Games
...we like. At first I thought the secret was told to Kingston because her mother truly wanted to warn her of what would happen if she became pregnant out of wedlock. After thinking about it more and more I thought maybe Kingston=s mother was unburdening herself in a way. By telling Maxine she was giving away some of the pain, some of the blame. AWhenever 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 fits in solid America@ (Kingston 5.) Kingston is saying that she had to find a way to deal with these Chinese culture secrets as an American. These were secrets that in American culture would destroy a family but in the Chinese culture only if it was talked about. Maxine=s mother was in my opinion unburdening herself and forcing her American child to deal with this secret. I thought it rather sad that this Aunt who drowned in the well had to commit such sins in order to protect her family. She committed adultery, it didn’t matter if it was by choice or by force, she committed murder and then suicide. All of these sins to protect herself, her child and her family. AI have thought that my family, having settled among immigrants who had also been their neighbors in the ancestral land, needed to clean their name, and a wrong word would incite the kinspeople even here@ (Kingston 16.) I wondered if she was saying that the neighbors knew of this secret and yet it was if it had never happened. They were Chinese living in America, their Chinese culture bound them to the secret and America kept it that way. In a way I can also see that the bond of Chinese woman was stronger than culture whether is was Chinese or American. These Chinese women in Kingston=s stories are strong but they are stronger united. They are all afraid of ghosts and in their fear, they are bound. They are bound together for fear of change; fears of disrupting what is and fear of losing their husbands. Though they are dependent upon their husbands for support they are independent in their thoughts and strengths. In White Tigers, the main character is but a girl when she is lost. She is lost for the purpose of finding herself and her strength. She is taught to be a warrior, a hero. She is married off to a man who she doesn=t need but knows it is her duty to her family - she can not shame them. She must be strong; she must live her life as it was planned. She can be a warrior, a wife and a mother - she is a woman. At one point she says AI am good enough to save the boys@ (Kingston 32.) She is told in response AWe didn=t work this hard to save just two boys, but whole families@ (Kingston 32.) She is not just a woman but a woman warrior. Chinese woman were not wanted and through this their bond to each other was stronger. This woman, this warrior was made, trained to prove that woman were more than maggots. AGirls are maggots in the rice@ (Kingston 43.) Being a woman and the strength she gained from being a woman were her power. Her belief in herself and her family kept her strong. This woman was not the typical stereotype of Chinese women. Chinese woman were supposed to take care of the homes, the family and their husbands but not the woman warrior and not Kingston=s mother before she was Kingston=s mother. Kingston=s mother told a story of her life when the father had moved to America. She took the money that he sent and she became a doctor. Not just a doctor but a good doctor, one who saved lives. When Kingston told the story, how could I not believe? I felt such emotion and strength, there were so many details. Kingston had seen the pictures and the diploma. Was there truth to the story? She her mother had been a doctor but had she truly fought off the sitting ghost and walked away from helping a woman being murdered. Kingston=s mother seemed to love her daughter and share ...