Kingston spends much of the book analyzing the role of women in Chinese society. The book opens with an oral history, given by the author’s mother (Brave Orchid), of a nameless aunt in Old China who committed adultery. The people of village responded to strayed morals by ransacking her family’s home. In response, she killed herself and her bastard child. The subservience of women can also be found the narrator’s own childhood experiences. It seems every time Kingston turns around she is being

Thus, Kingston adeptly examines the experience of a bi-cultural upbringing, conveying the conflict and confusion she felt from two different cultures. She relates how the role of women, the role of language, and a resistance to change shaped the development of not only her childhood but also her entire personality. In The Woman Warrior, East meets West¾and the product is something distinctly unique.

Kingston spends much of her focus on the role of language. Brave Orchid incessantly ridicules Kingston, telling her how messy, how unattractive, and how uncouth her daughter is. Only later, in climactic explosion, does Kingston address her complaints, only to have her mother explain that Chinese insults are actually compliments. Kingston’s social skills, learned more by interacting with Americans, taught her to take things more or less a face value. Kingston also examines the actual phonetics of language:

denied some right or privilege a boy would enjoy; she is consistently referred to as a “slave”. Much of the family goes along with this, “Throughout childhood my sister said ‘When I grow up, I want to be a slave,’ and my parents would laugh, encouraging her.”, ironic when one considers that many women in China were real slaves. Women of highe

Some topics in this essay:
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