The Woman Warrior Plot Summary

The Woman Warrior

Plot Summary:
The Woman Warrior is divided into 5 sections, and each section is individual story. Maxine Hong Kingston uses this skill to present diverse adversity that Chinese women face. Through the writing of women’s stories, Maxine Hong Kingston not only explores her own cultural history. As the first generation of Chinese immigrants, Maxine Hong Kingston writes the book to arouse the Chinese self-identity question of reconciling Chinese tradition with the emerging sense as American.

The first section, “No Name Warrior,” tells the story of Kingston’s aunt of her father side. The story is presented by dialogue between her mother Brave Orchid and Kingston. This aunt, whom is be called No Name Woman because her real name is never spoken by the whole family. The reason why the Chinese family wants to bury her name consciously is that the aunt becomes pregnant by a man who is not her husband. For the reason of adultery, she is viewed as the shame of the family and disdained by the Chinese village. When No Name Woman can not hide her pregnancy from her family and villagers, bearing the punishment of adultery, she finally commits suicide and kills the baby by drowning in the family well.

The section two is the chapter of “White Tigers,” which is based on another talk-story. The story is about Chinese mythical female warrior Fa Mu Lan, who leads people to victory in wars. By pretending to be a man herself, Fa Mu Lan is successfully against the forces of corrupt emperor. After her battles are over, Fa Mu Lan returns home to be a good wife. Kingston describes the story of this mythical female role through her young mind, which contracts with her own life in America. The story of Fa Mu Lan also reveals Kingston’s adversity of American racism, and the realization of Kingston herself that her weapons are her words.

The third section is the story about Kingston’s mother. The chapter “Shaman” relates the story of her mother, Brave Orchid, whose extraordinary medical career as a midwife in China. Though her mother is a successful healer, she can not practice medicine in America as an immigrant. After all, she and her husband just open the laundry business in America.

Next chapter is “At the Western Palace,” which refers other talk-stories of her mother. The story is about emperor owning four wives. Besides the story of emperor, Maxine also writes story, the analogy for her sister Mon Orchid’s situation. Moon Orchid’s husband is a successful doctor in Los Angles. However, her husband left Moon in china behind and remarried in America. After many years, her sister still remained in Hong Kong waiting for her husband to send for her. Brave Orchid, Kingston’s mother confronts the irresponsible man and sends Kingston’s sister to immigrate to America. But when Moon Orchid faces her husband, she was again rejected by him for the excuse of disrupting his life and doctor career. In the end of the story, Moon Orchid consequently gets mad, ending her rest life in an insane asylum.

The final story in The Women Warrior begins with Kingston’s story depicting her emotional experiences and conflicts she felt growing up in a Chinese household in America. She describes the difficulty of finding the suitable identity of voice, instead of traditional identity of silence. Originally Kingston herself is not so appreciate her mother, but with the series of her mother’s talk-stories, Kingston and her mother start to realize each other. And Kingston herself in the end of the book finds the harmony between Chinese tradition identity and American immigrant identity. She combines different worlds and cultures as create the balance of her own.