Well here we are again talking about “The Woman Warrior”. These last two chapters are not as dry as the first half of the book, but still the dialogue is confusing, as in which characters are to whom. Another confusing factor of this book is that Kingston, in most cases doesn’t give out the characters real names, but more of a nickname she has made up. Some feelings I have with “At the Western Place” chapter is that I thought I was confused with “Shaman”, this chapter I couldn’t follow which character is Kingston and her mother. I thought the moon orchid was Kingston’s Aunt, and Brave orchid was Kingston’s mother but it wasn’t clear so I was probably wrong all along.
There were some connections with the end chapters with the last chapter we read “Shaman”. The classification of ghosts was made again, it was made clear that the “American” people were ghosts to moon orchid just coming to America. It seems that when the Chinese Immigrants coming from China to America refer to Americans as ghosts and there are tons kinds of different ghosts.
For some reason I felt sad when moon orchid wanted to get to know her grand kids and they just ignored her except for the younger one. Moon orchid wanted to comb the oldest girl’s hair, but when she tried the girl glared at her like she was a stranger. It made moon orchid uneasy that all her grand kids were so “Americanized” that they didn’t know much of the Chinese language.
One specific point in the chapter that I found amusing was that brave orchid wanted moon orchid to just barge in on her husband that abandoned her and demand to move in and have his second wife as a servant. It seems to me now that in America the Chinese woman are more demanding, and don’t take crap from the men. Not as they did in China when the men walked all over them, and they did as the men told them to do.
I thought this book was a good read, took longer than expected to understand and follow, but it was good all around. I wish Kingston could have been a little easier with the hidden meanings, and themes. As she wrote they were not very obvious all the time, but it was good that I got to think more than usual. Well that’s it for now. Later.
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i think a number of people in class are put off by the hidden meanings and themes that you talk about here, Matt. So to ask the typical literature professor question: what if she hid those things on purpose? What happens if we assume that she has a reason for not just saying things and making it all clear? What would be a compelling reason for that?