Story-Telling using 'The Woman Warrior' by Maxine Hong Kingston

Essay by Chien WuUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, January 1996

download word file, 2 pages 4.7

Downloaded 137 times

Story-Telling

Storytelling has helped humankind evolve into a wiser species by allowing those with enough attentiveness and intelligence to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. The Chinese culture, like many others world wide, base their beliefs largely on stories passed down from generation to generation. Because stories are told and retold, alterations and even new versions appear. Such is the case in ' Fa Mu Lan,' for more than one version is known to exist to this day. Many times the changes in a story are to put its message on a certain level for an individual to understand. If the change is to keep the message updated with society, the version would be a modernized one. These stories affect the stories with a flavor of their own personal character. In The Woman WarriorMaxine Hong Kingston utilizes stories told to her by her mother as a device to introduce readers to some aspect of her life.

Kingston's mother pass down to her the wisdom she has acquired from her mistakes throughout her life along with best hopes and wishes.

The Woman Warrior is a story about the life of Maxine Hong Kingston. It is easy to see her identity from those memorable occurrences that she mentions throughout her book, especially the stories her mother told her. The story of 'Fa Mu Lan', for example, teaches women to strive to be the best they can be. It is a story about a woman warrior who takes place of her father in battle and returns in victory as a heroine. It evidently shows that her mother tells this story with her sincerest hopes and passions for her. Her mother wishes her to become more than what it was hope for . Even though woman in old China only grow...