Works by Maxine Hong Kingston - Essay Example

Storytelling in her works is a common trend that helps her develop in many different ways and roles. This essay seeks to explain the role storytelling plays in Maxine Hong Kingston's life, as evidenced by "No Name Woman," "Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe" and "White Tigers"

Kingston joins her voice with other character’s in her stories to enhance the essence of storytelling. In “no name woman” Kingston uses, storytelling of Chinese customs that are still rooted in contemporary society. Through storytelling, she manages to capture the aspect of depicting the American cultures that are rooted in her Chinese traditions. For instance, she tells the story of her aunt who wasted her life in harlotry and adultery. She maintains that this bad behavior made her family disown the aunt and even forget that she existed. Through this, they felt that they were giving her soul a posthumous punishment. It is in line with this that Kingston engages in storytelling to develop and explain how the Chinese traditions are still in this society though some have been Americanized. Through using storytelling, Kingston also develops her American and Chinese voices. This is the respect that she analyses the happenings of her life both in the Chinese and American background. Through exploiting the prejudices and misdeeds of women before her, Kingston admits that these women have shaped her to come out as an epitome of the true Chinese American woman.

In “a song for barbarian reed pipe”, Kingston uses storytelling to explain how her life developed from childhood to adulthood. Here, she employs a point of view to give the reader other people’s perspectives on her and life in general. She touches on various topics including her early life experiences in elementary school. Through telling the story of her life by taking the point of view of some of the characters, Kingston manages to develop the themes of the story, which include how women treat each other. She categorically depicts her mother as the one pulling her down and she relates this to most Chinese American women who do the same for their children. “She pushed my tongue up and sliced the frenum,” because “the Chinese say ‘a ready tongue is an evil’” (163-164). In this light, she explains how Chinese American parents struggle to juggle between keeping the customs and raising their children in an American lifestyle.