The Woman Warrior Argumentative Essay

Eric Perinotti

Professor Sachdev

Writing and Thinking

The Woman Warrior Argumentative Essay

Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior is a series of narrations, vividly recalling stories she has heard throughout her life. These stories clearly depict the oppression of woman in Chinese society. Even though women in Chinese Society traditionally might be considered subservient to men, Kingston viewed them in a different light. She sees women as being equivalent to men, both strong and courageous.

In a few stark story, depressing in their own unique way, attempts to disprove the traditional Chinese saying “it’s better to have geese than girls”.

The first talk-story told to Kingston by her mother deals with the suicide of one of her aunts, who remains nameless throughout the tale. After becoming pregnant from a man other than her husband, Kingston’s aunt is forced to conceive the illegitimate child in a pigsty, while the villagers raid and destroy her home. The next morning the disgraced woman plunges down a well while holding her newborn child, resulting in both their deaths.

Kingston’s mother told her this story as a warning; to avoid being a disgraceful and disloyal woman like her aunt. Kingston, however, does not view her aunt as a promiscuous woman, but rather a victim or a martyr. “Imagining her free with sex doesn’t fit”, she claimed. Kingston imagines her aunt as a woman who abandoned the traditions set forth by China’s extremely patriarchal society. She saw her and someone who did what so many Chinese women should be doing, acting on their premonitions of love, not the strict rules of the society. In this aspect, she was a martyr. She killed herself and baby to spare them lives of severe subjugation Kingston also states how her aunt was possibly raped, showing how she was a victim rather than a woman who lacks morals. In short, Kingston’s does not view the story of her aunt as one of shame (like her mother intended), but rather one of individuality and free will.

The second story, “White Tigers”, is a mythical tale of a female warrior who disguises herself as a male and fights in the place of the father. The story completely contradicts the conventional role of woman in Chinese society. It places a woman in a position of bravery and heroism, which are traditionally reserved for men.

This story is unique because Kingston actually places herself in the role of