Use of Contrast by Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a writer who uses contrast as a powerful tool under her pen. Her use of contrast makes a reader see another side of a story that the reader would otherwise might never have thought of. In Silence, On Discovery, and No name Woman, her writing will lead you on a way that is usual, that is easily recognizable, but as the story progresses, there is a shift in thoughts that is very different from what the reader is used to. She uses this weapon as a method to divide ideas and conquer them. In Silence, there is a distinction between the Chinese schools and the American schools, Chinese feminism and American feminism, even the black and white of the protagonist's drawings. The students in Chinese schools and Chinese women were loud, but the American schools held structured quiet, and Chinese Americans spoke softly, even more so than any other American. Her drawings were black or white depending on the medium, and were a curtain over the rest of the drawing. However, it is the description of the "Negro students (Black Ghosts)" that brings the idea home. The Negro students "laughed loudest" while the Chinese
" Finally, the narration shifts from that of a story teller to that of a documentary. There is mostly just a recount of how the villagers came to punish the family in a way that even after the "swept up the rice and sewed it back up into sacks. Maxine Hong Kingston's use of contrast is not only used for divide and conquer tactics, but to bring together ideas. His torture is described in painful detail until he is changed such that he would "bed to have his feet rewrapped tight" despite it being painful to have bound feet. Her skillful choices in words that are often fighting against each other and harmonizing at the same time are amazing. She changes her use of it from one large contrast to a change in every sentence depending on how she wants to confer her ideas upon the reader. Through contrast within the Chinese community and among other communities, the protagonist's longing to speak out is clearly made and only a very thin, short line connects the quiet Chinese with the Chinese who "are shouters, hollering face to face. These contrasting shifts makes every word in this story extremely important and exists in every sentence. In showing other sides to a story, some as different as two sides of a coin, she also brings forth the connecting points to the center of her stories. The very fact that he was a man going through a woman's 'beautification process' makes this story a very poignant one. In her mother's telling, the persecuted aunt who brought shame upon her family is hardly mentioned. " One of the reasons On Discovery is so disturbing is because the gap between one idea and the other is sharp, quick and vast. Imagining her aunt as a very lovely woman, the protagonist envisions her aunt as a victim of men. the smells of from the spilled preserves lasted," Just as the pain of this shame lasted.
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Acceptance Essays
