Maxine Hong Kingston’s portrayal of
the immigrant experience in “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among
Ghosts” is part autobiographical and part folktale. Even though times may have
changed, it is still a relevant representation. From the excerpt we have read
in class, we get the sense that the childhood she faces is one of trying to
overcome cultural differences of an immigrant family to adapt to the newfound
community. Between the atmosphere of home and schools, she depicts a different
lifestyle and attitudes. She is meek and quiet at her American school, but she
is able to speak up at Chinese school. This behavior is understandable and
relatable because it is like how almost everyone speaks or acts differently
depending on where they are and who they are around.
As a
first generation child from an immigrant family, I can sympathize with Kingston’s
portrayal of the immigrant experience. Similarly in my childhood, I also have
attended both an American School and a Chinese school concurrently. Although I was
not as soft spoken while speaking English, I have witnessed other classmates
who were, but were also much more vocal when speaking Chinese when comparing
between the two different school settings. There have also been those who were
the complete opposite. A few were also quiet in both situations and the rest
were loud in both relative to the silent ones. Like the boys described in
Kingston’s story, I have seen friends who were also more well behaved in the
American school, but are audacious enough to talk back to the teachers at Chinese
school. At the American school, one would be told to read aloud individually,
but at the Chinese school, all the students would read aloud together in one
voice. Whenever a student is at the Chinese school passes by a teacher or the
picture of Sun Yat-sen, we would bow to them as a sign of respect, but nothing
like that was done when the same students pass by teachers at the American school.
Like the stereotypes in Kingston’s story, my Chinese American peers and I would
always refer to Whites as “ghosts” and African Americans as “black ghosts”. We did
this not because we were trying to intentionally be racially discriminatory,
but because that was how the adults in our community would talk about others of
a different skin tone, regardless of their actual ethnic background.
Many of
the stereotypes and experiences found in Kingston’s story can still be found in
the more modern time period (at least from my experiences in my childhood to
about 10 years ago). Therefore, I would not write about anything different if I
were the author instead. Even if what Kingston wrote was not 100%
autobiographically accurate, it is still a relatable and tangible experience
that many other Chinese Americans, including me, can relate to. As the author, even
if what she wrote about paints a negative perspective of the immigrant
experience, they were still most likely the experiences that had the most
significant impacts on her life.
Hi Eden, your examples were very interesting and clearly showed both similarities and differences between the experiences in American and Chinese school. I agree that Kingston deliberately explained the stereotypes and the experiences that many Chinese American immigrants can relate to. Although you had great examples, sometimes it was hard to acknowledge them because they were abruptly appearing throughout your body paragraph. Thus, I think adding a few transition sentences in between these different ideas can be very helpful as the reader moves onto each example. For example, you can add “Even the way we read in class was different in both American and Chinese schools.” right before you give an example of the reading styles of both cultures. Other than that, you effectively wrote a critique of how Kingston illustrated the immigrant experience, good job!
ReplyDeleteHello! I think that you did an awesome job at sharing multiple differences in American and Chinese traditions in the story and in your own personal life. I also think that you gave a great short summary of the text in your introductory paragraph. However, I think that you could've expanded more on the idea of stereotypes since it only appeared in the last few sentences of your body paragraph. You can also add some background information of how "ghost" came about. Other than that, your essay was insightful in the sense that it gave more information about the Chinese American culture.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job comparing how the story fits into your own immigrant experience. Also knowing that the "ghosts" part was not made up but it was an actual realistic experience that some immigrant families partake in. I also like how you were able to relate to this story despite it being a tale. As the previous commentator noted I think you should have added to more of the similar stereotypes that you also faced as an immigrant family since it seems you tie your experiences allot with the narrators experience with her environment. Overall, I would say you essay did add more structure to the story on the whole.
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