Quest for Identity in Maxine Hong Kingstons Autobiography, The Woman W

Quest for Identity in Maxine Hong capital of Jamaicas Autobiography, The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingstons autobiography, The Woman Warrior, features a young Chinese-American constantly searching for an unusual bird that would fare as her impeccable guide on her quest for individuality (49). Instead of the flawless guide she seeks, Kingston develops under the influence of other teachers who either expect more fallible or less realistic. Dependent upon their guidance, she grows under the influence of American and Chinese schools and the role models of Brave Orchid, Fa Mu Lan, and Moon Orchid. Her education by these counselors because causes her to abandon her search for an escort, the bird to be found somewhere in the measureless sky, and she begins to look inside herself for the ideograph to fly (Kingston 35). The new song Kingston in the long run creates with her talk story of Tsai Yen, verifies her optimistic distinction from her educators, cultural norms, which have indoctri nated and restricted her childhood.During much of her childhood, Kingston goes to the American School during the day and the Chinese School in the evening as she filters the conflicting material given in each of these environments to determine what works in her Chinese-American life. In attending the American school, Kingston discovers American ideologies of loquaciousness and arrogance. From the influence of their American schoolmates Kingston and her siblings never said, Oh, no, youre too kind. . . . Im stupid. Im ugly. They were capable children. . . . But they were not modest (Kingston 134). The children expected their Chinese parents to join in their arrogance, and Kingston proudly tells her mother, I got straight As, Mama (45). H... ...d not the measureless sky, her voice begins to sing a distinctly Chinese-American song. Kingston sings just as Tsai Yen sang about China and her family . . . from savage lands, and speaking of her newly found identity, established in America bu t conceived in China, Kingston decides, It translated well (Kingston 209).Works CitedHunt, Linda. I Could non Figure Out What Was My Village Gender Vs. Ethnicity in Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior. Melus 12.3 (1985) 5-12.Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. New York Vintage Books,1989.Ling, Amy. Maxine Hong Kingston and the Dialogic Dilemma of Asian American Writers. Ideas of Home Literature of Asian Migration. Ed. Geoffrey Kain. East Lansing Michigan SUP, 1997. 141-56.Wang, Veronica. Reality and Fantasy The Chinese-American Womans Quest for Identity. Melus 12.3 (1985) 23-31.