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 students whispered, but when one of the Negro students combed her hair over her ears Shanghai-style, they were "Shanghai twins, except that she was covered with black like my paintings.
             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." Despite how softly Chinese speak English, they "can't hear Americans at all; the language is too soft...."
             One of the reasons On Discovery is so disturbing is because the gap between one idea and the other is sharp, quick and vast. One minute, Tang Ao is a man who is having a lucky break, the next he is shackled and...