The Analysis of No Name Woman
投稿類別：英文寫作
The Analysis of No Name Woman
The Analysis of No Name Woman
Taipei Municipal Zhung Zheng Senior High School
Author:王盈琇 中正高中 205
Instructor:李壹明
1
The Analysis of No Name Woman
Motivation
By virtue of the increasing pursuit of woman’s right all over the world , transgressing the
Chinese convention , women struggled against the assimiliation of men .The truth is that
women can do both what men can do and also have the same ability at work . There’s no
reason to say that women symbolize the second sex instead they can serve as woman
warriors . That accounts for the following issues I’d like to present in the following.
Introduction
Writer
Maxine Hong Kingston (born October 27, 1940) is an American Professor Emeritus at the
University of California, Berkeley where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. She is
also a productive Chinese American woman writer.(wikipedia)
As the daughter of Chinese immigrants who ran a laundry in California, Maxine Hong
Kingston wrote the secrets and wonders of “a girlhood among ghosts” in The Woman
Warrior (1976), a book that mixes autobiography and fiction to challenge memories of a
Chinese-American childhood with imagination about Chinese history and culture and creates
Chinese herstory .
The Woman Warrior is divided into five chapters . In the first chapter , “No name woman ”,
is the main text for the analysis of the essay.
Analysis
"No Name Woman", Kingston's narrator, as the narrator herself, is not actually Kingston,
describes the suicide of her aunt after she gave birth to an illegitimate child.
Summary Of The Story
Maxine Hong Kingston begins her search for a personal identity with the story of an aunt,
touching on the name of this paragraph . Throughout the whole story , uses the narration for
the past of her aunt .To begin with , her aunt has a hurry-up wedding with a man she has
never met , but their happiness hasn’t last for a long time . As the time goes by , the aunt has
indistinct memories of her husband’s appearance after he goes to America. However she is
pregnant ! It’s impossible for a widow to be pregnant ! It is a huge secret that lay behind the
aunt . After giving birth to her dear child , the villagers comes to visit her , not to celebrate
but to show their anger against her , disobeying widowhood .From then , the aunt has turned
2
The Analysis of No Name Woman
into a woman whose identity is nameless forever and ever .She has committed suicide ,
suffering from hunger even after her death .
Issues
Translation
In English , people don’t use “No name woman ”. Instead it should be “nameless ”or
“anonymous”. But what does the indication lie behind ? It actually emphasizes the lower
status of women , which have “no name ”. Women are just an adjunt to men .
Woman’s Status in China
In old Chinese customs , people always give priority to men instead of women . Women
don’t have the rights of making decisions , the rights of achieving their ideal , and also
freedom . They’re just men’s servants and slaves . They were like what “Simone de
Beauvoir ”mentioned. For example , cite the theory of social existentialist feminism . “Thus
humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not
regarded as an autonomous being. Michelet writes: ‘Woman, the relative being ...” (Simone
de Beauvoir , 1999)
Chinese－American culture
“Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do
you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother
who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? ”（Maxine Hong
Kingston,1976）
Those Chinese immigrant to America because of their destitute condition and lack of
resources . Their first generation went there to dig out the gold , but were humiliated by the
locals and also lived in racial prejudice . For instance , the white residents looked down upon
them , taunting and rejecting them by extortion on salaries , status and authorities .For those
who made a living there they could only be insulted rather than lead a better life .That’s why
and how Chinatown comes into being －a creation of the friendliness as well as familiar
culture .It’s because they are afraid of the possible humiliation in the mainstream Chinese
culture .
Why is the Aunt a "No Name Woman"?
3
The Analysis of No Name Woman
“Don't let your father know that I told you. He denies her. Now that you have started to
menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like
to be forgotten as if you had never been born. ”（Maxine Hong Kingston,1976）
No name woman represents those who are unidentified in the nation such as the aunt . The
death of the aunt stands for the silence of women’s rights and voice . Women are just like
ghosts in the patriarchal society . They are ignored ! Their being looks as if they were never
born ! No one could chase their longing for love if she were a woman . No one could be
praised when coming into existence if she were a daughter .Women , not considered human
beings , were only men’s appendage .Just as mentioned in the Bible , when God created Eva ,
he used Adam’s rib and subjugated her to Adam , symbolizing all men .
Take another citation as an example . “Chairman Mao encourages us now to give our paper
replicas to the spirits of outstanding soldiers and workers, no matter whose ancestors they may be.
My aunt remains forever hungry. ”（Maxine Hong Kingston,1976）The courageous soldiers
could live in comfort even if they were dead , It was because they are “men” , they have
everything . On the contrary , the aunt would suffer from hunger forever . It’s unfair because
women’s destiny is different from men’s .
The Writer as a Woman Warrior
Even though her mother told her not to speak of her aunt , she still wrote a novel regarding
it . Sfe fought back with courage , using a pen to narrate women’s stories , which represents
her power . She , a woman warrior created the new century of a woman’s authority .
Discussion And Conclusion
The issues presented in the whole article are that women’s status is inferior to men’s
wherever you are . But the writer bridged the gap between Chinese and American culture to
broaden American readers’ horizons , and help them understand the intercultural dimension .
Her pen is symbolic of power－a right of women to strive for their status and equal
treatment . Though her mother had told her not to mention anything to others just as a saying
goes , “Don’t wash your dirty linen in public ”.Her aunt ,the miserable woman is the secret that
could have never been told and suffer forever ever after her death .As for the narrator , her family
have moved to America , a country built up through democracy and freedom , but still lived in the
conservative society , deciding to wrote about the possible details of Chinese atmosphere . However ,
she didn’t stop struggling against the paternal cultures in her Chinese America context .
4
The Analysis of No Name Woman
Reference
No Name Woman-Active Reading from vccslitonline.cc.va.us/woman/
Maxine Hong Kingston No Name Woman from
ursulastange.com/courses/documents/NoNameWoman.doc
Simone de Beauvoir （1999） Le deuxieme sexe
5