Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir doesn't share the focus of typical memoirs: biographical details of friends, siblings, favorite hobbies. Rather, Kingston examines the social influences that shaped her life, her view of herself and the world. The author is mainly interested in his mother's "talk stories", which are stories about Brave Orchid and life in China. Part of this Chinese heritage lies in the social and familial oppression of women which is solidly reflected in the stories of this novel. Perhaps the most striking example of this oppression is found in the gripping scene that constitutes the first chapter of The Woman Warrior, No Name Woman. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayBrave Orchid tells daughter a precautionary story about her “nameless” sister-in-law who committed suicide in China after conceiving an illegitimate child. child while her husband was in America. The story itself, by recounting the actions of a woman whose family refuses to remember, becomes taboo: "You must not tell anyone what I am going to tell you", warns the narrator's mother (1). By preserving only the sin of the story and thus the condemnation of the "nameless aunt", the mother effectively neutralizes all of the specific characteristics that define a person, succeeding in inflicting the aunt's punishment and rendering her literally no one. The narrator reflects, wondering “what my aunt wore,” imagining the possible scenarios that led to his aunt’s pregnancy and death (6). Was it rape? Or a mutual infatuation? Is this important? “Being a woman and having a daughter in times of famine was wasteful enough. My aunt couldn't be the only romantic to give up everything for sex. In China, women did not choose” (6). The birth scene is one of the most disturbing and beautiful scenes in the book. There is so much beauty present in the scene: ten little fingers and toes, the act of breastfeeding for the first time, and a baby sleeping on its mother's belly. The scene contrasts sharply with the filth of a pigsty in the cold of the night. It is ironic that a woman, the only one capable of carrying out the birthing process, is ostracized because of this very act. It is tragic and beautiful that the newness of a life mixes so quickly with the calm of death - the water of the well swallowing the two sparks of life which burn like the wandering stars in the night sky which is the only witness to the my aunt's loneliness. How terrible and beautiful it is that “mothers who love their children take them with them,” even in the calm of death which is much kinder than the politics of society. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from Our expert writers. After the men of the family left the village, Kingston notes: "They expected her alone to maintain the traditions, which her brothers, now among the barbarians, could fumble around without being noticed." Heavy, deep-rooted women had to hold the past against the flood, safe for the return” (8). But in a world where women are “maggots” and “slaves” and encouraged to take part in their own subordination, we cannot expect anything else. “There is no profit in raising girls. It is better to raise geese than girls” (46). The only way to escape this legacy lies in countering the traditional view of women as slaves or servile wives – the warrior woman embodied in the vengeful Fa Mu Lan. This figure represents a contrast with.