Woman Warrior Essay, Research Paper

Woman Warrior

Food strengthens us, without it we are weak. Eating has ever been an of import factor with households populating in hapless conditions. Often, those who could non assist to bring forth more nutrient are considered inferior or unworthy to eat. Maxine Hong Kingston? s The Woman Warrior is no exclusion, due to the relation it creates between eating and the strength of people. This is shown through the narrative of Fa-Mu-Lan, the narrative of the feeders, and the mentions to the fellow relations left in China.

In the narrative of Fa-Mu-Lan, the storyteller is given a survival trial, where she has to last a mountain trek without commissariats. During that trek, the storyteller finds herself weary from hungriness. Hunger brings out her carnal inherent aptitudes, because she needs to remain strong to populate. ? On the 4th and 5th yearss, my eyesight crisp with hungriness, I saw cervid and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where cervid nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality? ( 25 ) . The storyteller is forced to seek for her nutrient to eat. The hungrier she becomes, the more ferine she is. Meat besides played a function in the connexion between nutrient and strength. During the beginning of her narrative she claimed she no longer needful meat. After she became hungering, she breaks down and eats meat. ? ? I saw the coney had sacrificed itself for me. It had made me a gift of meat? ( 26 ) . Her will was eroded by the hungriness because as her hungriness increased, she became weaker and her resoluteness was easier to destruct. When the storyteller was non hungering she was in control of her modules. Hunger nevertheless, strips her even of vision, as she imagines things that do non be. The storyteller says, ? Hunger besides changes the universe when eating can? t be habit, so neither can seeing. I saw two people made of gold dancing the Earth? s axis? ( 27 ) . Sing two gold terpsichoreans would be fantastic to witness, nevertheless the opportunities are really slender. The hungriness had weakened her to the point of confusion, and perchance dilution. Just as hungriness weakens a individual so they can non command themselves, eating will do a individual powerful and the Masterss of others.

The narratives of the heroes who ate heaping sums of nutrient illustrate that those who can eat hold extraordinary powers. The storyteller says before, that her female parent is powerful? ? because she can eat anything? speedy, pluck out the carp? s eyes, one for Mother and one for Father. All heroes are bold towards nutrient? ( 88 ) . Her female parent is maestro of the shade because she can devour it. The narrative of Kao Chung besides illustrates this point. This hero eats five poulets and drinks ten bottles of vino prior to murdering a sea-monster. The scholar-hunter Wei Pang was besides a great feeder ; in fact, he was the most antic harmonizing to the storyteller. He shoots a radiance sphere composed of flesh with eyes in it, and so eats it with his retainer. Bye feeding, these two heroes are able to suppress their enemies. The narrative of Chen Luan-feng is another is another illustration of how eating makes a individual powerful. By eating out nutrients, Chen calls down an angry boom God whose leg is chopped off by Chen, and the boom God is so at the clemency of Chen. ? Large feeders win? ( 90 ) is the remark sing an anon. bookman from Hanchow. This bookman discovers some valuables on the side of the route ; nevertheless, an evil toad guards them. He chases that frog off merely to hold two smaller toads com that dark. He proceeds to eat every toad that visits him, ? And at the terminal

of the month the toads stopped coming, go forthing the bookman with the white silk and Ag metal bars? ( 90 ) . These heroes are rewarded for their feeding wonts, but those who can non eat are weak.

The relations of the storyteller are ever inquiring for money. They are weak characters because they are forced to trust on others to populate. Unlike the heroes who command themselves and others, these relations are non even in bid of their ain life, instead they have given up their life to the Communists. Because the Communists are rip offing them out of nutrient, they are hungering and weak. The storyteller says, ? What I will inherit someday is a green reference book full of names. I? ll send the relations money, and they? ll compose me narratives of their hungriness? ( 206 ) . The storyteller describes the relations really unflattering. They are considered lazy and unable to assist themselves. The relations seek money, even if it means harming the storyteller? s household. ? He says a bike will alter his life. He could feed his married woman and kids if he had a bike. ? We? d go hungry ourselves, ? my female parent says. ? They don? t understand that we have ourselves to feed excessively? ? ( 206 ) . The storyteller realizes it is her bend to assist out these thankless relations next.

Brave Orchid was really acrimonious about the differences between Chinese civilization and American civilization. One of those differences included the connexion between wealth and nutrient. In America the popular belief was altering and many scraggy people were regarded as healthier than fleshy citizens. Brave Orchid kept old traditions with her. Brave Orchid negotiations to her girl: ? That? s the twelvemonth you turned old. Look at you, hair gone grey, and you haven? t even fattened up yet. I know how the Chinese talk about us. ? They? re so hapless, ? they say, ? they can? t afford to flesh out up any of their daughters. ? ? Old ages in America, ? they say, ? and they don? T eat. ? Oh the shame of it? a whole household of scraggy kids. And your male parent? he? s so skinny he? s vanishing? ( 101 ) . Weather Orchid? s sentiments may non hold had an impact on the storyteller as she replies, ? Don? T worry about him, Mama. Doctors are stating that scraggy people live longer? ( 102 ) . Weather Orchid? s remarks and the storyteller? s answer shows that she wasn? t strongly influenced by Brave Orchid, yet Kingston continues to cite the subject throughout the book. In the chapter At the Western Place, Brave Orchid meets her sister Moon Orchid at the airdrome.

? ? ? you? re so scraggy. ?

? You? re so fat. ?

? Fat adult females are more beautiful than scraggy adult females? ? ( 118 ) .

Brave Orchid? s resentment toward American civilization influenced the storyteller. Fat carried non merely extra lipoids, it carried wealth and power in Brave Orchid? s sentiment. Womans were more beautiful with fat because wealth enabled them to accomplish their? beauty? . The ceaseless usage of mentions between strength and feeding throughout the book show the storyteller was influenced is some mode. The merchandise of the influence may non hold been a fat adult female, but a adult female educated in two civilizations.

Eating is vitally of import in the memoir The Woman Warrior. It is regarded as a mark of strength in the book. That point is shown through Fa-Mu-Lan, the narrative of heroes, and through relations in China. With those, Kingston became educated in two differing civilizations, perchance influenced by both. The connexion between hungriness and strength is good known throughout the ages, as the old military proverb provinces, ? An Army Marches on its tummy. ?