Interpretation Of The Woman Warrior From The Perspective Of Myth-Archetypal Criticism

Published in 1976, as a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction in American literature, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior has aroused great interest of study. Like other masterpieces, The Woman Warrior is never a literary work for which scholars and critics can find a satisfying or ideal interpretation, though many dazzling perspectives and methods are applied to examine this work. Therefore, it is safe to say that The Woman Warrior, as Kingston's masterpiece, is imbued with inexhaustible secrets that need to be brought to light.This thesis, adopting myth-archetypal theory, attempts a systematic and close examination of the archetypes embedded in the pages, including characters, structure, symbols as well as motifs. The discussion gives prominence to the Chinese elements, that is, Chinese heroine Fa Mu Lan and Chinese ancient poet Ts'ai Yen. These two figures are replaced and revised by Kingston, and thus become an American myth, reflecting Chinese-American women's desire for an equal relationship between males and females and longing to integrate into the mainstream society. Fa Mu Lan is disguised as a man, with mysterious martial arts, leading a group of male soldiers to defeat her enemies in battles and revenging for her villagers. Ts'ai Yen achieved cultural fusion in a barbarian land and created the famous classic song"Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe". Their struggles are just symbols for all the Chinese-Americans to realize their American dreams and can arouse much resonance and sympathy among them.The thesis is composed of three chapters, plus the introduction and the conclusion.Introduction gives a very brief introduction of the author Maxine Hong Kingston and her novel The Woman Warrior, followed by an interpretation of Frye's archetypal criticism. Then on the basis of literature review, the reasons of the writer's choice of the present research would be given. Finally, the concrete research questions are put forward: What kind of myths and archetypes does Maxine Hong Kingston draw on in this story? What profound meanings are revealed? How does the use of archetypes contribute to the work's connotations? The first chapter presents the archetypal analysis of the leading characters. Maxine Hong Kingston ingeniously endows the main characters, such as No Name Woman, Brave Orchid, the village crazy lady, Maxine, with many traits of mythical (both Chinese and western) archetypes. Firstly, the archetype of Philomela can be found in the No Name Woman. Due to the ambiguity in this works, No Name Woman can also be taken as mother archetype and archetype of Ying Ying, a beauty abandoned by her lover. Maxine Hong Kingston underlines the likeliness of virtues between Fa Mu Lan (Chinese heroine), Ts'ai Yen (Chinese poetess with two different cultures), mother archetype and Brave Orchid. Maxine, on one hand, is implied to Fa Mu Lan (Chinese heroine), through which, Maxine Hong Kingston emphasized her feminist idea; on the other, she is compared to Ts'ai Yen, through which, the thought of cultural interaction instead of cultural conflict is clearly expressed. Undoubtedly, the archetype of village crazy lady can be taken as Orpheus who is a Greek artist, and scapegoat as well.Chapter Two deals with the archetypal structure and the archetypal symbols. The time sequence—the coincidence of the narrative with the cycle of the seasons—is archetypal structure which can be traced in the story. The first chapter"No Name Woman"fits in with the archetype of tragedy, autumn phase; the second chapter"White Tigers"with the archetype of romance, the summer phase; the third chapter"Shaman"with the archetype of comedy, the spring phase; the fourth chapter"At the West Palace"with the archetype of satire, the winter phase. These four chapters are linked counterclockwise; and the last chapter"A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe"with the archetype of comedy again, the spring phase, which is connected with the fourth one clockwise. Dominant archetypal symbols in the novel are old man and old woman, color black, circle, birds, mountains as well as bound feet. They give the novel a mysterious coloring, strengthen the alien atmosphere and highlight the themes.Chapter Three interprets archetypal motifs of the novel. One of the archetypal themes Maxine Hong Kingston adopts is ghost myth, both Chinese and western ghost myth, which is revised by the author and resembles the spiritual growth of Brave Orchid and her daughter. The other theme is an old mythic theme: the quest of Grail. Brave Orchid and her daughter both are heroes committing themselves to the following of their grail: their cultural identity and sex identity, by breaking the silence. They both succeed and deserve success.Finally comes the conclusion: Maxine Hong Kingston's use of archetypes in The Woman Warrior is skillful. When these archetypes are interpreted in terms of sources of the novel, they constitute an integral part of Maxine Hong Kingston's artistic creation and effectively convey her intention. At the same time, these archetypes greatly add to the readability and profundity of the novel and further enrich its connotations. The Woman Warrior articulates the voices, not only of Kingston's, but of all the repressed Chinese-American women. Considering the feminized and marginalized position of Chinese-Americans, The Woman Warrior is the voices of all of them. These functions of archetypes immensely contribute to the eternal artistic brilliance and greatness of the novel.