No Name Woman By Maxine Hong Kingston Essay

1020 Words Dec 8th, 2016 5 Pages
How would you react if someone told you a story about a relative you never knew about? In Maxine Hong Kingston 's essay, "No Name Woman," she writes about her forgotten aunt who lived in China. Kingston 's mother tells her about her unnamed aunt as a warning, so she does not fall in the same steps as her aunt. The essay opens as her mother is telling her, "You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you. In China, your father had a sister who killed herself. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born," (383). An opening to a story like this would scare anyone, even more, if it is about a deceased relative. Kingston 's aunt was impregnated at a young age by a man who was never identified, therefore no one knew who he was. Everyone in her town harassed her for what she did. A raid even broke out where multiple farm animals were slaughtered. "We could hear the animals scream their deaths – the roosters, the pigs, a last great roar from the ox," (384). The people did not want Kingston 's father 's sister in the village. They wanted her gone. The town found disgrace with her aunt 's actions. She had become pregnant while for years, "Your aunt 's new husband sailed for America, the Gold Mountain," (383). She herself knew she was about to be shut down for becoming pregnant. After the story, Kingston describes her views on the roles her no named aunt took and imagined her own story on why her aunt decided to be with someone else.…

Related Documents