Kingston 3 Discussion Outline

Language is obviously a barrier immigrants have to face, how do you see it?

Molly:

She is constantly pulled between American culture and Chinese culture, and her role as the child of Chinese immigrants is one of balance. Not only does language and lack of communication remove her aunt from her life; it also colors her interactions with her family and with the Ghosts around her.

Jade:

Maxine Hong Kingston also proves that the lack of talking can tell much about the person’s character.

Jose:

He argues that it makes no sense, and that if elected governor he would require the test be given in English only, so as to encourage people to learn English. "If you want to live here, learn [English]"

Hongrak:

I was terrible at English; my English competency score was that of a second grader.... My dad asked me if I wanted to cut mine [tongue], which would help me pronounce English words better.

Sometimes language can encourage integration..




In Woman Warrior, it's evident that there is a culture clash, but how significant is this clash?

Molly:

Ultimately, it seems, Woman Warrior may be less a tale of clashing cultures than a memoir of finding one’s voice.

Emily:

I think we can all relate to feeling suffocated at some point in our lives. Families tend to do that, especially when conflicting cultural values come into play. In fact, conflict with our families seems almost impossible because as time passes, values keep changing and the way we live our lives is totally different

Chris:

I like to think the ending wasn’t bitter, but was more of a memoir of a family struggling to reconcile two cultures.

I guess we kind of talked about this last time, but I feel it's important enough to bring up again. How do y'all feel about the marriage situation with Moon Orchid?

Lauren:

I was lucky enough to never have the traditional role of wife forced upon me, or even really encouraged.

Jade:

As an older woman, who was separated from her husband almost immediately after marriage, whose husband did not even bring his wife to America, who found out that her husband had remarried in America, Moon Orchid had more than enough justification to feel insecure.

Traditional Chinese Marriage


Parents are the biggest influence on a child, and a child usually has more trouble adjusting to his/her parents rather than the community. How do you feel the parent/child role is played out in immigrant families?

Side-Questions to this one:

Do you as a child adapt a new culture or stick to the old culture (parent)?
Traditions are important but do they lose meaning in a different country? Do some of them become unnecessary or tiresome to have?



Any Thoughts:

When people move, they change or at least people say they do. What is more significant in driving this change: a desire to fit in or a fear of not being able to?

How does the population of one country cause immigrants to feel unwanted? (Xenophobia perhaps)

Pictures like this can be discouraging...


Jade:

The theme of not fitting in continues in the final chapter. Kingston talks about her childhood days and about how she herself felt alienated.

How does this book connect with previous readings?

As a student, we move schools and it's similar to immigration. How is the culture clash for students considering that we're still in the same general geographical area(country)?

So, being this book is called Woman Warrior and more than half of the class is a woman, did this book meet your expectations?

All Journey's have a Groove to them... Enjoy!

Woman Warrior 3

I've moved a lot as a child, so I know how it feels like to constantly have to adapt to another culture. You have to change a lot of mental models because it's not only a new lifestyle, but a new culture also has a different outlook on life. Everything you hold true can possibly go straight out the window! You have to be your own warrior and fight to keep your roots, or in contrast, you fight to turn over a new leaf. Either way, there's going to be a struggle. The struggle is wherever you see it and in whatever you see it. For The Woman Warrior, there were quite a few battles which manifested within individuals trying to fit in. Whether it be in Kingston or Moon Orchid or Brave Orchid, the cause of these battles is due to culture clash that occurs.

A Culture Clash Splits a Person, literally!


The one thing that drives people into the most dramatic battles is fear. Fear for safety or fear of identity. Consider Moon Orchid, she's paranoid that there is someone after her. "'I am so afraid.' said Moon Orchid. 'There is no one after you,' said Brave Orchid, 'No Mexicans'" (Kingston, 156). Later on, Moon Orchid digs deeper into this paranoia, and the fear changes her completely. She loses the battle. Her fear for safety consumes her to the brink of insanity and beyond. Kingston too has a fear - that of separation. She fears the Chinese traditions, particularly how women were treated who wouldn't obey their parents or husbands. To be fastidious, consider the Confucius theory: "'A husband may kill a wife who disobeys him...' [and] Confucius [was] the rational man" (Kingston, 193). Another prime example is when Kingston believes her parents will marry her to the 'retarded' boy; ".. my parents would only figure that this zombie and I were a match... this birth defect" (Kingston, 195). This fear causes her to change the way she acts around her parents; one fear forces her to overcome another. Fear has great power over people.

People can be afraid of ANYTHING!


From No Name Woman to A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, change is evident. First, its location. The essence of the book changes for the reader, from the unfamiliar to the trivial everyday. The most important side effect of this was the language change. Brave Orchid didn't try to be a doctor in the States because "she could never learn English" (Kingston, 149). She's so bright but unable to communicate at even a proficient level; this is her handicap in the new land. She still manages to live happily to a certain extent. That is her victory in the battle. It's not a simple task to be successful or even semi-successful without being able to fully understand what's going on around you left and right. Stories of ghosts are used to help her understand this ghost world around her. In a way, Brave Orchid familiarizes this new landscape and that's how she succeeds in it!

This is how language creates a barrier...


It's the drifting mental models that cause people to go through these emotions and changes. They're own fundamental beliefs (such as security and identity) are challenged due to a culture clash that one experiences. For some, it's too much while others manage this exceptionally well. The problem is deciding how fast to change. People worry about losing their identity, yet at some level, they are willing and ready for change; the pace of this change is what causes the turmoil like suspense in a horror film!

Woman Warrior 2

Well, now I finally know why some places in China have bizarre eating habits?
Taken from the Blog of an "African Chinese Guy" who had his very own 'Bizarre Foods' Experience!


I always wondered why in parts of China and surrounding areas that people would eat just about anything. Now I finally know. It's because "Big eaters win" (Kingston, 90). There's a sense of pride and triumph associated with eating, and there are people who eat a lot as means for training (Sumo Wrestlers)! Hence, eating is a means of indicating strength in these areas. The narrator's family has taken part in this, "My mother has cooked for us: raccoons, skunks, hawks, city pigeons, wild ducks, wild geese, black-skinned bantams, snakes, garden snails, turtles..., and catfish," plus the mother used to say, "The emperors [would] eat the peaked hump of purple dromedaries... They used chopsticks made from rhinoceros horn, and they ate ducks' tongues and monkeys' lips" (Kingston, 90). I was utterly shocked by this revelation, but it has settled one of my curiosities that had been developing for a very, very long time. Thank you, Maxine!

A small Bizarre Foods Excerpt!


I've also been curious about how Asian people, especially Chinese people, always have so much discipline. What forces do these individuals draw their power from? I, for one, am extremely curious and skeptical as to how one person can get so focused upon a single mundane task like sitting. I could sit maybe for an entire hour, at most, without moving, but Brave Orchid is the grand master of discipline in that area. I mean she is about sixty-eight at this point, so I guess she's conserving energy, but the act is still amazing! And not only that, "Brave Orchid would add her will power to the forces that keep an airplane up. Her head hurt with the concentration" (Kingston, 113). It's absolutely amazing the kind of things people with such intense discipline and focus can be capable of. I mean it's not physically possible, but how amazing is that will-power and self-confidence that allows her to truly believe in herself! And she had been doing it for a while, "She had already been waiting at the airport for nine hours. She was wakeful" (Kingston, 113). Such will power is extraordinary. Kingston has helped clear up a lot for me and for that I am thankful!

Self-Confidence!


At least now I can walk about Austin or wherever and talk about some aspects of Chinese beliefs with some frankness and modesty. Before this clarification, I would just imagine up all sorts of reasons as to why people just north of my birth-country (India) had some questionable eating habits, but now I know. And I also understand how self-confidence and a 'mind over matter' attitude can go a far and very long way. I'm impressed by the latter characteristic; it's one that I desire to have within myself as well. The next question I need to answered is 'How to do that?' Hopefully, Kingston can show me the answer to that as well!

Book-Citation (MLA format):

"Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. Vintage International. New York: Random House, Inc., 1989. 90 & 113. Print."

Woman Warrior 1

Circumstantial is the only word that comes to mind when I examine female oppression. The evidence against them is or the rules that society has bound them to are always circumstantial. Some picky part of tradition or culture that completely ignores any special cases or fails to address particular flaws with the culture's own rhetoric. The worst part is how no one likes to admit to this. People blame other people or the gods or the stars or some entity which they have no control over. That's just wrong. If you want to be a man, then you got to go all the way, no such thing as half way. Kingston portrays some of this in her novel The Woman Warrior. The culture in question in the book is the Chinese culture, one that stands for honor and dignity.

Honor


But what do they do when the Aunt offs herself? 'Oh! It's as if she was never alive.' How ridiculous is that? People would go about causing havoc upon their family because of her and when she was gone, they don't even want to remember her expect on what not to do. Her husband was gone for years, and she committed adultery. Wrong, yes, but not worth killing over or causing the mess the villagers did. Alas! Everyone still blames the stars. "People refused fatalism because they could invent small resources insisted on culpability. Deny accidents and wrest fault from the stars" (Kingston, 13).

The Blame Split Helps to Deal With It


People can justify so much because we have such a unique imagination. Consider the point in the novel when the lion dancers come in. The dance became a symbol and was applicable to anything. "I could stare at ordinary people and see their light and gold. When I get hungry enough, then killing and falling are dancing too" (Kingston, 17). Through her imagination, the aspects of the dance were transportable to other aspects of her life. Kind of weird but very possible.

Fight For Your Rights Girl!


This is how the world works. People justify anything they want to themselves and if they can't find a good reason, they blame it on some entity they have no control over or one that has full control over them. In the end, groups of people suffer. Historically, this group has been women, but the discrimination of this phenomena is purely circumstantial, so everyone is at risk!

Gender and Diversity 2

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Gender and Diversity 1

I was always constantly moving as a child. I've never had a lack of diversity around me. There are always some sort of individuals around me that don't look like me or that don't think like me, that don't dress like me or that don't speak like me. I imagine if I ever had experienced a part of my life without a wide and unique group of people around me, then I would've turned out quite different. Not having known different viewpoints would've left me unable to comprehend someone whose traditions and culture were different from my own. However, not many people travel a lot, so I wonder how they manage to adjust to different people. For me, it was always a balance between compromising and expressing my individuality, but I suppose that's a struggle everyone goes through. However there certain forms of discrimination (grouping people into categories) that cause more harm than good.

For Example...


How different is someone's life who can't go to certain places because his appearance doesn't allow him/her to fit in? What do you do if it were you? Your mental attitude towards the situation will be the most significant influence upon your actions. If you are happy, like Ramirez, people around you are a bit more jolly, a bit more caring. In Ramirez's story, he's always the "Ex ssseterra.. " (Anthology 839) kid. A simple ESL kid but an equivalent of "being mentally retarded" (Anthology 839). Ramirez's dislikes the fact that he can't just fir in, but his attitude isn't a negative one. That's his personal balance between his individuality and the compromises he makes. There's always a trade-off between the two.

We Want To Be Unique


However, there's another situation that needs to be addressed. What about when a group identity (such as being Mexican, White, Black, Brown... etc.) takes significance over personal individuality? Some say this is rare, but we often know from our own experiences that people behave differently when they're in a group. The psychology of the person changes; some people change because they want to be someone different, while others change because they want to embrace themselves (their roots, culture and traditions). Such is the case with Norma's brother Michael who later transforms into Miguel. "Something apparently led him to look inside himself and dig out his raices - his roots" (Anthology 845). Looking for one's roots requires the person to "take pride in and honor the changes [their] family went through when they had to [adjust]" to ethnic or other societal pressures (Anthology 845). Pride is what encourages us to feel good about our own individual characteristics; it's necessary, but sometimes it can get a little too much (examples: Adolf Hitler and the KKK). The latter is a discussion better suited for another time. But the point is that some people use their pride as tools to help balance the struggle between society and their individuality.

A Display of Cultural Pride!



The best attitude in my opinion is to view the entire struggle as a natural concept. An adjustment that must take place when someone relocates to a different geographical background. It holds true when you move from one city in Texas to another or from the poor part of town to a richer part of town, or when you move entire countries altogether! Alessandro Melendez is absolutely a mastermind at this. After reading through his story, I realized that he never really questioned the struggle's existence, but rather he simply accepted it and tried to do the best he could. His parents were his anchor to his Latino side, and he himself was simply just managing the best he could. His attitude eliminates a need for a need to balance his individuality against society, that sort of just balances itself out as he just does what he does. It was his competitiveness, or lack thereof, that gave him this quality... Always wanting to be the best, he simply kept on trying to climb up as high as he could. "There was always someone... doing better and... [he] learned to accept not being the best" (Anthology 855). All he wanted to do was the best he could, and in a sense, that all he really can do so he wouldn't worry.

Be Like the Turtle, You'll be Faster than a Rabbit


It's our attitudes that most rapidly affect our actions. With the right mindset/perspective, anything is possible. Diversity it seems helps us develop our own mental models to sort of mold either ourselves or society; either way, in a diverse environment something is always changing. The management of these changes is how our attitudes and pride develops, and eventually, we force ourselves to stick to one or a small group of mental models that we then use as a template for our day to day decisions. Sometimes this is for the better, but at other times, not quite so. We're always having to tip that scale in our favor as with all the diversity around us we crave our own individuality.

Morrison, Pt. 3

Brilliant. Extraordinary. Greatness on paper! Morrison is exemplary in her writing style. At first, I'll admit that I was a little distracted by this very feature, but over the pages, I caught on. Ah-Ha! It's brilliant how she conveys the story through these parts that seem interrupted and chopped up, but together, they are all whole and complete. The dynamics between the characters is constantly changing, and I was constantly changing my view of the characters, especially Cholly. Morrison truly manifests in The Bluest Eye the power of writing.

The Bluest Eye is the Truest Novel


She'll grab your attention with, "But someday I will die" (Morrison, 181). But by that point in the book, she already has the reader's attention with so much other context. The perception of beauty and, more importantly, the self-image of ugly. Too much greatness to quote, yet not one part is worth ignoring. Perhaps the single most significant event in the book is the rape of Pecola. How badly everyone reacts to that poor girl's predicament? I was appalled! And then, Cholly was such a shock. His hatred stops him from doing anything and in his hatred he ends up doing everything!

There's an Entire Linguistics Division


"The other problem, of course, was language" (Morrison, 211). The language seemed authentic, "indisputably black" (Morrison, 211). The prose were black yet I felt they was a part of them that was universal. Not an hierarchy of language but rather the exact opposite; it manifests the essence of illiteracy, and in doing so, the book allows a connection with a much broader audience. The language is the paint of the story that gives the novel its distinction and its verity.

The Review


Brilliant is a term worth mentioning repeatedly. The novel defines this term through its complexity and cultural depth. The seemingly inter-mangled plot molds into a great novel. Morrison is a genius. She distracts us with words and attracts us with them. The Bluest Eye is simply brilliant!

Morrison, Pt. 2

Appearances are a tricky subject. On one side of the coin there’s a saying that says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” and on the other side it reads, “Appearances are everything.” Of course, practically appearances definitely matter as one often hears business majors telling one another, “Dress for Success.” I often wonder how much appearances matter, but after reading through Bluest Eye, I believe I’ve understood it too well. Appearances affect the opinion of individuals upon one another, but more importantly, they affect our opinion about ourselves.



Re-imagine the part of the novel where Pecola is being harassed by Woodrow Cain and his entourage. They repeatedly tell her, “Black e mo Black e mo-” (Morrison, 65). This single incident corroborates both of my points extremely well. Woodrow and his entire entourage and Pecola are all black. Yet, there is a divide somewhere that separates them from one another. Pecola cries within that vicious circle… A part of me wants to jump in, and then Claudia says something that takes a hold of my attention. She says, “We watched, afraid they might notice us and turn their energies our way” (Morrison, 66). How true is that? In a confrontational and conflicting situation like that, who would want to risk their own neck? The appearance of that situation instinctively causes Claudia to consider giving up without even putting up a fight. Frieda, however, is from a whole different planet altogether; she stormed in there and supplied the initiative and freed her friend! She didn’t care about appearances, so she got right to it.

Frieda Took Care of Business in a Similar Fashion


But Pecola still cried! She shed tears because she was unable to withstand the harassment. It’s not that she couldn’t break free from the circle herself, but she herself was afraid. She perceives herself as being ugly and therefore, she drains herself of her own power. Professor Bump puts this simply, “Every time we look in the mirror and see that we are not as beautiful as a movie star, not as beautiful as the television, magazine, and billboard ads tell us we should be, we feel the fear of rejection and abandonment” (Bump, 339). There isn’t a better way of stating that. Pecola feared the rejection and abandonment, and all that fear was hidden behind her perception of herself as ugly.

Don't Be Afraid to Capture Your Presence, Your Beauty


Appearances are important, but Frieda has shown that even humans can manifest more courage than the entire planet. So why let such a trivial feature get in the way of our everyday lives? Well, Claudia attests to that because she instinctively didn’t want to help. She too was afraid. However, appearances are of practical value as they change daily and by the second, so anyone can be king/queen of its domain for a second and then be a slave to it in the very next. So, the best thing to do is to keep yourself with a good self-image so that you unconsciously give others around you the permission to do the same, and even more importantly, this will allow you to look at your own eyes in the mirror while smiling bright. Appearances matter so make yours the best you can and be happy!

Have Some Pride!