Silence Essay, Research Paper

In The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, captures readers with her own interpretation of what it was like to grow up as a female Chinese American. As a little girl, she came to America with her family. She shows us how difficult it was to fit into two different societies. In the Chinese society the woman were taught to be silent. “The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chines girl”(Kinston, 166). However, In America, Freedom of Speech is one or our rights. Speaking up is taught in the American society. “I read aloud in first grade though, and heard the whisper with little squeaks come out of my throat. “Louder”, said the teacher, who scared the voice away again”(Kinston, 166). Maxine explains to us how she feared silence and how she struggles to come to speech so she won’t end up like her two aunts.

When Maxine was little, her mother, Brave Orchid, had

Silence

In The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, captures readers with her own interpretation of what it was like to grow up as a female Chinese American. As a little girl, she came to America with her family. She shows us how difficult it was to fit into two different societies. In the Chinese society the woman were taught to be silent. “The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chines girl”(Kinston, 166). However, In America, Freedom of Speech is one or our rights. Speaking up is taught in the American society. “I read aloud in first grade though, and heard the whisper with little squeaks come out of my throat. “Louder”, said the teacher, who scared the voice away again”(Kinston, 166). Maxine explains to us how she feared silence and how she struggles to come to speech so she won’t end up like her two aunts.

When Maxine was little, her mother, Brave Orchid, had told her that she had to cut her tongue so she won’t be tongue-tied. Her tongue would be able to move and speak any language. “Maybe that’s why my mother cut my tongue, she pushed my tongue up and sliced the frenum”(Kingston, 163). However, her mother had lied to her because she did not want Maxine to talk a lot. “But isn’t a ready tongue an evil?”(Kingston, 164). Brave Orchid wanted Maxine to be silent, not talkative in a ghost country. Brave Orchid did not want her daughter to forget the Chinese culture and be customized to the American culture.

Maxine didn’t talk much in Kindergarten and had hard time speaking English. “During the first silent year I spoke to no one at school, did not ask before going to lavatory, and flunked Kindergarten”(Kinston, 165). Maxine did not know that she had to talk and preferred to be silent even in school. “It was when I found out I had to talk that school became a misery, that the silence became a misery. I did not speak and felt bad each time I did not speak”(Kinston, 166). When she did find out that she had to talk, she started hating silence and tried to battle with her lack of ability to speak. She felt being able to speak and still not speaking was like being handicap.

Although Maxine did start getting some voice in class, she hated one Chinese girl who would not speak up even in Chinese school. “She was a year older than I and was in my class for twelve years. During all those years she read aloud but would not talk”(Kingston, 172). The little Chinese girl could read out loud but didn’t have the voice to speak out loud. The little Chinese girl, preferred to be silent, unless it was one of her duty’s to talk. She only talked in class, when it was recommended for her to talk, but not outside of her class.

Maxine hated the little Chinese girl because she disliked silence. She wanted her to talk because being silent reminded her of her two aunts. One of her aunt, who bears a child and is harried by the villagers and by her family in to drowning herself. Even before she died, she never said who the father of the child was and kept silent. Her other aunt, Moon Orchid, who came to America and went insane. She denied speaking up for her marital rights and kept silent. She didn’t fight back for her marriage and went insane. She didn’t feel strong enough to face up to her husband and ask him, why he left her and married some one else.

Maxine states:

“Why won’t you talk?” I started to cry. What if I couldn’t stop, and

everyone would want to know what happened? “Now look what you’ve

done,” I scolded. “You’re going to pay for this. I want to know why.

Any you’re going to tell me why. You don’t see I’m trying to help

you out, do you? Do you want to be like this, dumb (do you know

what dumb means?), your whole life? Don’t you ever want to be

a cheerleader? Or a pompon girl? What are you going to do for a

Living? Yeah, you’re going to have to work because you can’t be

A housewife. Somebody has to marry you before you can be a

housewife. And you, you are a plant. Do you know that?

That’s all you are if you don’t talk. If you don’t talk, you can’t have

A personality. You’ll have no personality and no hair. (180)

Maxine wants the little Chinese girl to break her silence and talk. . She feels that she is in a battle, trying to make the girl talk. She compares her with a plant. Something that has no feelings or even complains when it’s in pain, it reminds her of her two aunts.