The Stages of Self-Identity in The Woman Warrior
Much of Kingston's The Woman Warrior follows the oral tradition, and retells the stories of her family's past and of cultural figures like Fa Mu Lan. Not surprisingly, "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe" is a retelling of Kingston's personal life and her quest to find her own identity. In this section, Kingston depicts the difficulty she had growing up in San Francisco, while trying to understand her mother and her Chinese background by presenting various stages of her life. These stages are portrayed in four various characters: the quiet Chinese girl from her school, Pee-A-Nah, the crazy witch lady; the mentally retarded boy, and Ts'ai Yen. Each character then represent Kingston's struggle to assimilate with society, her desire to understanding herself, the difficulty of defining her identity, and the resolution that was finally found between both cultures.When she was younger, Kingston began to notice the differences between the Chinese children and the "ghost" children. Her silence, she believes, "had to do with being a Chinese girl" (166). In the figure of the quiet Chinese girl from her school, Kingston finds an outlet to release her pent up resentment towards her culture and portray her feelings of weakness in America
The girl is quiet, overprotected by her parents, adheres to the Chinese culture, and was thought to be mute and dumb; very much like how Kingston was believed to have a zero IQ. Her struggle communicating with her mother and the pharmacists once again shows the complexities of obeying Chinese traditions, while yet living in a totally different culture. In this stage of her life, Kingston can't express herself firmly with her family nor in school, leaving her with a feeling of nothingness. Like Pee-A-Nah, Kingston had allowed her appearance to become messy and dirty. Interestingly, in describing the mentally retarded boy, Kingston mentions two large cartons that he always carried around with him. Oftentimes, her mother would keep secrets about their traditions, which Kingston thought was "because [she] had been born among ghosts, were taught by ghosts, and is [herself] a ghost" (183). By telling her mother the list, "she-and the world-would become more like [her], and [she] would never be alone again" (198). Generally in life, we all go through various phases while discovering ourselves. Her tone becomes much angrier and frustrated, representing her feelings discontentment with herself. Because her mother never really explained to her any customs, she wasn't able to establish an identity either, which emphasizes the importance of one's culture to personal growth. Very often she sees Pee-A-Nah in a slough where her mother goes to pick useful herbs. Though these different stages specifically pertain to Kingston, they still transcend all ethnicities. At the end of the novel, Kingston is finally able to tell her mother her list and create her own sense of self as a Chinese girl living in an American society. Thus, the figure of the crazy lady helps convey Kingston's dual personalities that she felt emerging; on the one hand, she was like Pee-A-Nah to the pharmacist "ghosts," but on the other, she was a "ghost" to the Chinese. Each figure represents a transitional phase that Kingston had to overcome.
Common topics in this essay:
Pee-A-Nah Kingston,
Kingston Chinese,
America Kingston,
Chinese Oftentimes,
Ts'ai Yen,
Brave Orchid,
Pipe Kingston's,
Yen Kingston,
Yen Chinese,
Chinese American,
chinese girl,
ts'ai yen,
mentally retarded,
mentally retarded boy,
retarded boy,
own identity,
crazy lady,
sense lost identity,
reed pipe,
lost identity,
sense lost,
barbarian reed,
quiet chinese girl,
barbarian reed pipe,
crazy witch woman,
|
Acceptance Essays
