Warrior Woman

I Am My Own Woman

The book The Woman Warrior is a story written by Maxine Hong Kingston about her childhood as a Chinese-American. Her parents are from China and she gives readers stories that she was told as a child. These stories helped to shape Hong-Kingston into the woman she became. Storytelling plays the role of giving Hong- Kingston an identity, which is specifically seen through her thoughts of independence and her experiences on growing up as a Chinese- American.

Hong- Kingston shows her independence when telling readers the story she was told of Fa Mu Lan.

“When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family. After I grew up, I heard the chant of Fa Mu Lan, the girl who took her father’s place in battle… My mother…said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman” (19-20)

Hong- Kingston specifically remembers being told the story of Fa Mu Lan a feminine hero. It clearly shows her thoughts on independence. She has remembered the stories of this woman warrior and has vowed to become just like her. She doesn’t become an actual female warrior that fights in wars, but rather a warrior who fights with her words and actions. This is seen when she wants to stand up to her bosses who show their racism to her on multiple occasions. She describes them: “From the fairy tales, I’ve learned exactly who the enemy are. I easily recognize them- business suited in their modern American executive guise, each boss two feet taller than I am and impossible to meet eye to eye.” (48) Her feeling towards them shows how much of a warrior she truly is. She states, “If I took the sword, which my hate must surely forged out of the air, and gutted him, I would put color and wrinkles into...