
Chinese boys in the class fell in love with me, everyone else- the Caucasian,
Negro, and Japanese boys- would too. Sisterliness, dignified and honorable,
made much more sense” (1513).
Kingston’s Chinese cultural tradition was to keep their
family stories quiet which I think is a lot like grade schools in America. For example,
we grow up being taught that the Colonists were great people and America is a
great country that never does anything wrong. It’s not till high school or even
college that this illusion is shattered and we learn about the Chinese
Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment Camps, and how awful the Colonists treated
Native Americans. This story sheds light on controversial history.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine. "The Woman Warrior" 1976. 1865-present. Ed. Nina, Baym. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2013, 1463-1473. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2 vols.
I think in many cases, especially Kingston's, such secrets and stories go untold because telling them risks shattering the perception, and sometimes the reputation, of families. Not to mention bringing up bad memories in some cases, as well. I really like the comparison you made to what many of us are taught about the Colonists, prior to high school and college. That's definitely something I've become more aware of and I think it links really well to Kingston's piece.
ReplyDeleteI think stories like this go untold for a couple of other reasons: people don't want to remember the unpleasant, desperate, or filthy times, and also, the winners get to write history. And in most of the world, it is white men that have won historically, so it should not come as a big surprise to most of us that those men were "benevolent liberators, and nothing untoward ever happened." I have one of those families without secrets. At times it's hard and they may not like me or I them for a time, but in the end we accept each other, good and bad, that's what family does. Maybe if the world admitted to its issues, humanity could forgive and accept each other?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about how whole cultures suppress stories or tell the stories in such a way to change how people react. Your last point was particularly thought-provoking--thank you!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about how whole cultures suppress stories or tell the stories in such a way to change how people react. Your last point was particularly thought-provoking--thank you!
ReplyDelete