Philosopher King - A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe

My class just recently finished the last chapter of The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. For my literature circle entry for the last chapter I am going to do the job of philosopher king, meaning that I will identify the major themes of this chapter.

Voice: One time when this theme was evident was when Maxine's voice was repetitively compared to the sound of a quacking duck. Another time was when Maxine was trying to get the shy Chinese girl to talk, while they were in the bathroom after school. Also, in this chapter Maxine talks about how her mother cut her tongue when she was little. Maxine's mother did this to her because it was said that if you cut your tongue you will be able to talk in many different dialects and you will talk gracefully. "We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine." (Hong Kingston 172). This quote shows that Chinese girls had to change their voices in order to fit in.

Power: This theme is shown when Maxine is bullying the quiet Chinese girl. She has power over the quiet girl because Maxine is able to talk and the quiet girl doesn't talk. Maxine abuses her power when trying to make the girl speak by pulling the girl's hair, pulling at her face, and screaming at her. Maxine shouldn't have done this because if the girl doesn't want to talk, then she doesn't have to.

Looking Out for Each Other: Maxine claims to the quiet Chinese girl that she is trying make her speak because she is looking out for her. She claims that if the girl doesn't start speaking soon, she says if she doesn't speak she will never get a job or get married. In the chapter, it later says that the family of the quiet Chinese girl, took care of the girl her whole life, they looked out for her.

Secrets: Another theme is secrets. This theme is first mentioned in the chapter when Maxine mentions her sixth grade teacher. her teacher showed them their files and family records, which are things that are supposed to be kept secretive. Another part of this theme, was when Maxine planned to tell her mother all of her secrets. She ended up only telling her a few, until she got annoyed and told her to go away.

Craziness: This theme is shown when she talks about her crazy woman neighbor that is sent to an asylum. When the woman returns home, her husband brings her a son to raise. She is thrilled to be able to raise a son. Another crazy person that is mentioned in the chapter is Crazy Mary. Crazy Mary was born in China and left there until her parents could raise enough money to bring her to America. Since she was left in China and then later brought to America, she became crazy. She also had a mole on the front of her face and wore a bib.

Philosopher King - At the Western Palace

In the fourth chapter of The Woman Warrior there are many themes that can be identified. I will identify some of those major themes as I play the role of philosopher king.

Food: This theme was also evident in the past chapter, Shaman, when they talked about how eaters were in heroes. In this chapter, however, this theme can first be seen when Brave Orchid is waiting at the airport for her sister to arrive. The book says, "On the floor she had two shopping bags full of canned peaches, real peaches, beans wrapped in taro leaves, cookies, Thermos bottles, enough food for everybody," (Hong Kingston 113). Brave Orchid brought a lot of food to the airport with her because food and eating is very important to her since eaters are heroes. Also once Moon Orchid, Brave Orchid's sister, arrives to Brave Orchid's home they cook a great feast with more than enough food for everybody.

111 Degrees: In the Shaman chapter it was mentioned that when the laundry reached 111 degrees, the family would sit around and tell stories. In this chapter, when the temperature of laundromat reached 111 degrees Brave Orchid would go outside and eat lunch with Moon Orchid, who would sit on an apple crate outside.

Women Less Superior than Men: The fact that Moon Orchid's husband married another woman and didn't send for her. Shows that men were more superior. The whole time that Moon Orchid was in China alone, she never remarried. This is because it wasn't allowed for women to have two husbands in China, but it was acceptable for men to have two wives in China. In American it is not allowed for men or women to have two spouses.

Traveling: Moon Orchid traveled about four times throughout this chapter. One time on a plane from China to America. Another time was when Brave Orchid's son drove Moon Orchid, Moon Orchid's daughter, and Brave Orchid to LA. The purpose of this trip was so that Moon Orchid's daughter could return to her immediate family and so that Moon Orchid could confront her husband after all the years. The third time that Moon Orchid travels is when she goes back to Brave Orchid's. She returns to Brave Orchid's house because she believes that some Mexican ghosts are trying to kill her in LA. The last time that she travels is when she makes the journey to a California state mental asylum.

Brave Orchid's Soft Side: This theme has only been evident two times in this book. The first time was at the end of Shaman when she talks about how she is sad that her children don't live at home anymore. The second time is at the end of this chapter. She shows her soft side when Moon Orchid returns from LA, when she thinks that some Mexican ghosts are plotting to kill her. This tenderness is evident because she skips work to protect her sister, cries when she tries to comfort her crazy sister, comforts her sister numerous times, holds hands with her sister when she first arrives back from LA, and performs many healing chants to bring her sister's soul back from wandering.

Night Marchers

There was once two friends that decided to go hiking for about six days on the coast of the Big Island. The trail they were going to take was called the King's Trial. One night they decided to camp out in an old fisherman's hut. In the middle of the night both friends woke up because they heard the crunch of gravel. As they regained their conscience, they realized that the sound wasn't of just one person walking across gravel, but that it really was the sound thousands of people walking across the lava field. Both men were terrified because they both knew who were the ones making it the sounds. They were the night marchers, also known as the spirits of dead Hawaiian warriors. The two men laid terrified in the hut, until the marchers finally pasted them. Both men didn't think they were going to survive. Now whenever either of the friends hear the sound of someone walking on gravel, they instantly remember the night they encountered the night marchers.

Feminist - Shaman

In this chapter of The Woman Warrior the theme that women are less powerful than men and have less privileges is still very evident. One obvious place is when the book talks about when Maxine's mom is choosing a slave to become her assistant nurse. All of the slaves at the market are daughters, there are no sons at all. Since there are no sons, this shows thats boys are valuable and no one wants to sell their sons. Another place that we can see the theme of women being less powerful and valuable than men is when Maxine's mom brews a special soup for a certain couple. She brews this soup for them because they are infertile. The soup ended their infertility and also gave them a boy. The soup was made specially so that a boy would be born not a girl because a Chinese couple would much rather have a boy than a girl that is worthless in their eyes. A third time that this theme is evident is when the book says, "Chinese without sons stole boy babies of Japanese settlers," (Hong Kingston 93). This quote shows the theme because it says that Chinese families without any sons often stole sons. The quote doesn't say that they stole daughters, but only sons. This because they only wanted sons, not daughters. Also you can see this theme when Maxine talks about what would happen if her family moved back to China. She says that her and her sisters would be sold. Also she says that her father would get at least two or three more wives. They would sell Maxine and her sisters because in China girls are useless. Also since her dad would marry two or three more wives, this shows that wives would get less attention and catering to than men. It shows this because each of the wives would only cater to their one husband, but that one husband would only partially cater to each of his wives since he has to cater to more than just one person.

Philosopher King - White Tigers Part 2

For the second part of the chapter "White Tigers" I want to do the job of philosopher king. For this job I have to identify the major themes that occurred in the section.

Make-Believe: A major theme throughout the telling of the ballad of Fa Mu Lan there is a lot make-believe wound in with the reality. An example of this is when she fought the giant general and when she cut off his leg he turned into a snake. This obviously is not true because people can't just turn into snakes when their legs are cut off. Another time the general she was fighting was a genie out of a water gourd. This also can't be true. However the fact that she did battle many generals is true, which means that the truth is hidden in the magic that is told.

Woman are Weaker: This theme is very evident many times in this section. One time that it is evident is when Fa Mu Lan goes to kill the baron. When she tells him that she is a girl, he starts quoting phrases about girls being worse than boys. Two of these phrases are "Girls are maggots in the rice" and "It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters." Also we see this theme when Fa Mu Lan finds all of the women in the Baron's house. The women were locked in a room without any light and their feet were bound. Also when we go back into Maxine's point of view this theme is still obvious in many places. One of these places is when her parents are ashamed that they have two daughters in a row before they had any boys. Also when Maxine's brother returns from Vietnam without being hurt, her family hosts a feast and celebration for him. However, when she returned from college and from marching to change the world, her parents did nothing to recognize her accomplishments.

Racism: We can see this theme when Maxine is working for the art supply house that sold paint. Her boss made a remark about the color "Nigger Yellow". This comment was referring to her. She told him that she didn't like that word, but he didn't care at all. Also this chapter mentions that her family was denied food and work just because they were Chinese.

Women's Hidden Strength: This theme is major because Fa Mu Lan is the most famous Chinese woman that used her hidden strength to help many people and to fight as a general. Also the chapter talks about a legend that the women that were held captive in the Baron's house became a mercenary army of swords-women. This means that all of the time that they were captive they were hiding there strengths that they later released when they became a mercenary army.

Lexicographer - White Tigers Part 1

For the first part of "White Tigers" I decided to do the job of lexicographer. I decided to do this job because this book holds many difficult words. A lot of the words that I chose from this section of the book were because I didn't know the definition of them.

Alighted (page 19) - to come down from something, to descend
I chose this word because I didn't understand the meaning of it.

Teased (page 19) - to disentangle, to disturb or annoy
I thought that it was interesting how they used this word in the test. I usually associate the word teased with someone making fun of another person. However, in this book it is used as saying something was messy or disentangled.

Brambles (page 20) - any plant that is a genus of the rose family
I chose this word because I didn't understand the meaning of it.

Mussed (page 21) - disarrange, to make untidy
This is another word that was new to me and I didn't know what it meant.

Ideograph (page 23) - a picture or a symbol used in writing
This word was used a lot in the chaptered because they kept talking about the Chinese writing.

White Tigers (page 24) - a certain breed of tigers, white coloring
I chose this phrase because it is the name of the chapter. I don't understand why this is the name of the chapter because so far white tigers haven't played a significant part. They were only mentioned as being in the forest that she was stranded in without food.

Smug (page 25) - highly self satisfying
I didn't know the meaning of this word.

Hindrance (page 25) - impediment, the state of being hindered
Another new word to me, that I didn't know the meaning to.

Self-immolation (page 28) - a willing and self sacrifice of oneself, usually dealing with fire
I chose this word because it was from a strange part of the story. It was from the part when the rabbit jumped into her fire. I thought this was strange because it was like the rabbit was sacrificing its self so that she wouldn't starve any longer. Maybe he ancestors forced the rabbit to do this so that she wouldn't be in pain any longer, they were trying to save her from starvation.

Strata (page 29) - a bed or layer that is artificially made
A word that I didn't know the meaning to.

My Hero

In class today Mr. Watson told us to write about our hero tonight because tomorrow we are going to read the second chapter of Woman Warrior, in which Maxine talks about Mulan being her hero. My hero is probably Alisa. She's not a crime fighting super hero, but she's one of the strongest people I know. Alisa is a ballerina that used to dance with Ballet Hawaii, but now dances with Inland Pacific Ballet as a company apprentice.

The story all begins when Alisa was 14 years old. She was getting ready to go to the prestigious American Ballet Theatre summer intensive, when she got a cold. She thought it was no big deal until she began coughing up blood. Her mother rushed her to the hospital. There they ran blood test and saw something was seriously wrong. It seemed that her body wasn't functioning properly and she appeared to be very anemic. Doctors had to take action quickly. They put Alisa into a four week coma so that she wouldn't feel any pain.

While she was in the coma, her condition worsened and her organs were starting to fail. She was put into the intensive care unit at Kapiolani Medical Center. She was also hooked up to many machines that pumped her organs for her. No doctors could tell what exactly was wrong with Alisa and they told her parents that she might die.

After spending seven weeks in the hospital, Alisa regained consciousness and her parents hired caregivers so she could finally go home. The first thing her father did when she got home was he installed a ballet barre in her room. He knew that even though she couldn't move yet, the barre would motivate her to become strong again. Alisa slowly learned how to walk again with help from her physical therapist. Alisa started to become healthier and healthier, but she still had some medical complications.

Her kidneys were still not functioning. She was forced to go on dialysis three times a week for three years while preparing for a kidney transplant. During those three years, she regained a lot of strength and even started to go to beginning ballet classes. When she was finally ready, she joined her old ballet class again. On the first day back Alisa was discouraged at first because she realized that while she was gone everyone had improved and she could barely do what she could before.

When it came close to the time of Alisa's transplant, her and her family moved to San Fransisco (where the procedure would take place). Alisa wasn't the only one that had to prep for this surgery, her dad had to also because he was giving one of his kidneys to her. On December 14, 2001 the surgery took place without a flaw. Alisa and her family stayed in San Fransisco at the Ronald McDonald House for a year while she recovered.

Once Alisa returned to Hawaii, she began to dance. She took as many ballet classes as she could and she spent more time in the studio than anyone else. This perseverance is why she is my hero. Some days she would be in pain, but she kept dancing because she loved it. All of Alisa's hard work payed off, during the summer of 2004 she attended the San Fransisco Ballet's six week summer intensive. At the end of the intensive she was one of the few people that were invited to study for the whole year with the company and on top of that she was offered a full scholarship for the year.

Alisa attended San Fransisco Ballet that whole year and came home in the summer of 2005. When she got home she took part in Ballet Hawaii's three week summer intensive. At that summer intensive there was a teacher that had connections with the Inland Pacific Ballet. This teacher was very impressed with Alisa's technique and attitude while she danced that she invited Alisa to study with Inland Pacific Ballet as an apprentice dancer (the level before becoming a professional). Alisa has trained since 2005 with the Inland Pacific Ballet and she has also made many appearances in the professional productions put on by the company.

Alisa is the bravest and most hard-working person I know. My goal is to be more like her. She missed out on her entire high school experience because she was always sick. She also missed out on the prime training years for a professional dancer, but that didn't stop Alisa at all. She still is pursuing her dream of being a dancer. Also she is not bitter at all about missing out on many things, instead she is the sweetest person I know and is always smiling. She says its because she now realizes how lucky she is to be healthy and to be able to dance everyday.

No Name Woman Continued

Well, apparently I did the last assignment about "No Name Woman" wrong because I thought we were supposed to answer the question: what do we learn about Maxine by the way she imagines the rest of the story about her aunt? However, we didn't have to because we were just supposed to do an analysis of quotes that were in the chapter. So, now I'm going to add to that post with two more quotes and more information about Maxine that I gained from the way that she imagined the rest of the story about her aunt.

Another quote is, "It could very well have been that, however that my aunt did not take subtle enjoyment of her friend, but, a wild woman, kept rollicking company. Imagining her free with sex doesn't fit, though." (Hong Kingston 8). In this quote we learn that Maxine is a very open person. When I say open I mean that she doesn't have closed thoughts about sex. She thinks about it freely, and isn't ashamed. If she still lived in China she probably wouldn't have these thoughts because the women had very sheltered lives.

From this first chapter we also learn that Maxine is very curious. This is obvious because she comes up with so many different theories about a person that she just heard about from a story told by her mother. For example she says, “Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on her family." (Hong Kingston 6) In this theory she thinks that the man that got her aunt pregnant was evil. He was sinister and forced her aunt to have sex with him. The next theory in the next paragraph is, "Or perhaps he first noticed her in the marketplace. He was not a stranger because the village housed no strangers." (Hong Kingston 6). This theory is totally different than a sinister man. For in this theory the man is no longer a stranger or sinister, instead he is someone that everyone knows because there aren't any strangers in the village. Just how her theories differ so much just from one to the next shows us how she has a very curious mind with a never-ending amount of theories.

No Name Woman

In class we just started reading Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. So far in the first chapter, Maxine's mother has told Maxine a story about her aunt being pregnant, but the baby couldn't be the husband of the aunt's baby since the husband had been gone for years. When Maxine's aunt was about to give birth, the villagers raided her house. Maxine's mother hasn't ever told Maxine about this aunt until now. She didn't go into great detail about Maxine's aunt because she just wanted Maxine to know that she shouldn't become pregnant. If she ever did become pregnant before getting married, her family would forget about her just like how they forgot about Maxine's mysterious aunt. The rest of the chapter is about Maxine coming up with all of these different theories of how her aunt became pregnant. The main question we were supposed to think about while reading this section of the book was: What do we learn about Maxine by the way she imagines the rest of the story about her aunt?

One thing that we learn about Maxine is that she has a very wild imagination. We can see this because she comes up with so many different theories, and all of them are different from each other. Also we learn that she must care about looks because she mentions fashion and hair. One time when she mentions fashion is when she starts fabricating all of her different theories. "If I want to learn what clothes my aunt wore, whether flashy or ordinary." (Hong Kingston 6). What I don't understand is, why does she care what her aunt wore? It doesn't really change the story.

Also as I said she talks about her aunt's hair. One of her theories was that her aunt took a lot of time getting ready and her hair was beautiful compared to the other women, and thats why all the men liked her. "At the mirror my aunt combed individuality into her bob... She brushed her hair back from her forehead, tucking the flaps behind her ears. She looped a piece of thread, knotted into a circle between her index fingers and thumbs." (Hong Kingston 9). Just the way that Maxine can go into so much detail about something she is totally making up about her aunt is kind of bizarre. Also the grooming of her aunt's hair isn't even a significant part of her theories, but for some reason she goes into such precise details. This shows that Maxine has a very vivid imagination since she can go into such detail of something that she is totally making up.