Woman Warrior

My aunt haunts me -- her ghosts drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her," (16). Aunts, the sisters of fathers or mothers who serve as surrogate female role models, play a central role in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. However, Kingston's aunts are no warrior women; in fact, "No-Name Woman" and "Moon Orchid" embody the antithesis of the woman warrior-heroine. No-Name Woman disgraces herself and her family, killing herself and her newborn and forever erasing her name from the family tree. Kingston can but imagine the true spirit of this no-name aunt who haunts her since her mother told her the tale of her downfall. Similarly, Moon Orchid displays shameful characteristics: she cannot pull her weight doing chores when she arrives in America and she hasn't got the gumption to stand up to her husband. Both...
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