The Woman Warrior - Chapter 1 by Maxine Hong Kingston

From Stephanie

1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.

Ghosts/Spirits – Dead ancestors of the Chinese. Gifts of food and origami (artistically folded paper figures) are left for them as sacrifices. Only worthy spirits are left gifts. Spirits who were thought to be a disgrace to their community are left to fend for themselves amongst whatever gifts they can get, if any.

Chinese Confucianism – The family system is the foundation for society. Families make up the government, and the government makes up the nation. In these families, the father and the oldest brother earn the greatest respect.

Cautionary Tale – The narrator’s mother tells her this story, about the aunt who commits adultery, in order to make sure she doesn’t disgrace her family as well. The narrator’s beginning to menstruate is a key factor in the timing of this cautionary tale.

2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.

The narrator has begun menstruating and her mother decides to tell her a story about her aunt, who is never to be spoken of. The men in the family had gone away to America and the aunt had gotten pregnant by another man from the village. The word spread as the pregnancy developed and the villagers began to show their anger and disappointment towards the aunt. In the middle of the night, they attacked her home and completely destroyed anything of any value to her and her family. The aunt was terribly distraught and ended up giving birth to her child that night. Out of fear of what the villagers would do to her family and her child as a result of her adulterous affair, she drowned herself and her child in the well outside her home.

“My aunt haunts me – her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes. I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her, and she was a spite suicide, drowning herself n the drinking water. The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one, whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute” (pg. 16).

3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.

The Woman Warrior seems to tell a story through many other short stories. Why do you think Maxine Hong Kingston chose this story, about the disgraceful aunt, to begin the book? In what ways could this tale foreshadow the rest of the novel?