“No Name Woman” AACC/ Discussion Questions Abstract:Maxine Hong Kingston was born in 1940. Her parents were immigrants from China. As a Little girl she was always told stories to warn about life. One day her mother decided to tell her a story that she cannot repeat to anyone. The story was about her father’s sister, who no one acknowledges or says ever existed. The story tells about how her aunt was unfaithful or in some way raped, and that she became pregnant and shamed the family so she jumped into the well with her baby and both died. After learning of this story she would find herself reflecting on it and wondering if she is being haunted because she is continuing the family’s silent punishment of her aunt.
Contextual:Out of all the stories I have read so far to annotate this one was almost impossible to relate with, without of course telling things that others don’t need to know and can’t know. So I tell my opinions on why I can’t relate, first I’m not a girl so I don’t know how the author or her aunt, or mom felt. Second I’m not of the same time period and culture, which is way different than mine. And Last I don’t and my family doesn’t shun people for making mistakes and poor judgment and restraint. The text makes me think is this fiction or nonfiction, because the mom could have made up the story to scare the daughter into being good. It just seemed too fishy of a story for my taste.
Content:A)The Kingston family in my opinion is ashamed of both, the pregnancy from a man that is not her husband and that she committed suicide. My guess though is that it started as being ashamed of the pregnancy but as the years went by they held grudges and then held themselves responsible for her committing suicide.
Engaging the Text:A) The passage I chose, they were describing the daughter or aunt as being a vain woman, spoiled, and someone determined to look good. They go into great detail of how she goes about getting ready to look as pretty as possible for the day. This passage intrigued me because how does the sister-in-law know so much about the Aunt when they eventually disowned her. It’s almost as if they either shared a room or spent a lot of time together and had become very close. When people go into detail it always makes me curious as to how and why do they know certain details.
Suggestions For Sustained Writing:B)In many cultures your family is your status and your status with your family determines your status with others. In China family status and your status within determines honor and if you dishonor yourself you dishonor your family to the rest of the world and in a way dishonor your people. The Kingston family’s culture is that of China’s and there mystery sister dishonored them through Adultery and a pregnancy from it. The family’s reaction tells that this all happened back in the early 1900’s when family was the only real important thing, not wealth which you were considered poor if you had no ties or good status with your family. If in Angelou’s family this tragedy of adultery and then suicide occurred I believe that Momma would give the girl a good beating then a constant cold shoulder. They still would act similar to the culture in China but still better. Though if the girl killed herself I believe that they would mourn her and not just forget and never talk of her again.
In today’s culture family is still important only in a different way. We today think family honor is more important than unity and staying together to help one another. Culture changes as do values and even religions which both are differing from the people around them. This allows for events and problems to occur without the fear of retaliation from their neighbors or other people in their cities and towns.Another major change is that people now worry more about themselves and their own families, not saying that there not any nosey neighbors because there still is.
If this had happened in my family I would like to think we would stick together and work through it.I know though that we wouldn’t cast out or condemn a member of our family, we may not approve of what they did and be sad that they chose that, but we would back them and try to help them the best we could without of course losing ourselves in the process. To my family our unity and love for one another is what is most important.
Abstract: Maxine Hong Kingston was born in 1940. Her parents were immigrants from China. As a Little girl she was always told stories to warn about life. One day her mother decided to tell her a story that she cannot repeat to anyone. The story was about her father’s sister, who no one acknowledges or says ever existed. The story tells about how her aunt was unfaithful or in some way raped, and that she became pregnant and shamed the family so she jumped into the well with her baby and both died. After learning of this story she would find herself reflecting on it and wondering if she is being haunted because she is continuing the family’s silent punishment of her aunt.
Contextual: Out of all the stories I have read so far to annotate this one was almost impossible to relate with, without of course telling things that others don’t need to know and can’t know. So I tell my opinions on why I can’t relate, first I’m not a girl so I don’t know how the author or her aunt, or mom felt. Second I’m not of the same time period and culture, which is way different than mine. And Last I don’t and my family doesn’t shun people for making mistakes and poor judgment and restraint. The text makes me think is this fiction or nonfiction, because the mom could have made up the story to scare the daughter into being good. It just seemed too fishy of a story for my taste.
Content: A) The Kingston family in my opinion is ashamed of both, the pregnancy from a man that is not her husband and that she committed suicide. My guess though is that it started as being ashamed of the pregnancy but as the years went by they held grudges and then held themselves responsible for her committing suicide.
Engaging the Text: A) The passage I chose, they were describing the daughter or aunt as being a vain woman, spoiled, and someone determined to look good. They go into great detail of how she goes about getting ready to look as pretty as possible for the day. This passage intrigued me because how does the sister-in-law know so much about the Aunt when they eventually disowned her. It’s almost as if they either shared a room or spent a lot of time together and had become very close. When people go into detail it always makes me curious as to how and why do they know certain details.
Suggestions For Sustained Writing: B) In many cultures your family is your status and your status with your family determines your status with others. In China family status and your status within determines honor and if you dishonor yourself you dishonor your family to the rest of the world and in a way dishonor your people. The Kingston family’s culture is that of China’s and there mystery sister dishonored them through Adultery and a pregnancy from it. The family’s reaction tells that this all happened back in the early 1900’s when family was the only real important thing, not wealth which you were considered poor if you had no ties or good status with your family.
If in Angelou’s family this tragedy of adultery and then suicide occurred I believe that Momma would give the girl a good beating then a constant cold shoulder. They still would act similar to the culture in China but still better. Though if the girl killed herself I believe that they would mourn her and not just forget and never talk of her again.
In today’s culture family is still important only in a different way. We today think family honor is more important than unity and staying together to help one another. Culture changes as do values and even religions which both are differing from the people around them. This allows for events and problems to occur without the fear of retaliation from their neighbors or other people in their cities and towns. Another major change is that people now worry more about themselves and their own families, not saying that there not any nosey neighbors because there still is.
If this had happened in my family I would like to think we would stick together and work through it. I know though that we wouldn’t cast out or condemn a member of our family, we may not approve of what they did and be sad that they chose that, but we would back them and try to help them the best we could without of course losing ourselves in the process. To my family our unity and love for one another is what is most important.