“The Woman Warrior,” by Maxine Hong Kingston starts off by telling the tales of “The No Named Woman.” The author writes about an Aunt, Aiaa, who betrayed the family by having a child out of wedlock, and then killed herself and the child by drowning in a well. This creates a dramatic effect to this name because of how Kingston introduces this story right from the start. The story takes place in China, in the 1920s. The author writes about how the villagers with their strong beliefs in the supernatural came to the family home and destroyed everything in it to punish her family and her Aunt for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them. If the Aunt had betrayed the family, the author writes, “at a time of large grain yields and peace, perhaps she might have escaped severe punishment. But the men- hungry, greedy and tired of planting in dry soil- had been forced to leave the village in order to send food-money home. Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during good times, became a crime when the village needed food.”(Kingston-13) So the family who had been quiet about the pregnancy, broke their silence and cursed her telling her that she has killed them and that she’s never been born. The author is told not to tell anyone she had an aunt, that her father doesn’t want to hear her name, she has never been born. Being Chinese American often means one is torn between both worlds, as Kingston explains, being a woman heightens this. We further read how Kingston’s Chinese traditions and American lifestyle conflict.
When Kingston begins to menstruate, she is told the tale of the “No Named Women,” her aunt, and begins to analyse the story. Her mom tells her this at this time because this is the start of women hood and she doesn’t want her daughter to do what her aunt did, and be considered never born. Her mom says “don’t humiliate us. You wouldn’t want to be forgotten as if you have never been born. The villagers are watchful.” (Kingston-5) The villagers are so involved with everyone’s lives, as much as your close family. It seems everyone knows everyone’s business. Kingston imagines what old world China was like, she views it as repressive, and a strictly ordered society. Where you can’t live a private life. Everything had to be done for the sake of the family’s or village’s well-being. Therefore Kingston believes that her Aunt’s baby was a girl, and decided to save her from society’s rules. Rules were so strict that even her own father denies that his sister ever existed.
Kingston describes the romances allowed in her family, “Our family allowed some romance, paying adult brides prices and providing dowries so that their sons and daughter can be married to strangers. Marriage promises to turn strangers into friendly relatives—a nation of siblings.” (Kingston -12) Kingston proclaims it is very hard to reconcile the restrictive traditions and the relative freedom of life in America. I found it really important to further look at how her family impacted Aiaa, and what I saw as the final straw for her. Kingston tells us after the villagers left from destroying her family’s home, her family said “Aiaa we’re going to die. Death is coming. Death is coming. Look what you’ve done. You’ve killed us. Ghost! Dead ghost! Ghost!You have never been born.” (Kingston-14) Aiaa then ran as far as she could escaping these voices, these rules, and expectations. As mentioned before, Kingston believes the baby was a girl, she says “It was probably a girl, there is some hope of forgiveness for boys.” (Kingston-15) This shows how men and women were treated differently with different expectations in Chinese society. If the baby was a boy, maybe he would’ve lived a normal life. Kingston is filled with grief when she says “But there is more to this silence: they want me to participate in her punishment. And I have.” (Kingston- 16) Kingston has kept this story to herself for so long and is writing it in this memoir to her mother and father to explain how she feels and how she is distraught. She hasn’t said her aunt’s name in the twenty years she’s heard this story. Like Kingston says the punishment wasn’t the raid but in fact “the family deliberately forgetting her. Her betrayal so maddened them that they saw to it that she would suffer forever, even after death.” (Kingston -16) Society’s beliefs were so strong and powerful that if anyone, no matter how you are related, was punished somehow.
Discussion Questions
- If “No Name Woman” had had a baby boy rather than a baby girl, would she have committed suicide by drowning herself and the baby in her family’s well? Why, or why not?
- What is more important in the Chinese culture Kingston describes: the individual or the community?
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York :Vintage Books, 1989.
Hi Sydnie, interesting post!
Your first question really stood out to me because it’s asking us to speculate about the possibility of the fate of Kingston’s aunt based on a speculation Kingston made herself. Other than the story her mother told her, Kingston knows nothing about her aunt so she’s forced to fill in all the blanks herself, creating the idea of a person her mother painted as a disgrace. I find it very interesting that Kingston decides that the baby must’ve been a girl because her aunt killed them both, however, I don’t necessarily believe that her aunt’s fate would’ve changed if the baby had been a boy.
The reason I say this is because on page 15 Kingston writes: “She may have gone to the pigsty as a last act of responsibility: she would protect this child as she had protected its father.” In this line, Kingston uses “its” rather than “her” or “his” because she has no confirmation of the baby’s gender, and either way it’s considered a “bastard.” It seems as though Kingston has decided that either way this baby was going to die alongside her aunt because her aunt wanted to keep the baby from growing up in a community that would ostracize it. This could also be one final attempt to protect the father as well because as children age they tend to be compared to their parents, and based on the community’s close-knit nature there would be a great deal of speculation. When Kingston wrote “…there is some hope of forgiveness for boys,” she’s acknowledging the privilege the baby could have if it was a boy, but he would still have to deal with the negative side effects of his birth even if temporarily (15).
Hi Sydnie, love your post, I’m glad you talked about the ideas and values of Chinese Americans in this story. Your first discussion question is very interesting to me because if something as little as the gender of the baby could have prevented this horrible tragedy then Their society mustn’t be fair. I don’t know if the aunt would have for certain spared the baby’s life if the baby had been a boy, even though it is said that in Chinese society there is more forgiveness for boys. Kingston states “It was probably a girl; There is some hope for forgiveness for boys” (15). This sentence in the book really draws this big question would the baby have died if it was a boy? Still being a child out of wedlock in this society whether it’s a boy or girl would still face challenges, so maybe the aunt would have still sacrificed her and the child even if the child was a boy. I do think it was more likely that the child was a girl, because the aunt knew exactly how society would treat girls especially one being a symbol of wedlock and infidelity. A mother would only sacrifice her child if she thought living with do it more harm than good.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York :Vintage Books, 1989.
Hi Sydnie, I enjoyed reading your blog post and thought you touched on some really interesting points about the strict society that was China in the 1920’s. Your second question caught my attention because in Kingston’s story about her Aunt, she is punished by the community for having a private life and giving birth to a child out of wedlock. The villagers raided their home because the aunt was pregnant and women were supposed to have a very restricted life in China during this time. Having a child out of wedlock would bring great shame to the family which was happening during the Aunt’s story. “The villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them”. (Kingston 13) This shows the community plays a big role at enforcing these strict standards and makes examples of people who do not follow them. Kingston herself was forced into this strict way of life also. She says she hexed herself and followed the standards of this society and culture, not going on any dates or finding attraction in any boys growing up. Kingston feels as though she participated in the punishment by keeping silence about her aunt’s name and story and not asking for any details. Following the communities’ strict standards was the biggest part of Chinese culture in the time her aunts story took place and individuals especially women did not have any rights and didn’t choose who they marry or love.
Hi Sydnie! I really loved your post and thought you brought up some really interesting points. In regards to your first question I feel as though she might have committed suicide but maybe kept the child alive if it was a boy. There was still so much shame on her for getting pregnant with another man’s child, but I think that she would have had some hope for the child on surviving this situation if the child were a boy. Even before the child was born, she was ostracized and ridiculed for her behavior. In one part of the book the speaker says, “I want her fear to have lasted just as long as rape lasted so that the fear could have been contained. No drawn-out fear. But women at sex hazarded birth and hence lifetimes. The fear did not stop but permeated everywhere. She told the man, ‘I think I’m pregnant.’ He organized the raid against her” (Kingston 7). In this quote it clearly states that the issue surrounds the gender. Even though the woman is raped, she is shamed the rest of her life for getting pregnant. Yet, this does not mention anything about the child’s fate. To me it seems that if the child was a girl, the girl would then carry on the negative legacy of the mother. Yet, if the child were to be a boy there might be less hatred towards the child merely for the “purpose”/ “importance” a man poses in the Chinese culture. Even if the child was a boy, this quote shows that these actions (even if they were not the woman’s fault and actually the man’s doing) will live with this woman until she dies. Hence, this might be why she committed suicide. She might have known that she would never get redemption and that her little girl wouldn’t either.
Hi Sydnie, this was a great post! You brought up some very interesting and important thoughts. As for the first question that was proposed, I believe that the Aunt still would have committed suicide; However, I think she would have kept the baby alive. Although there was a lot of ridicule and hatred toward the Aunt for adultery and having a child out of wedlock, Kingston writes, “It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (Kingston 15). If the baby was born a boy, there still could have been a good chance that he would have been outcast by the villagers due to the fact that he was born out of wedlock; However, like Kingston wrote, there could have been an aspect of forgiveness for the boy. If the baby born was a girl and the Aunt chose to keep her alive instead of killing not only herself but the baby, this girl may have had to live with not only the consequences, but the shame and rejection from the village because of her mother’s adultery for the rest of her life, which would not have been fair to her. Nonetheless, there could have been a possibility of outcasting for the child; Male or female, which would have not been fair to either. In conclusion, I believe that if the child was born a boy, she would have kept him alive.
Hey Sydnie! Great post, you made some very interesting points. In regards to your first question I believe that she would have gone through with drowning herself but I think she might have spared the child if it was a boy. While I am sure she would have wanted to spare her child either way it is made very clear in the first chapter and in Chinese history in general that having a boy is more favorable. Men did not go through the same amount of “punishment” as a woman does and if a boy had been born out of wedlock the village might have been sympathetic towards the child whereas if it were a girl she would have been shunned and labeled as a sin/mistake etc. Kingston shows this when she says “It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (Kingston 15) I believe the aunt knew exactly what she was doing and that unfortunately meant killing her child along with herself because in a sick and twisted way it was what was “best” for the child. If it was a girl, it would not stand a chance in a village of people with these strict rules and ideas, but if it were a boy it would have had a chance in the village, therefore a chance at life. This is extremely haunting because it shows that life and death is decided by the village and if you do not fit within their rules you are just as good as dead to them.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York :Vintage Books, 1989.
Hi Sydnie, I enjoyed reading your post! There seems to be harsh patriarchal values that are infused in this village. There was a lot of shame and guilt in getting pregnant with another man’s child, and additionally acting against her village’s standards of acceptable behavior for women. I noticed the emphasis on a women’s “silence” in a traditional Chinese society. The expectation of women being voiceless and how femininity should be displayed seem to be important values of the village. This notion of voiceless women is shown when Kingston exclaims, “She kept the man’s name to herself throughout her labour and dying; she did not accuse him that he be punished with her. To save her inseminators name she gave silent birth” (Kingston 13).
I found it disturbing that her aunt throughout her pregnancy up to the child’s birth spent her time silent and later forgotten. This promotes the concept of the community being valued more than the individual. Women were expected to blend in and fall in line with the community values so going against traditional beliefs was highly offensive. We only really see how the village feels about the pregnancy but the aunt’s feelings and story go unheard. This also adds to the concept of the community mattering more than the individual. The aunt’s entire identity so far is being pregnant with another man’s child which shows that women lacked having their own voices and individual identities. Even from the beginning of the book Kingston’s mother states “You must not tell anyone” which further encourages the tradition of silencing women. Kingston evidently breaks this tradition of voiceless women because she writes about her aunt, giving her a voice and identity that she had been denied.
Hey Sydnie! I really enjoyed reading your post and you brought up some really important parts of the story. In response to your first question I don’t think the gender of the baby would have mattered. What happened had already happened therefore I think the same scenario would have played out. If it was a boy she may have let him live as boys were treated much differently. However she was obviously hurting deeply, you can hear this when she says “they’ve hurt me to much” Kingston 14. The aunt had lived a tough life she obviously did not want her child to go through what she did, no matter if it was a boy or girl. Overall its hard to tell for sure what she would have done, but I definitely think a boy would have had a greater chance of survival,
Hi Sydnie! You did a great job with this post. It is very well written. I wanted to tackle the second discussion question. In Chinese culture Kingston describes the community is more important than the individual. Kingston tells the backstory of women in Old China. The men of the family would go “out on the road” for some time to become western men. The men expect the aunt to be alone during this time and respect the traditions of women during that time. The author says, “They expected her alone to keep the traditional ways, which her brothers, now among the barbarians, could fumble without detection. The heavy, deep-rooted women were to maintain the past against the flood, safe for returning. But the rare urge west had fixed upon our family, and so my aunt crossed boundaries not delineated in space” (Kingston 8). This shows that the traditions of the community tells her that she has to be alone and protect her community while the men are becoming western men. The aunt chooses not to follow these traditions and the community decides to forget about her since she committed adultery. Adultery was a horrible misstep in Chinese culture. The family followed the community and forgot about her because of the misstep that she took. If the family had not followed the community’s guidelines, they would have all faced the punishment that the aunt faced. Community is more important than the individual in Chinese Culture according to Kingston.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York :Vintage Books, 1989.