Multiple Identities/Multiple Narrative Strategies: Maxine Hong Kingston\u27s \u3ci\u3eThe Woman Warrior\u3c/i\u3e

The Chinese never meant to stay in America. The eventual integration -- or lack thereof -- of those sojourners, fortune seekers, and refugees into mainstream America was for many an economic accident, a cruel mishap twice as bitter to swallow when longing for Home was burdened with racism and ignorance of the American barbarians. Some did return (and had their American nest eggs confiscated by the Communists) but for those unfortunates who had to stay, the dream of going back to China was a taste in the mouth, verbalized and daily pressed upon the palates of offspring and kin. Children of these reluctant immigrants were thus presented with a situation in which they were neither wanted in their native born land, nor were they supposed to want it. This context is essential for understanding Maxine Hong Kingston\u27s autobiographical novel, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts