As I was considering
the end of The Woman Warrior by
Maxine Hong Kingston during our class discussion, I was really struck by the
notion of translation and the implications that transnationalism places upon
American immigrants. In the section that
we analyzed in class about “’Ho Chi Kuei’” and “’Hao Chi Kuei’” (204), the narrator
struggles with her inability to translate a common phrase from her Chinese
culture. It is notable that this comes
up in the final chapter in the narrator’s adulthood, because it is when she
struggles most to reconcile parts of her Chinese culture as she assimilates
more into American culture. Her desire
to translates exemplifies a failed attempt to connect with her past only further
magnifies the isolation from personal history that has occurred in the narrator’s
disconnect with her Chinese identity.
She also displays the manner in which she has begun to come to terms
with a newly forged identity.
Similarly this ties
into the notion of memoir that we discussed at the beginning of class. Because this section is told in the first
person narrative voice, which makes the feelings of disconnect more real to the
reader. Although the entire book is
about characters and their feelings of distance and longing of their lives in
China, this chapter and specifically this section really struck a chord. The authority of the narrator’s voice as she
explains the two entirely different meanings that the phrase could signify
shapes her pasts in vastly different ways.
While the
negotiation of identities weaves each chapter seamlessly together, it is not
until the final lines that we learn that the narrator finally is beginning to
come to terms with her identity as a Chinese-American. The search for the ideal American feminine
depiction appears to be out of her head, and she is ready to join a group of
women who have had shared in the struggles that she has endured through her socialization
as a Chinese immigrant to America. She
is no longer a barbarian, who stands alone, aggressive, defensive. She is now a songstress. She is a songstress who is able to partake in
a communicative chant of the victories of survival in the tumultuous life of a
female immigrant.
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