Something that struck me as really interesting in Woman Warrior was the two different types of births that were described; one in No Name Woman and the second in White Tigers. Both the aunt and Fa Mu Lan gave birth during inconvenient times and both include images of space, the sky, and stars.
Kingston writes of her aunt’s labor, “The black well of sky and stars went out and out and out forever; her body and her complexity seemed to disappear. She was one of the stars, a bright dot in blackness, without home, without a companion, in eternal cold and silence” (Kingston 14). The description seems to emphasize the painful process and her aunt’s loneliness as she has no one to support her and help her through her difficult time – not her family or her lover. Kingston compares the aunt’s feeling of being alone with the dark emptiness of space, which conveys to me sadness and pity.
In contrast, Kingston writes about Fa Mu Lan’s birth in a more optimistic light. Mu Lan gives birth in the middle of a battle while a leader of her own army, who along with her husband are with her before and after the birth. A few words are used to describe the seemingly painless birth, a stark contrast between the two women. Again, Kingston brings in space and stars into the birth, but this time, the baby is described as a boy and “his soul a star” whose “last star rays sank into [her] belly” (Kingston 40). This depiction is like a celebration of life rather than the agony the aunt went through.
I have to mention that both stories both used in stories that Kingston’s retelling and are fabricated as Kingston writes to cater to her needs. Kingston assumes the aunt’s child was a girl, or else the mother and child might have had a better chance of survival if the child was a boy. She also makes it a point to directly note that Fa Mu Lan’s child was a baby boy.
I think the two examples are used to contrast the two different females and their roles in the novel. The aunt was portrayed as helpless woman who was shunned to the point where suicide seemed like the only answer to her problems. And the allusion to her child as being a girl supports the stereotype of the inferiority of women. Then there is Mu Lan whose role is as masculine as possible and delivers a baby boy. She does not receive any consequences from masquerading as a male and is even celebrated for her achievements. I wonder if Mu Lan’s story has a happier ending because of her role as a more masculine figure and the aunt’s story ended with death because she had a more feminine role?
1 comment:
It is an interesting connection between the two births, and the connection is even more clear as it uses similar wording and symbolism in both cases. As for the different receptions given to each birth, due to the sex of the child, is interesting to contemplate. It could be part of the reason, but I also think the way in which both were conceived had a large contribution. The aunt had lain with someone other than her husband, so she and her child were already stigmatized due to her pregnancy and what it represented. But when looking at Fa Mu Lan's story sex seems to play a major influential role. Of course her child would have to be a boy. I think it would have seemed odd if she had given birth to a girl. It is similar to when men use the sex of their child as a measurement of their masculinity. The parents of the child were both great warriors, so a male child could be said to be expected.
The interpretation given from the births is also backed up by many of the scenarios in the book that depict the inferiority of women. Kingston's father seemed to become effeminate when the family moved to the U.S. and took up the laundry business, a feminine occupation. As a result the mother becomes more of the masculine father figure that heads the family.
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