Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts

1077 Words5 Pages
Remember that one relative that always wanted to tell you a story about their childhood? These stories would often guide us; inspire us or leave us wondering if that is who we were going to become when we grow older. Occasionally the stories we are told can even leave us asking questions about what our own identity truly is. The very words that speak to us and over us as we grow can cause pain and greater confusion as we search to find who we are in our culture; gender and sexuality. Our identity is what defines us and it is what makes us unique in our own way. In the book, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston, although Kingston has grown into an independent and free-spirited adult, her memory still played a large part in the shaping of her identity because she continually faced the pain, silence and shame of her no name aunt, because she found the strength and inspiration to fight like a warrior and because she finally found her voice. Kingston’s mother was the great family, storyteller. Her stories were not stories that inspired, but they were stories that told of shame, guilt, and pain. Kingston earliest understanding and…show more content…
One memory that she brings to light is when all of her hatred and rage for the silence that she endured finally came to a boiling point. Kingston tells the memory of the silent girl at her school. She intensely recalls how much she hated this girl and the girl would not talk. Finally one day, Kingston unleashes on the girl. She finds herself screaming and yelling at her. She does everything she can to this poor girl to try to get her to finally speak. Her efforts finally come up the void and Kingston herself winds up so badly sick for the next eighteen months that she loses her ability to even speak. She sadly claims that it was the best year and a half of her
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