Thursday, August 28, 2008

Kingston's "No Name Woman"

Answer number 2 after reading Kingston's "No Name Woman."

7 comments:

Mark said...

I can't describe why but I found this to be a failure of an essay. It seems like it strives to be powerful but somehow only serves to bore me.

Kingston presumably shares this "powerful" story to clear her aunt's name. She believes that deep dark secrets shouldn't be part of her family's existence. If her family had been more open, and the injustices of the aunt's abusive partners hadn't been secret, than she could have been saved.

Anonymous said...

2. Kingston reveals her aunt's story because she wants to show that she disagrees with some aspects of Chinese tradition and that she is different. Kingston's parents and their neighbors are all Chinese immigrants with strong belief of their traditions, but Kingston is an American-raised Chinese. She ponders how Chinese-Americans "separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese" (par. 12). Kingston herself has changed to be more American and to differ somewhat from the typical Chinese -- the way she walks and talks. In recounting her aunt's story, Kingston describes the traditions and exactly what happened very vividly to appeal to the reader's sense of pathos. Through a sympathizing tone and appealing to the reader's pathos, Kingston shows the reader the absurdity of such a tradition -- how degrading Chinese people used to, and still do in many places in China, treat women.

Derek Lee

Carl vR said...

2. Kingston's main purpose for telling the story of her aunt is to acknowledge her existence and avoid ignoring the sad truth in this situation, which extends to other similar situations in life. To her mother, the acts of his husband's sister are shameful and the sort of activity that burdens the reputation of a family. In Kingston's opinion, she assumes the worst about the aunt's character solely off these actions, whereas the author would like to think that there were extenuating circumstances, which made her more of the victim than the self-destructive abomination. Kingston argues that maybe an abusive man pressured her, and maybe she ended her life with acts of kindness such as giving a silent birth to prevent the spread of the man's name and going to the pigsty in order to shelter the baby (Kingston 15, 32, 44). Unlike her mother, she would prefer to be open about this misfortune rather than trying to hide it incessantly. Kingston allows a grand audience to read about her family because she wants to be relieved of the secret and to show that one sketchily-described sequence of events cannot justly describe a person's character. The rest of her kin should be more respectful and hope the deceased relative had the best intentions in mind.

I am just posting this modified version on this official post just in case. I would prefer to be graded on this one.

-Carl van Reis

Unknown said...

Kingston devotes the entire first chapter of her novel "The Woman Warrior" to her suicidal aunt. She opens up the chapter with her mother saying "You must not tell anyone ... what I am about to tell you" (par. 1). She uses this introduction to intrigue the audience and make them feel as though they are hearing a secret - - limited only to themselves. She goes on to speak of her secret aunt that is supposed to remain a secret. By doing so, Kingston breaks free of all Chinese tradition. She spends this chapter trying to figure out the life of her aunt, and trying to understand the ways of her family's culture. She comments on adultery being subjective. Its extremity varies depending on the time. If the village had been happy at the time, Kingston says, her aunt's punishment might not have been quite as severe (par. 38). She sees no reason in this logic, and continues on to form an understanding of this so-called tradition. Loyalty to family is valued so highly, and Kingston has trouble accepting even this. She says, "But there is more to this silence; They want me to participate in her punishment, and I have" (Par. 47). Here, Kingston makes the point that by remaining silent, she has been contributing to her family's punishment toward her aunt. By breaking this silence, Kingston frees herself from her familial ties in her own way. She ultimately identifies with her aunt's thirst for freedom and the pursuit of dreams. By beginning the story with the command to keep a secret by her mother, and ending the story by disobeying that command, Kingston severs all connections with her Chinese ancestry.

-Emily Ottke

Brewer said...

2. This is a strategy imposed to hook the reader from the start. Apparently, it is a complete failure in Mark's perspective, but I bet in most cases, like mine, it is more intriging than boring. Also, it is meant to show off the culture and how against the culture she is when she speaks of all of these stories while spilling her guts about everything she has heard. She goes through what all chinese women probably are forced to go through: they hear all of this gossip and are directed not to speak of them after hearing them. Do they want to talk about what they have heard? Yes, as any other human wants to talk about things they have learned. And that is exactly what Kingston does, speaks her mind, spills her guts, breaks the rules.
-Brewer-

Unknown said...

By revealing the story of her suicidal aunt, Kingston essentially goes against the rules. She has been expressly forbidden to talk about her aunt, in part to continue her punishment and in part to keep the family name free from blemish. However, it seems that Kingston doesnt reveal the story only for the sake of her pregnant aunt. She also has personal reasons. I get the feeling that she has no particular pride in her ancestry, and by disobeying their rules, she pulls apart from them and creates a distance between herself and her family. The opening line is simply used as bait for the readers, since people have a tendency to love information they shouldn't know about.

-Carole

Katherine Mellis said...

2. Kingston’s mother tells her, “You must not tell anyone…what I am about to tell you” (par. 1), yet she tells her aunt’s horrible tale as a sort of sacrament to her and apology for the years of punishment she unknowingly inflicted upon the poor girl. I get the feeling that Kingston is not happy in her own society, so she is able to connect to her dead aunt who stood out so sharply in hers. While describing her aunt’s possibilities of getting pregnant, Kingston writes, “But perhaps my aunt, my forerunner, caught in a slow life, let dreams grow and fade and…went toward what persisted” (par. 21). Kingston is going against her family’s old customs of always doing what you are told and taking care of the family’s honor. Her parents and uncles act as if her aunt never existed, and when they do acknowledge her, it as if they are describing a bad taste in their mouths, a deep insult. However, Kingston spends several pages describing her aunt as a romantic who gave up everything for the man she loved. To further her description of how her aunt was a loner in her society, Kingston repeatedly uses the word “round” to describe the family, the moon, the bowls, and the village as if her aunt was on the outside of everything. She says, “the villagers were speeding up the circling of events…this roundness had to be made coin-sized so she could see its circumference” (par. 39). The village was punishing Kingston’s aunt for disturbing the balance and symmetry in their lives, but Kingston is praising her for it.

~Katherine