Talk in Silence: A Reading of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior

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2014-01-15

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University of Hawaii at Manoa

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In a recent article, King-Kok Cheung discusses silence in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Alice Walker's The Color Purple by tracing the strikingly similar paths of Maxine and Celie's growths from silence to their declarations of individuality in their writing. "They work their way from speechlessness to eloquence" (162), she says. Cheung points out that Maxine and Celie are both literally unable to talk at the beginning of their stories; Maxine is "totally incommunicative" (163) because she cannot speak English, while Celie can barely express herself because she lacks schooling. Cheung also shows that the women's silences are reinforced by cultural or societal influences that are imposed upon them. Celie is forced into silence by her lack of confidence and abusive husband. Maxine is taught to be silent by her culture's stress on not questioning things

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42 pages

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