My professor Said,

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Essay #1: Short-Story

Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior

• Rough draft due Thursday, 10/1 by 11:59 PM.
• Final essay due Sunday, 10/4 by 11:59 PM.

Often in literary works, authors use storytelling to help form their own identities and position themselves within their culture. In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston, by telling her own story, mostly finds herself telling the stories of others—those in her family, those around her, and the myths of the Chinese and American cultures between which she is caught. In other words, one could argue that Kingston is caught in the gap (the in-between) of two worlds: storytelling vs. identity, speaking vs. silence, native experience vs. immigrant experience, and finally, American culture vs. Chinese culture.

For example, in “No Name Woman,” Kingston uses storytelling to tell the story of her aunt who was silenced and forgotten. In the end, however, Kingston discovers her own identity through her aunt’s story. Similarly, in “White Tiger” by telling the story of Fa Mu Lan, Kingston is responding to and reversing the typical gender roles in Chinese culture by showing how a woman can disobey convention and still succeed. Finally, in “At the Western Palace,” Kingston uses storytelling to come to terms with her evolving multi-cultural identity by embracing contradiction and unknowing. By telling the story of Moon Orchid, Kingston herself is caught between understanding the Chinese norms and stories and the American norms that indicate a new life.

Essay Prompt:

For this essay, you are to choose one of Kingston’s short stories we read in The Woman Warrior, and then examine how Kingston uses storytelling to uncover identities; either hers, her family, her culture, or her multicultural experience in both China and America.

• “No Name Woman”
• “White Tiger”
• “At the Western Palace”

More importantly, however, your thesis-driven essay should address the implications of being caught between two worlds when it comes to one’s identity.

Consider this: Do the characters assimilate or do they resist? Why (or why not) is the characters’ action(s) or lack of actions important in forming one’s identity. More importantly, why is storytelling so intricately linked to identity formation?

Things to consider:

1. The historical, social, or cultural context at the time the story was written.
2. The author’s use of theme, literary device, metaphor, language (verbal and non-verbal), dialogue, descriptions and details, narrative strategy, and symbols to support your claims.

Essay guidelines:

• Minimum of four pages.
• Textual evidence required. You must still use in-text citations from the short story (this is the textual evidence listed above) and have works cited page with your chosen short story as an entry.
• No outside sources are required. However, outside sources to support your ideas about the text are encouraged.
• MLA format with the proper heading, header, works cited page, and in-text citations (any paper NOT in MLA format will not be eligible for full credit). This also means 12-pt. Times New Roman font and proper spacing.
• Properly MLA formatted Works Cited list.

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