In Theresa Kyung Cha’s Dictee she uses not only the autobiographical format, but many different non-conventional types of literary techniques. All of these mixed together foster new ideas in the mind of the reader and open the eyes of writers to explore a new kind of creativity. One of the interesting themes in Dictee coupled with the autobiographical form is the constant mention and both obvious and underlying theme of Catholicism. Though the brief mentions of Catholicism occur sporadically throughout the novel, one passage that emph

In The Woman Warrior we see that although Chinese women are thought of as submissive and weak many believe that these gendered stereotypes should be used to the woman’s advantage. When Brave Orchid’s sister, Moon Orchid, comes to live with the family in California, Brave orchid insists on Moon Orchid going in search of her husband. Moon Orchid is scared and does not want to bother him with his new wife. Brave Orchid and various other women of the community tell her about her rights as first wife to go to the new wife and claim their sons and take over the house, forcing the husband to build another house for the second wife. The Chinese women do not seem to have a problem with husbands having two wives, but first wives have certain rights and privileges. Moon Orchid, although appearing weaker than her overbearing sister, takes a very Americanized approach at the situation. She feels that since he supported her in China and sent money to put their daughter through school that she is not owed anything. It’s almost as if they were divorced and he was paying child support. However, the stronger character, Brave Orchid, is now portrayed as weaker because of her long standing cultural beliefs.

Many Asian American authors deal with the issues that follow stereotypes in their works. More specifically these stereotypes can deal with the issues if sexual identity or gender roles. Both M. Butterfly and The Woman Warrior provide us with very different views of different stereotypes of Asian Americans.

In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior there are many instances where the author uses the autobiographical format to convey different points in history. The way that Kingston uses the format to accomplish this is very different from Cha. She uses the sometimes surreal stories through the eyes of the mother and daughter to illustrate the happenings of the time. The absolute extremeness of the various stories almost seem fictitious but at the same time give the reader a time frame while keeping them entertained. On pages 95-96 the story about the crazy woman being stoned

Some topics in this essay:
Asian American, Kyung Cha, Woman Warrior, Song Ling, Cha’s Dictee, Moon Orchid, , Brave Orchid, American Ichiro, Silence Lambs, autobiographical format, asian american, woman warrior, moon orchid, throughout novel, song ling, brave orchid, theresa kyung, autobiographical format convey, american authors, format convey, theresa kyung cha, asian american authors,