Blog Post 4, Topic 4

   Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts” (1976) settles in the idea of the struggles of an immigrant/first generation encounters. As a first generation myself with parents who are immigrant and are only Spanish- speaking it is has been nothing but attempts in assimilating to a Western culture that is far distinct from our own. Kingston’s portrayal of immigrants is told from a first person narrative, giving it more of an intimate feel. She gives us a deep insight on her reflection of herself as a child who had barely moved to the United States all the way from China. Her short anecdotes that are compiled encompass the main details that an immigrant experiences when they come to a new country for a better life.
   Kingston definitely utilizes figurative language to her advantage when expressing her stories as a child. The use of pathos makes the reader automatically sympathize with her autobiographical stance as an immigrant herself, telling the stories. One of the most eye opening parts that stood out in her telling of personal experiences was when she stated, “When she arrived at the drug store, she runs her words together ’Mymohtersestagimmesomecandy’ and finally asks for a sample of candy, which was freely given (Kingston). It is here that as a first generation, I sympathize with the most, given the fact that one of the greatest expectations that an immigrant struggles with is assimilating to a new language. Due to this language barrier there comes many issues such as discrimination and prejudice. It is an underlying issue that many people don’t bring light to unless they have first-handedly experienced an issue with their language barrier in this Western country.
   Even though Kingston’s experience being told from her childhood, we see how the issues she encountered as an immigrant, not much differs from today’s societal approach towards immigrant/ first generations. There are definitely more resources and awareness to the situation; however, it doesn’t banish it from existing. The fact that many readers can easily empathize with her take on her experience as an immigrant adapting to a new country is an eye opener. There have been many instances where my parents and I have felt discriminated within this Western culture we have chosen to surround ourselves in, majorly because of prejudice on our appearances and the language barriers that disconnects us with others. Learning English became vital, it transformed into a weapon since it has been engraved in many opinions that immigrants should at least acknowledge the idea that they need to know English in order to try to live here. That shouldn’t be the case, regardless of these present language barriers, one should never feel the need to fulfill a societal norm implemented on a minority group such as immigrants/ first generations in order to feel acceptance. Kingston does a great job on exemplifying that.
    If I were the author, I would have chosen to write about something very similar if not exactly. I would incorporate more interactional experiences with authoritative figures and the experiences of those around me. Approaching this text mostly has emphasized the idea of Kingston giving a critical view towards the discrimination and lack of attention in the minority group as well about these issues that are easily established, and chosen to be structuralized and accepted/ tolerated instead of broken and re structuralized.