The Woman Warrior

by

Maxine Hong Kingston

Kingston’s dead aunt and her father’s sister. Brave Orchid tells Kingston about her aunt but warns her that she “must not tell anyone.” No Name Woman had been married to a husband who was “gone for years,” then became pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth to a daughter. Her marriage had been to “a young man in the next village.” At the ceremony, “the best rooster” had served as his proxy. They met once for their honeymoon, then he left for America. Kingston longs to know more about her aunt, so she creates scenarios for her. Kingston assumes the possibility that the lover was not much different from her absent husband, probably forcing her to have sex, then threatening her. In another story, she is “a wild woman” who is “free with sex,” but this seems to be least plausible. When the villagers found out about No Name Woman’s illegitimate pregnancy, they ransacked her family’s home. Kingston thinks that they punished her for believing that “she could have a private life, secret and apart from them.” The No Name Woman never revealed the name of her daughter’s father. She “gave silent birth” in a pig-sty, then jumped into a well with her infant daughter and died.

No Name Woman Quotes in The Woman Warrior

The The Woman Warrior quotes below are all either spoken by No Name Woman or refer to No Name Woman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling and Identity Theme Icon
).
1. No Name Woman Quotes

“You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born.

Related Characters: Brave Orchid (speaker), Maxine Hong Kingston, No Name Woman
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

It could very well have been, however, that my aunt did not take subtle enjoyment of her friend, but, a wild woman, kept rollicking company…

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

In the village structure, spirits shimmered among the live creatures, balanced and held in equilibrium by time and land. But one human being flaring up into violence could open up a black hole, a maelstrom that pulled in the sky. The frightened villagers, who depended on one another to maintain the real, went to my aunt to show her a personal, physical representation of the break she had made in the “roundness.” Misallying couples snapped off the future, which was to be embodied in true offspring. The villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them.

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Related Symbols: Ghosts
Page Number: 12-13
Explanation and Analysis:

My aunt haunts me—her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes. I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her, and she was a spite suicide, drowning herself in the drinking water.

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Related Symbols: Ghosts
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
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No Name Woman Quotes in The Woman Warrior

The The Woman Warrior quotes below are all either spoken by No Name Woman or refer to No Name Woman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Storytelling and Identity Theme Icon
).
1. No Name Woman Quotes

“You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born.

Related Characters: Brave Orchid (speaker), Maxine Hong Kingston, No Name Woman
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

It could very well have been, however, that my aunt did not take subtle enjoyment of her friend, but, a wild woman, kept rollicking company…

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

In the village structure, spirits shimmered among the live creatures, balanced and held in equilibrium by time and land. But one human being flaring up into violence could open up a black hole, a maelstrom that pulled in the sky. The frightened villagers, who depended on one another to maintain the real, went to my aunt to show her a personal, physical representation of the break she had made in the “roundness.” Misallying couples snapped off the future, which was to be embodied in true offspring. The villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them.

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Related Symbols: Ghosts
Page Number: 12-13
Explanation and Analysis:

My aunt haunts me—her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes. I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her, and she was a spite suicide, drowning herself in the drinking water.

Related Characters: Maxine Hong Kingston (speaker), No Name Woman
Related Symbols: Ghosts
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis: