Remembering

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a story about a woman who becomes a warrior. The beginning of the story starts off telling the audience about the narrator’s aunt who has been banished from her family because she gave birth to a child that was not from her husband. In the second chapter the narrator begins the story of Fa Mu Lan. At this point, I am confused about how the earlier chapter about the narrator’s aunt relates to the story of The Woman Warrior beginning at chapter two.  In the first chapter, the author refers to her aunt as needing to become a woman warrior. Perhaps the story of Fa Mu Lan is a story that relates to her aunt because the Fa Mu Lan had to go through many struggles and be strong just as the author’s aunt had to as well.  Kingston says, “My aunt haunts me-her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not organized into houses and cloths.”(Kingston 16).  Maybe the reason the story starts out this way is because this book is a way to reconnect with her aunt whom everyone in the family rejected. I believe that Kingston wanted to continue the story of her aunt through her rendition of Fa Mu Lan.  Story telling is important in many cultures even today in modern books people have a dedication page that dedicates the story to an important person however, those pages are not as personal nor as long and detailed as the first chapter. I think it is admirable for Kingston to want to tell this story to a world were her aunt would have been shunned.  Sometimes a story is just as important as gold because it is the thought that counts and by dedicating the story to her aunt and retelling her aunt’s story is a way to show people that her aunt is remembered and this story will live on even in people who do not know the author nor the aunt.