 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Table of Contents Themes Major Theme The major theme of the memoirs is that Chinese women can rise above the inferior position dictated by their heritage without abandoning all cultural ties. Kingston often gains Chinese knowledge from her mother who assumes that Kingston's stance in relation to eastern culture should be submissive and subordinate. Kingston finds ways to take her cultural heritage and actively shape it to fit with her American reality. Instead of receiving the knowledge of her cultural past passively, Kingston questions it, amplifies it, selectively uses only beneficial portions of it, and in general, views it with American eyes. Dominant in this cultural heritage is the ideology of women's inferiority. In each section, Kingston finds ways to imagine women differently than inferior and passive to that fate, while refusing to totally abandon her Chinese heritage. Minor Theme The minor theme of The Woman Warrior is that a blending of two cultures is possible and is developed in the book through Kingston's evolving relationship with her mother, Brave Orchid. Brave Orchid drives Kingston to distraction with her non- Western thinking and her overbearing treatment of her family. As a result, Kingston goes through a process in which she moves from a total repudiation of her mother to an ultimate reconciliation with her, a reconciliation that allows Kingston to blend her own Western thinking with her rich Chinese heritage. This blending enhances her writing and proves that a person can richly exist within the framework of two cultures. Table of Contents
Mood The mood of the memoirs is meditative and speculative. Kingston works in most of the sections in an improvisational narrative mode. She does not come across as an authoritative guide to Chinese culture for her American readers. Instead, she recognizes and struggles with her own puzzlement over her Chinese heritage and the conflicts it reaches when it encounters American reality. Table of Contents | |
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