Ok... so basically I need to do a five paragraph essay (Paragraph model?) by analyzing 3 quotes from this a passage I read "No name woman" by Maxie Hong Kingston. I'm just having trouble with a few things... some I understand, and others I don't. I tried fixing some errors that I made.. (ie: spelling, grammar). This is just the a 2nd draft. I would apprcieate some help and tips. Thanks in advance!
This is what I need help with:
-Verb Tense
`Unpacking language of quotes
-Introducing all quotes fully
-Run on sentences?
No Name Woman
Maxine Hong Kingston begins to learn the story
of an aunt, in which she is known as “No Name Woman”. Kingston’s mother begins
in the first passage, warning her to not tell anyone what she is about to say,
referring to the story of her aunt. She explains that the aunt was Kingston’s
father’s sister, who killed herself in the family well, but there’s no mention
of her at all, because it is as if she had never been
born. The aunt brought shame to the family. She became a disgrace to the
village, because the action of adultery committed. As a result of that, she
ended up with an unwanted pregnancy. This caused so much commotion with the
villagers, who were enraged, and raided the family house. The villagers destroyed
and broke their possessions, wanting to get rid of the aunt from their community;
because the villagers did not permit the couple’s breaking tradition. As a
child, Kingston did not fully understand the way of her Chinese culture. She
starts making up her own stories. As an adult, Kingston looks back at her
childhood years, to learn the identity of the story, and go deeper with her
cultural history.
Roughly
around the age of 12, Kingston starts receiving warnings, and semi-threats from
her mother, to avoid any unwanted pregnancies. Kingston’s mother sets the aunt
as an example. The mother says:
"Don't let your father know that I told you. He
denies her. Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could
happen to you. Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you
had never been born. The villagers are watchful;" (325)
The mother warns young Kingston, and sets an
example from the aunt who brought disgrace to the family. Kingston is being
guided, not to fall in the wrong path as her aunt did. The mother warns her at
this moment, because it is the moment Kingston goes into a new stage of life
that she must go through carefully. The mother wants Kingston to learn the
values of her culture, traditions, and the people she represents. She describes
that the villagers are watching, because they are a community who stick
together as a group. It is part of their culture, having private lives is a
dishonor to the culture. The aunt dishonored it, by having a baby without any
father present. The mother is preventing young Kingston from bring shame to the
family again. Kingston’s mother told stories
Adult
Kingston remembers when her mother use to warn her about life, and the
realities that existed. She would tell stories, to teach Kingston morals.
Kingston explains:
“Whenever she
had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a
story to grow up on. She tested our strength to establish realities. Those in
the emigrant generations who could not reassert brute survival died young and
far from home. Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure
out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fit in
solid America.” (325)
Adult Kingston discusses about the emigrants who
were struggling with poverty, and moved to America. This was the old
generation, who struggled with surviving life. The emigrants re-assert
themselves with the new life; some endure brute survival. Poverty was an issue in
old China. The new generation is growing in America. China was the “invisible
world” for most that was part of the new generation. Kingston they never been
there, but only hear stories about it. America was solid, because the new
generation was adapting to new changes. Kingston wanted to uncover more of this
Chinese cultural history.
As
an adult, Kingston starts to question if her aunt is really guilty, to commit
such an act, which would lead to her own demise. Kingston searches for answers,
because the stories only seem to confuse her. She did not fully understand the
Chinese cultural as a child, because she grew up in the new generation. This
leads Kingston making up her own perspective of the story that her mother had
told. She starts remaking the story in her own words, and her own point of
view. Kingston thinks:
“Adultery is extravagance. Could people who hatch their own chicks and
eat the embryos and the heads for delicacies and boil the feet in vinegar for
party food, leaving only the gravel, eating even the gizzard lining--could such
people engender a prodigal aunt? To be a woman, to have a daughter in
starvation time was a waste enough. My aunt could not have been the lone
romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose.
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 the family.” (326)
Adult Kingston does not believe that her aunt gave
up everything for adultery. She questions, how cruel the villagers are towards
the aunt. Kingston describes her aunt as “prodigal aunt” meaning she is
yielding profusely. She questions, if a human being is capable of bringing a
newborn, and then getting rid of it without any remorse. She realizes that in
Chinese culture, woman had no right to rule, because they had to obey the rules
set by the husband. Women in that time of Chinese culture did not have a
choice. Kingston wonders if the man responsible for impregnating her aunt
wasn’t man enough to take hold of his responsibilities. She also believes the
man might have been responsible for organizing the raid in the first place. Kingston,
somehow wanted to defend her aunt. She tries to analyze the possible reasons
behind her aunt's unwanted pregnancy, in which dishonored her entire culture.
Kingston
as an adult, finally realized her aunt was not fully guilty. The aunt went
through injustice, and was the victim of rape. While the entire society
rejected her aunt, Kingston honored her aunt instead. The mother’s aim was to
warn young Kingston, not to humiliate the family by making the same mistake as
her aunt did. The mother’s aim also had
another purpose, in which she wanted to show the values of her culture,
traditions, and making Kingston a better person in life, without any
disruptions. Kingston as an adult reflects back on what she has learned from
her mother, and her unnamed aunt. She also discovered the world that was once
invisible to her.