The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Intended audience: Immigrants (older), Chinese Americans, people struggling with Ankyloglossia, varying degrees of education

Purpose: to share a piece of her life with her audience and give hope to hopeless

Maxine's Situation: Kingston writes about her childhood struggles as an Asian American with a speech impediment (eventually finds her voice through writing)

Context: influx of Chinese Americans during the 70s and 80s - highly educated and skilled ; raised nativist anxieties of so-called "invasion"

Attitude: confused toward situation (between adopted and inherited culture) ; pride/empowered but also embarrassed and skeptical of her mother's deed

"A Song for A Barbarian Reedpipe" from The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston

Sarah Parks

Works Cited

"Maxine Hong Kingston Biography" Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

Jasu0928. "Short Analysis of A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe." The Other Side of Me. WordPress, 08 Apr. 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Jennings, Paul. Tongue-tied! London: Puffin, 2002. Mueller.wikispaces. Wikispaces, 2002. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

Zhou, Min, Eric Lai, and Dennis Arguelles. "Dreams And Reality Diverge." Chinese Americans: Asian-Nation. AsianWeek Magazine, 2003. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

"A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe" Analysis

Tongue-Tied Surgery

Henry Chapman's story:

He was born "tongue-tied" (ankyloglossia) and received surgery long after birth to see if it impacted his speech

Surgery itself took 10 minutes - simple cut which freed tip of tongue - and Henry speaks almost perfectly now

"Only positive outcomes"

Maxine's Story:

"Maybe that’s why my mother cut my tongue. She pushed my tongue up and sliced the frenum. Or maybe she snipped it with a pair of nail scissors. I don’t remember her doing it, only her telling me about it, but all during childhood I felt sorry for the baby whose mother waited with scissors or knife in hand for it to cry—and then, when its mouth was wide open like a baby bird’s, cut. The Chinese say 'a ready tongue is an evil'."

“I cut it so that you would not be tongue-tied. Your tongue

would be able to move in any language. You’ll be able to speak languages that are completely different from one another. You’ll be able to pronounce anything. Your frenum looked too tight to do those things, so I cut it.”

It ruined her confidence: she doesn't like speaking anymore

Instead she writes about her feelings

Brief Biography

• Born on October 27, 1940 in Stockton, California

• First generation Asian American

• Parents: Tom (teacher) and Ying Lan Hong (midwife) from China

• 1 of 8 children, but 2 siblings died before coming to U.S.

• Attended Edison High School and her first published work appeared in "The American Girl" (Girl Scouts magazine)

• Earned Bachelor's degree in 1962 from Univ. of CA, Berkeley

• Teacher in Hawaii and California before becoming a writer

• Married Karll Kingston in 1962

Further Analysis / Implications:

Development: Dialogue (beginning and end)

Rhetorical Devices: IMAGERY

Weak Spots: unfortunately begins mid-conversation in this excerpt so some readers may get confused (involves further research/reading to understand fully)

Mood: melancholy while nostalgic

Inferences: Readers see Maxine's growth from childhood to adulthood ; increased confidence

Lessons: Life gets better ; be proud of your heritage ; written word lasts forever (immortal)

Literary History

1976--began "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" (won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction in 1976)

1980-- "China Men" (won the National Book Award, 1981)

Novels: "Tripmaster Monkey, His Fake Book" (1989) and "Hawaii One Summer" (1998).

"The Fifth Book of Peace," 2003 autobiography

Published "I Love a Broad Margin to My Life" in 2011

Received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013