Blog Post #3 - "No Name Woman"

"If you don't speak up, how is the world supposed to know you exist?"

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In this essay, author Maxine Hong Kingston writes about her family’s long-kept secrets, one of which being her father’s lie of not having a sister. The other was that her ‘newly-found’ aunt had committed suicide upon being ostracized for sexual relations outside of her marriage. When younger, Kingston accepted this story as truth and shied away from boys for fear of humiliation and death, like what befell her aunt. But as her identity as an American woman developed, she realized that her mother’s words may not have held the entire truth. Although it was definite that her aunt was illegitimately pregnant, Kingston questions whether it truly was an act of adultery. She finds it plenty feasible that “some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil”(386). Unfortunately, because her aunt was born into a society in which women were conditioned to obey men, there was no way for her to speak up and prove her innocence; all she could do was be silent. This silence carried on into her family who bestowed her the mark of an outcast. Kingston, too, partook in this silent punishment until the guilt became too great of a burden to carry. This is why, after all these years, she finally exposes the unfair discrimination in both traditional Chinese society as well as in her family. Through her sharp critique of this double standard, she is able to alleviate her aunt’s punishment and release her ghost to freedom. Her purpose in making such a revelation is to persuade first generation immigrants, like her parents, to stop gender discrimination as well as inspire the younger generation to find a culture where they can be true to themselves. Seeking for her readers to take this course of action, Kingston chose to apply her American values and did the unspeakable thing of asserting her independence. Ironically, despite her mother’s first demand to “not tell anyone”(383), the entire essay does the exact opposite. Kingston proves the impossible of going against customary Chinese behavior, by acknowledging her aunt when no one else dared say her name, even if it was just a simple identification as ‘No Name Woman’.