From reading “No Name Women” by Maxine Hong Kingston and from discussions in class, I feel as though Kingston is writing this story as a way of exploring her own sexuality. Like Professor Oster told us in class, many of Kingston’s stories are parallel with her real life, even though the characters are changed. With this information we can infer that the daughter from “No Name Woman” is speaking for Kingston.
After learning about her aunt, the daughter imagines possibilities as to how her aunt became pregnant. The scenarios that she imagines are possible scenarios that the daughter herself has experienced, or that she has had thoughts about. She gives multiple explanations for her aunts actions because she is wanting to explore what is ‘ok’ and what is not, in terms of sexuality.
The scenario I find most interesting is the one that the daughter mentions only briefly. She ponders, “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. Imagining her free with sex doesn’t fit, though” (8). I assume that the daughter is so quick to dismiss this thought because it does not relate to her own life. She cannot imagine herself free with sex, and therefor cannot imagine the aunt being free with sex either. Why not though? I think that the daughter has always been taught that sex is a chore that women tend to for when they have a husband. It is as though the mother is saying to her daughter, “don’t have sex for enjoyment, sex is for your husband and only him, and if your have sex with anyone else, you will get pregnant, commit suicide, and be exiled from the family.” To put this into a more relatable example the mother is saying, “don’t explore your sexuality because it will lead to bad things.” Although this statement is rash, I think this is what the mother is warning her daughter of. We can conclude by the end of the story that the daughter fears having the same fate as he aunt. I guess you could say the the mothers method of suppressing her daughter’s sexuality worked.
Though we as readers don’t know for sure, Kingston could have been writing this story when she was facing the difficulties of exploring her own sexuality. She used this story to debate between sticking with the Chinese traditions, or developing her own beliefs.
Meghan: I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of "No Name Woman." The parallels that we see in the text can possibly reflect the author's true feelings of her aunt and the story that accompanies her. I understood this short story as Maxine Hong Kingston trying to uncover the truth behind her practically tabooed aunt. As we explained in class, the possible explanations were rape, a love affair, or ancestral help. Personally, I like to believe that it was not her choice to fall pregnant. A common theme in this story is loyalty and it seems very unlikely for anyone in this society to breech away from family ties or even loyalty to the village. I really enjoyed your analysis of the quote and how the author could possibly have dismissed the possibility of being "free with sex" because she had never experienced that herself. I fully believe that authors leave particular things in a story for a reason, and I believe this is a great example. Of course, we have no idea of the real possibility for the aunt, but Kingston maybe wanted to explore these different options for her readers to interpret, along with herself.
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