No Name Woman Analysis

Words: 555
Pages: 3

The story, “No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston tells a tale of a young woman who committed adultery outside of her marriage, she ended up drowning herself in the family well along with her child because of the harsh judgements from the villagers. The woman brought such a disgrace to her family that they pretended she was never alive. She was revealed to be Kingston aunt who shall remain nameless. The story flows from past to present as young Maxine tries to clarify the information given to her about the no name woman. Kingston retell the story in hopes revive her aunt and make meaning out of her life struggles. Kingston novel illustrates a theme of feminism and silence in the Chinese culture. Kingston used the story of her aunt to explore …show more content…
This relates to the story theme because their cultural identity is being silenced, Kingston adds " The Chinese I know hide their names; sojourners take new names when their lives change and guard their real names with silence”. In other words, the Chinese immigrants adapt to another culture while keeping theirs concealed. Kingston tries to overturn her aunt situation by adding in her outlook, she asked what if her aunt wasn’t being unfaithful but had gotten raped by someone she know and had no choice but to keep quite. Kingston refutes “my aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil”. Kingston aunt could have been raped by someone she knew and because women at that time didn’t have any rights, she was forced to keep it as a secret and face judgement from the villagers. Kingston adds her aunt must have been fearful of the guy who had commanded her to sleep with him causing her to keep quiet and to prove his point her organized a raid against her. In her novel Kingston writes “The fear did not stop but permeated everywhere. She told the man, "I think I'm pregnant!' He organized the raid against