Interpreting Silence and Voice in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior

Abstract

The Woman Warrior mainly revolves around the narrator’s experience of “silence” and “voice” as a Chinese American woman, which reflects Kingston’s real experience in the process of growing up in pain and confusion, and it can also be said that it is a process in which she seeks her own cultural identity and the position for Chinese American women to settle down in American society. In analyzing Kingston’s memoir, this paper is concerned with how silence is enforced upon the female characters and how Kingston gives her own voice, and finally reconciles her Chinese and American identities as a Chinese American.