English Question (Coursework Sample)

Name: Professor: Literature 307S 23 February 2022 Word Count: 260 The Theme of the Voiceless Women Introduction There are various major themes in The Woman Warrior, and one of them is the theme of silence, lack of a voice, or being voiceless. The reader is taken down a path of women finding their personal voice. Kingston, the narrator, provides the language and the words for many Chinese women who are voiceless. Significance of this theme to the text Although the theme in question focuses on the lack of a voice, Kingston’s memoir paradoxically and ironically begins with the phrase “You must not tell anyone.” By virtue of her writing this memoir, Kingston is literally telling everyone or anyone who will read it, about the things she ought not to say. This theme is prominent throughout the rest of the chapters. It shows how traditional Chinese women do not have a voice, and whose stories or memories are easily forgotten. This theme also helps bring out other themes as well. For instance, The Woman Warrior presents a picture of the role of traditional Chinese women in society. Under this theme, one can notice how it is women, rather than men, who are the ones who put down other women. Kingston is dedicated to giving her aunt, whom she calls the No Name Woman, a voice. This is a woman who is considered to have no legacy, no voice, and whose memory has been deliberately forgotten by the people who survived her. By featuring her aunt in her memoir, Kingston gives her a voice. She talks of some of the major events that transpired while she was still alive. She does not get to know her aunt’s real name, but she is determined to tell her story regardless. She acknowledges that she “alone devote pages of paper to her.” In chapter 5, the last chapter of Kingston’s memoir, she laments that while they (Chinese-American girls and women) aspired to be like the females in the American society by talking less or whispering, they “whispered even more softly than the Americans.” Kingston tells of how she mistreated her silent classmate, a Chinese girl like herself. This girl keeps to herself and rarely speaks out except when reading out loud. Kingston torments this girl out of spite of her silence, ...