After reading the section Shaman in Maxine Hong Kingston’s book “The Woman Warrior”, I find Kingston’s mother to be infuriating. The Kingston’s mother decisions and stories only scar Kingston and make it hard for Kingston to fit into her new American world. This is seen throughout much of Shaman, for instance there is the slave trade story and the story about fighting ghost both of which complicate or shape Kingston’s views in very obscured ways.
The stories about ghost are first shared in the chapter when Kingston tells us that her mother went to China to take up an education in medicine. Her mother got a degree in “midwifery, pediatrics, gynecology, medicine, surgery, therapeutics, ophthalmology, bacteriology, dermatology, nursing, and bandage.”(57). Whilst in med school we hear stories of Kingston’s mother being a prominent shaman who wards of the ghost that attack and fed upon the babies that the mother delivers. After moving to the United States however Kingston’s mother the high regarded shaman had told her young daughter all about the ghost of her past. Kingston took these tales to heart thinking that in the new land every person that was not like her racially was a ghost but most of all the pale white ghost that she feared. By telling Kingston a plethora of stories that she was too young to hear Kingston grew up with the notion that the stories where real and that pushed her further away from her new American world as she constantly lived in fear.
The day that Kingston’s mom chose to partake in slavery probably changed Kingston the most however. As a girl Kingston remembers going to the market with her mother to buy a slave. Whilst at the market her mother ranted to her daughter telling her how much of a burden she was costing her “two hundred dollars american money” when slaves where free (83). This put down undoubtedly had negativly effected the raising of Kingston, being a memory that she would carry with her till she wrote this memoir. These feelings deminish self worth and pride obscuring the way that Kingston was taught to view herself.
In conclusion Kingstons mother was detrimental to her self asteam, and feelings of self worth negatively driving her childhood.
Discussion questions
- How does nurturing affect children and the way they grow up?
- Why does Chinese culture get stereo typed so deeply and the actual cultural gets hidden so extensively?
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Hi hunter, you really caught my attention with the title of your blog being “The mother of a warrior”. It was so fitting for this chapter that we just read for class. The mother and daughter relationship is so interesting to see from an outsider’s perspective. The way the daughter speaks to her mother really shows how the daughter is not very loyal to her due to the fact that in the start of the book, she told the readers a secret that she was not supposed to say. “…my mothers face will not change anymore, except to age. She is intelligent, alert, and pretty. I can’t tell if she is happy”(page 59). In this quote you can picture in your head the mothers expressions in this scene of the book. When reading your blog, it made me think so much about how life is in China and women.
Kingston’s mother is indeed a significant part of the plot because of her influence over Kingston. Her mother has an impact on how she perceives her purpose in life as well as her perception of the society she is immersed in. Your blog post brought me clarity on how these elaborate stories involving ghosts were affecting Kingston. You mentioned that the stories pushed her away from the American world that she was a part of and how she constantly lived in fear with these tails living in her mind. Kingstons’ mother does have a negative impact of Kingstons perception of life. A quote that changed my perspective of her character reads, “ My mother, who turned her back and walked up the mountain, looked down at the mass of flesh and rocks, the sleeves, the blood flecks” (96) .This gave me insight about what her mother has been through, she has experienced a lot of death and has helped people in the midst of war and violence. Kingstons’ mothers past trauma may have an influence on how she raises her daughter.
Hi hunter, I really liked the way you were able to summarize and display Kingston’s relationship with her mother. This opened my eyes to the true trauma that her mother has passed down onto Kingston and made me see that her mother is responsible for a large amount of the fear that she faces and suffers with due to the tales that were put into her head at a young age causing her to fear American society rather than connect with it and be open to it she was taught to live in fear through her mother. I think that due to this feeling of fear that her mother has instilled in her from a young age, Kingston isn’t loyal to her mother and doesn’t respect her mother because her mother isn’t honest or kind to her so she feels no need to keep things her mother has said private. We see this in the beginning of the book when it starts by her stating, “You must not tell anyone, what I am about to tell you.”(1,3). This displays that they don’t have a loyal and loving relationship because she is sharing her mothers secret with us. Nurturing affects children and the way they grow up because when a children grows up without being nurtured and supported they tend to look for love and support from others since they never received it from their parents; it can also lead to more anxiety and feelings of having to be there for themself and take care of themself from a young age which can make them appear tougher because of this.
Hi Hunter, your blog post was great and definitely helped me think of the mother in a new way from a different perspective. Answering your first question, The way you are nurtured and brought up as a child is everything that you are and going to be in the future when you’re older. It makes more sense now as to why Kingston is the way she is. Her mother told her old stories to scare her into not doing certain things. There are many quotes from the chapter where her mother says something to her about the way she lives and constantly insults her, one for example her mother says “you must be eating too much yin” (pg 100). Her mother assumed that she was sick because she was eating too much. There’s no real explanation as to why her mother treated her the way she did when she was younger and it’s kind of sad to me that as her mother she would want to put fear in her child at such a young age.
Hi Hunter! I thought your title “The Mother of a Warrior ” was interesting as I see Kingston be the child of a warrior. There is no doubt that Kingston’s mother plays a significant role and has a significant impact on her life. Her mother is both the example and rule setter Kingston grows to try and understand, but not necessarily, please. Through the personal stories Kingston’s mother tells her about her past, the reader is able to get a better understanding of who her mother is, and why she is the way she is. In your blog, you mention that the stories her mother tells tries to push her away from the American world. I think that is because her mother was powerful and respected in China and here (in America) she is no one. “You have no idea how much I have fallen coming to America” (Kingston 1062). In this quote along with the context of the rest of the chapter, the reader is able to see and understand the drastic disparity between the role in which her mother had and now has.
Hey Hunter, great post! I really appreciated the way you explored the treatment from Kingston’s mother and how it affected Kingston later in life. The way a child is nurtured early on has major implications to how mentally prepared they will be for their adult life. Kingston experiences much strife because of her aversion of foreigners. Living in America has been extremely difficult because she feels uncomfortable around these so called “ghosts.” Kingston knows foreigners due to her mother’s stories. We see Kingston’s mother state that “the ghosts took shapes nothing like our own.” in one of her stories about ghosts in China. This then causes Kingston to interpret the shapes nothing like her own as people of other races. Kingston is also negatively affected by the other stories her mother tells her though. She hears stories about Chinese culture that depict some of the more graphic sides of their culture. This not only hurts Kingston by exposing her to scarring stories, but also puts Chinese culture in a bad light for her. Kingston’s mother, though she most likely told Kingston all about Chinese culture, the most brutal and frightening stories stuck with her an made her, which makes all of China look bad when these practices are a minority and do not represent China as a whole. This type of belief is dangerous because it is an endless cycle of people being afraid of each other just because they are foreign to each other.
Kingston, Maxine Hong, and Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Woman Warrior. The Library of America, 2022.
Hey Hunter, I really like your perspective on this chapter of The Woman Warrior. The value of gender roles in society was displayed throughout this segment of the novel. Kingston interacts with her mother and we are given insight into their relationship and how her mother shaped her life as both a child and an adult. This chapter also showed how young girls were treated and the way that their lives were valued significantly less than boys. Kingston writes, “In China, my parents would sell my sisters and me” (99). Additionally, though it was from the previous chapter, I feel it is still relevant when Kingston says, “‘Girls are maggots in the rice.’ ‘It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters’” (43). Kingston learns of her mother’s bravery and perseverance but grapples with finding her place in society as a woman. Girls were seen as burdensome and families would wish to have a boy instead. Her mother was hard on her through her childhood but they have similar drives and perseverance in the face of adversity.
Hi Hunter! Your post was very well put and really helped me consider how truly awful Kingston was being raised and the difficulties she had to face. On top of that your title really caught my attention as it is very creative and does a great job at setting up your blog post. Kingston’s mother caused Kingston to become a strong and independent. The way that Kingston was raised caused her to be a warrior as she had to fight and overcome many hardships. As stated by Maxine Hong Kingston “In China my parents would sell my sisters and me.” (99). That quote stood out to me and furthers your point of how the way that Kingston was raised effects her negatively. Kingston is under the impression and almost fear that her parents would give her and her siblings up if they were still in China. That is very upsetting as no child should feel like their parents would give them up for any reason.
Hi Hunter! I thought you did a very nice job with your blog post. I agree that Kingston’s mother can be frustrating when looking at all of the fake stories that she has told her. When I read about all of the stories Kingston’s mother has told her, I thought about all of the cautionary tales my family told me as a child. I believe that being a parent is extremely hard and it’s not alway easy navigating it. For Kingston’s mother, she might have not known how else to handle certain situations with her daughter and at some points it was just easier to tell her the tale, rather than the truth. Additionally, Kingston’s mother may not know any different way to parent her children. Growing up in China, if she was told these same tales, then she probably does not know any other way to warn her own child. Then, Kingston keeps commenting how they are no longer in China and how she does not want to go back. She does not want to go back to the way of life that her mother, grandmother, and other ancestors lived. Kingston says, “I did not want to go where the ghosts took shapes nothing like our own” (99). When she says this, it seems like she is referring to her culture and how she doesn’t agree with its values. She doesn’t agree with the way couples are married, the way children are parented, the way women are treated, and just the hierarchy of the culture itself.
Hi Hunter, I really enjoyed the unique points that you brought up in your blog post! I can definitely see why you find Kingston’s mother infuriating; it is clear that some of her stories are more harmful than helpful and have left Kingston traumatized and confused. However, I do believe that Kingston’s mother is simply doing what she has been taught and does not know any other way to raise a child. She tells her daughter the same stories that she presumably heard when she was younger that helped shape her life and perspectives. I also think that Kingston’s mother was never taught the proper way to articulate and discuss her emotions, so it is easier for her to raise her daughter with the help of these metaphors instead of actually having these difficult conversations with her. Kingston sees life from a Western perspective that her mother will never be able to understand. When Kingston finds old photos of her mother to be amusing because of their unnecessary seriousness, she says “my mother does not understand Chinese-American snapshots. ‘What are you laughing at?’ she asks.” This shows that there is a cultural divide between mother and daughter that is difficult to cross, and I believe this is why stories were so important in Kingston’s upbringing.
Hello Hunter, your analyzation of Kingston’s mother Brave Orchid is quite fascinating because it truly indicates a cultural and social imbalance in Kinston’s world. Kingston’s mother is truly the only thing that reverts the family back to their roots especially in the way she cements them into their new life and intertwines her culture in a manner that does not have to make sense in American culture. Her main goal was to carry her family in the same manner that she was brought up and one of these things were her mother’s talk stories in China as she grew. Moreover, when raising her family she fully intended to do as her own mother and include these talk-stories which shaped her childhood without thinking that Kingston would have to acknowledge a comfort within these fearful stories to a country that is only hers culturally and fear the country her family is assumed to be assimilated to. However, Brave Orchid truly did not intend on her child fearing her own country and causing a separation between both her cultures. As many immigrants today, there becomes a question on how to raise their kids and many believe that they are neither from one place nor the other and are in limbo with their cultural identity and Kingston truly struggles with this. Her mother’s ghost stories were a comfort in China but for her American child they seemed to disturb her in the sense of realism, integration and balance. Kingston reverted to reverting to her identity in a manner similar to a light switch where she were to “push the deformed into [her] dreams, which are in Chinese, the language of impossible stories,” in which she could only believe as she slept (86). Her sense of identity is truly depicted here as she struggles with the idea that these talk-stories were impossible and could never be real without realizing that they were to indicate a further message within them. Brave Orchid seemingly carried her talk stories to relive a part of her life that had ended once she left her country and with these talk stories of almost supernatural beings or examples of what to be or not to be, fear instilled her child as she fought a crisis to balance her Chinese and Americans separately rather than intertwined. Furthermore, although this was not her mother’s intent the nurturing aspect depicted in traditional maternal American values gets lost as Brave Orchid herself, never experienced that in her life so instilling her culture was the only way she truly knew how to mother.
Hi Hunter! I agree with you that Kingston’s mother, mainly through her story telling, created these fears that Kingston continues to hold onto throughout her life. Nurturing affects children and the way they grow up. Kingston’s mother is presented to be this empowered woman who has accomplished much in her life especially through the years of hard work it took for her to become a doctor. Through Kingston’s mother’s stories that she tells her she constantly implements the idea that Women are useless in Chinese societies and are not praised or wanted in families. Kingston’s mother reminds her many times that no matter what girls accomplish they are always seen to be disappointments. “And here I was in the United States paying 200 dollars for you (pg.99)”, says Kingston’s mother. Kingston lives with fear and holds the idea of her unimportance from her own mothers words. Kingston’s twists on her mother’s stories portray women to be heroines. This is her way of trying to reverse and break free from her fears that were embedded in her head from a young age.
Hey Hunter, I think you gave a very interesting interpretation of Kingston and her mother. I believe Kingston’s mother did have an influence in shaping how Kingston viewed the world. All the stories Kingston was told did influence her interpretation of the world. “From earliest awareness, my mothers stories are always timely, I watched three airplanes parting… I dream that the sky is covered from horizon to horizon with rows of airplanes, dirigibles, rocket ships, flying bombs, their formations as even as stitches’ ‘(pg. 96). Being born during World War II in addition to the stories her mother told her of constant bombings in China, Kingston grew up terrified and expecting to be bombed. We see that the stories Kingston was told severely weighed down on her throughout the years. “I don’t want to hear Wine Ghosts and Hobo Ghosts. I’ve found awesome places in this country that are ghost-free. And I think I belong there, where I don’t catch colds or use my hospitalization insurance. Here I’m sick so often, I can barely work. I can’t help it, Mama.”(p. 108). We can see that Kingston’s mother mentally drained her daughter to the point that she is physically sick being around her. This however is not due to a lack of love but rather a reminder of all the past stories when she is in her mother’s presence. Nurturing absolutely affects how children grow up because it builds the foundation for who the child will become. Kingston not receiving much nurture from her mother definitely matured her early and could have made her strong but at the cost of leaving her with trauma.
Hi Hunter, I really enjoyed your blog post, you did an excellent job explaining the relationship between Kingston and her mother. Your blog really helped to open my eyes more to the effects many of Kingston’s mother’s words and stories have on her. Nurturing has a large effect on children and the person they grow up to be. Nurturing promotes strong emotional and social development, and children who are not nurtured can grow to be cold. We can see that Kingston’s mother isn’t a very nurturing person with all of the stories she tells her. Her mother is constantly explaining that women are given extremely high expectations and is constantly reminding her that women will be disappointments no matter what they accomplish. We can see this in the second chapter as well, “When we Chinese girls listened to adults talk story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves” (pg. 19). This shows that there will always be a standard that Chinese women must live up to and all of this added pressure given from her mother can cause high stress levels and lead Kingston to believe she will never be good enough.
Hi Hunter. I really enjoyed the perspective you had on Kingston’s mother. I completely believe the way your mother treats you especially for girls has a huge impact on who you are as a person. I agree that kingstons mother is infuriating. I also believe though that without a strict mother you don’t learn as much. Kingston’s mother always downgraded her and tried to prove she was better. The other students fought over who could sit next to me at exams,’ says my mother. ‘One glimpse at my paper when they get stuck, and they could keep going’” (Kingston, 64). In this quote Kingston mother is telling Kingston this because she wants her to be smarter and to try harder.
Hi Hunter, I enjoyed reading your post and thought you made some excellent points. The title of your post was the first thing that caught my attention, “The Mother of a Warrior”. I agree that in this chapter you can see how the stories have affected Kingston, she took them to heart and believed them. However, I think these stories helped show Kingston how strong she has to be. When the mother is sharing one of the many ghost stories she has in this chapter she sleeps in one of the rooms that is haunted, the mother says to the ghost “There is no pain you can inflict that i cannot endure” (70). I feel as though this proves how strong of a woman her mother is and gives her an idea of how strong of a woman she can be.
Hi Hunter, after reading your blog post I believe you did a very good job explaining the chapter. I really liked your title, “The mother of a warrior” because when I had to write my blog post the mother telling the stories about Fa Mu Lan was trying to show her how to be a woman warrior and mentor her, in this chapter you can really see the mothers role in her life. This quote that I found proves my point, “There is no pain you can inflict that i cannot endure” (70). As you can see her mom gives her advice not just in this quote but through the stories she tells. To answer your question, “How does nurturing affect children and the way they grow up?”, I believe it affects young children by protecting them from the worst effects of adversity.