Hassan Latif
English Composition 101:35
Lionel Wynter
After intensive freezing and thawing, even rocks begin to break down and disintegrate. In a era where women are objectified and seen only for their maternal purpose, many third world cultures demoralize women to debilitating circumstances inevitably causing them to break down and give up all together. In "No Name Women" by Hong Kingston, the mother tells a moralistic talk-story to her daughter as the conversation is screened from the father, about the fatally destined aunt. In the story, Kingston often shows women faced with tribulations that they are forced to endure, evoking distress and discomfort. Within the mere first few words of "The No Name Women", Kingston foreshadows fear and subordination through the discreetness of the conversation between the mother and daughter. Through the traditional talk-stories of the mother, the one of the forbidden aunt tells a lot about the culture and views of life, from the perspective of a Chinese-American. With the set complications and double standards women dealt with on a daily basis, it would be reluctant to think one would not eventually break down.
Throughout the story, Kingston encrypted a lot of tribulations in which the women specifically had to endure through despotism and cruelty. Through every turn, women had to face little to big predicaments all at least remotely caused by the female-demoralizing cultural beliefs. When the townspeople found out about the impregnated aunt whose husband was not around for years, the blame when straight to her, leaving out the vital partner in this act. Knowing well that conceiving the child was a two-person act, the townsmen along with the aunt's blood-related family, bashed down on her alone, to the point where suicide became the best option. "Remember Father's drowned-in-the-well sister? I cannot ask that.