The Woman Warrior extra credit book review

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong was a memoir of a girl growing up in the Chinese culture. It was an interesting book showing the narrator, Maxine Hong, at different stages of her life. She had a very twisted family life and a lot of family related drama. Maxine, her mother, and her aunt were very complex characters.

Maxine, the narrator, was born into Chinese culture and desperately wanted to escape. She was brave, disturbed, or depressed throughout the story. Brave Orchid, Maxine’s mother, was a very intelligent yet close-minded character. She was very protective of her culture and this cause a lot of issues between her and Maxine. Moon Orchid, Maxine’s aunt, was a woman who was betrayed by her estranged husband and this caused Brave Orchid to try and fight back. This situation also caused a lot of Brave Orchid’s paranoia because she thought she would end up like her sister.

This story would often go into the story of someone else. Maxine would tell stories that she made up or she was told in different parts of the book. Sometimes she would tell stories that her mother had told her about her mother’s past. These little stories kept the book very interesting to me.
I loved Maxine’s writing style and how she showed her twisted and/or confused thought process at different points in the book. People from age twelve and up should definitely read this book. It shows the struggles of a new life from all of the characters perspectives.
All in all I really liked this book. It was an interesting memoir and really opened my eyes to Chinese culture. It was a real page-turner and I often didn’t want to put it down. You should definitely read The Woman Warrior.

Woman Warrior#6

Quote#1

"If only I could let my mother know the list, she-and the world-would become more like me, and I would never be alone again." Pg.198-Maxine Hong
I chose this quote because it shows how much guilt she had built up. The page before this quote shows the narrator, Maxine, creating a list of all the bad things she had done in her head. She is explaining how she would like to show her mother the list and get it off of her chest. She is looking back on everything that she had done and wants to gain back the ties she severed with her mother. This counts as a hardship that Maxine had to endure during her new life. She didn't want to be a part of the Chinese culture that she so much hated but she didn't want to be alone.

Personal connection:

I have a personal connection to this quote and part of the story. My family is Jewish. They are not super religious but they are involved in the Jewish community and we celebrate all of the holidays. A year or two ago I decided that I didn't want to be part of a religion. It was not because I had anything against it. It was because I felt like religion in general restricted people from living life to the fullest. I felt like that "my belief is the right belief" stuff wasn't appealing. It is hard to separate from something that your entire family is a part of. Maxine wanting to get away from her Chinese culture is like me wanting to get away from my religion that I was born into.

Why does the narrator invoke Fa Mu Lan and Ts'ai Yen?

Quote#2

"I cut it to make you talk more, not less, you dummy."
Earlier in the chapter Maxine's mother talked about how she cut Maxine's tongue when she was little so that she wouldn't be tongue tied. Maxine thought of this as her mother's way of getting her to stop talking when it was really to get her to talk more. Maxine's mother seemed like she only verbally abused and hurt her feelings because that is what the Chinese do. That was part of their culture so Maxine's mother justified it.


Why does the author never give her name in the narrator’s tales?

Museum Reflections

The purpose of going to this museum was to learn about Jews in America. Many people don’t know how much Jews have contributed to pop culture in America. In the early days nobody would hire Jewish people for media or entertainment. Many people were very skeptical and thought that Jewish people were no good dirty money hogs just because they were successful and intellectual. Jews were put down a lot in the older days but still managed to rise to great things. Some of the greatest minds and talents in history were Jewish such as Albert Einstein who discovered the theory of relativity and Barbara Streisand who is one of the most famous singers of all time. Jews have also influenced culture greatly in America. They were the creators of bagels! Jewish people also started great cities like Las Vegas. This exhibit took us through a timeline of Jewish history and it was a truly interesting experience. With my family being Jewish I knew about most of the stuff but I liked sharing the experience with my peers.
“One may say 'the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility'.”-Albert Einstein.

I chose a picture of a woman sitting at a piano with her head down. I chose this painting because it had an artistic and melancholy vibe to it. It was a painting that you could look at for a half an hour and come up with an entire story for that sad looking woman. I felt like the piano symbolized the beauty of this country and all the wonders it can bring to you but her head down meant she was struggling. She was struggling to figure out how to make the music and how to explore all of the wonders. The photo was also in black and white, which could show the black and white of her situation. It basically showed me just in one photograph how hard it could be to be an immigrant. It was a truly remarkable photograph to me and I almost didn’t want to leave it.
“I believe as an individual I can help America achieve its goals I remember last year I helped collect canned foods for the soup kitchen Also I had raised money when the twin towers fell I believe things like this may seem little but can amount to larger and bigger things” Zainab Sozzer, Pakistan. I chose this quote because it shows how much just one person can make a change. By accepting everyone into this country we can all make a difference. Every single one of us.
"The greatest thing I hope for in my life is to become a successful person and to have a family and friends to support me, not to be looked at by just the color of my skin but who I am inside."
-Samira Durakovic, Yugaslavia. I chose this quote because everyone should see through Samira’s eyes. The color of your skin doesn’t matter. Everyone needs to learn to coexist just as people. Society has separated people by their color instead of just focusing on what people they themselves will become.

Extra Credit Museum Reflection

One caricature that I found disturbing was the caricature titled “A bunch of little problems.” This was disturbing to me because they showed babies of every ethnicity being burdens or problems to Americans. Americans definitely didn’t view other ethnicities well. They were especially harsh about the Irish. A lot of cartoons showed the Irish being rude and disrespectful. They also viewed Jewish men as people with large noses. They also showed African Americans as servants or less intelligent people. A lot of the cartoons were very rude.
A caricature that I thought was humorous and enjoyable was one of the poem/pictures. There was a small hand drawn picture that had four people of different ethnicities in a square. The reading of the picture went counter clockwise and all of the little cartoon drawings had a speech bubble. When you read all of the speech bubbles counter clockwise it created a poem. I thought is was funny that they wrote all of the bubbles in English but spelled it in different ways as if all of the different little characters spoke in different accents. There were about four little pictures on the wall that were all humorous and fun to read.
Although some of the caricatures were funny or offensive there were also ones that were pro immigration. There was a picture of a song called “It’s not about where you’re from It’s who you are.” That seemed like it was written for a peace movement. I enjoyed reading the lyrics and I agreed with them. It was one of the only things in the exhibit that was positive and showed that you should accept everyone for who they are despite what their ethnicity is. I really enjoyed this exhibit and I think everyone should visit.