OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Maxine Kingston

Kingston is a character-narrator. Though this is a book of memoirs, a non-fiction genre, in which the writer is referred to as the speaker or the persona, it is tempting to look at Kingston as a character constructed as if fictional. She is a person who has gone through a struggle to differentiate herself from her mother so as to gain her own sense of self and voice. That process, through which all women go, is made more difficult because Kingston's mother is virtually of a different culture from Kingston's own hybrid culture of Chinese-American. Kingston came out of that process with the ability to accept complexity, to revel in it, but also to honor the painfulness of it. She also came out of that process with a very strong voice; able to honor the differences even while reconciling with them. She retains, however, residues of the painful self-doubt of her childhood. Despite that self-doubt, she is a person who believes in speaking the truth, standing up for what is just, and opposing oppression.

Brave Orchid

Kingston's mother is an incredibly strong-willed woman and an overbearing mother who has a great influence on her daughter. In China, she went against thousands of years of custom to become a doctor. As a doctor, she combined the traditions of her culture with the new science of the west. Paradoxically, she often fought rationality, believing in ghosts, Chinese legends, and herbal medicine. She migrated to the United States when she was in her forties, and fought to retain her Chinese culture. In the United States, she ran a laundry with her husband, raised six children from whom she felt increasingly alienated as they learned to adapt to their new culture, and worked in the tomato fields when the laundry was sold. She worked ceaselessly for her family in the United States and in China.

No Name Woman

Kingston's aunt on her father's side has no name, because of a family oath to forget her existence. She was married to a man she did not know, as was customary, and after he left for the United States, she became pregnant by another man. Her family's house was raided by the villagers in retaliation against her violation of family ties, and she gave birth to her child alone. She committed suicide and killed her baby with her.

The Woman Warrior

Kingston, out of her own preoccupations as a Chinese-American, recreates an imaginary figure of legend and lore in the Woman Warrior. Two magical old people devotedly train her for fifteen years, and she returns to her village to take her father's place in war. She leads an army to Beijing where the peasants confront the emperor, who has ignored their needs, and dethrones him, replacing him with a peasant ruler. She has a child during the war and returns after the war to her husband and her child. She decapitates the evil baron who has been feeding off her village for years. She is the female avenger, opposing years of hatred against women and girls.

Moon Orchid

Brave Orchid's sister who has lived in Hong Kong for thirty years supported by a husband who left her for the United States and never returned or sent for her. Her sister, Brave Orchid, sent for her daughter and then she to come to the United States and take her place as a wife to her husband. When Moon Orchid confronted him, she became so disturbed that she lost her sense of security and became insane. She died in a mental asylum happily secure.

Silent SchoolGirl

A Chinese-American girl in Kingston's grade school who could not speak except to read. Kingston tortured her in her own frustration with the silence.

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

The plot of these memoirs is non-linear. Instead of beginning as a child and proceeding through adulthood into middle age, Kingston goes back and forth between childhood and adulthood. Perhaps she conflates past and present because that is how she experiences her life. The past informs the present. In every moment of the present, she is reminded of some past incident that shapes her perception of herself and her present situation. There is an oblique plot to this book when one looks at it whole. It begins with Kingston totally under the control of her mother. She listens against her will to her mother's confusing and disturbing stories. She lives in her mother's reality of being surrounded by ghosts and nonhumans, who are dangerous and cunning.

The plot progresses when Kingston finds ways to contest her mother's authority. Her mother tells her to participate in the family's punishment of the no name aunt by never speaking her name, and Kingston not only speaks it, but also writes about it movingly and sympathetically. Her mother tells her stories, which mix truth and fiction, and Kingston protests against this confusion and leaves home determined to study science. Her mother tells her she is worthless as a girl, and Kingston excels in school to prove her worth. The plot climaxes when Kingston confronts her mother, accuses her of lying to her and confusing her, and confesses to being imperfect. She vehemently repudiates her mother's way of thinking and living.

The outcome of the plot has Kingston returning to her mother whole, and recognizing her mother's value as a great storyteller and teacher about life. Notice that this plot does not happen only over the course of the book, but happens in each chapter in one form or another. It is as if each section repeats this plot and all the sections together incrementally build the total plot.