The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

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Description:

The recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award as the best work of nonfiction in 1976, The Woman Warrior describes the author’s youth as the daughter of Chinese laundry workers in California. Kingston desires to be an American but is surrounded by traditions transplanted from China. She shows how Chinese legends of the powerful warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan, contrast with the low regard traditionally given to females. She incorporates vignettes about relatives both in China and in the “Gold Mountain” of America. The account addresses tensions between cultures, genders, and generations; roles of secrecy and truth, fact and imagination; and the search for self.

Activities:

Students analyze the blending of memory, myth, and imagination; study autobiographical techniques; prepare a dramatization of the last section of the book; and focus on multicultural tensions. They also gather information as a newspaper reporter and create headlines; examine point of view, themes, and style; and write creatively.

Supplementary materials feature research topics, suggestions for additional reading, creative and critical writing assignments, and quizzes with answer keys.

Ethical Values:

Compassion
Courage
Equality
Integrity
Justice
Self-actualization
Truth