The Woman Warrior

Kingston wrote The Woman Warrior in 1975 and studied at Berkeley during its 1960s political heyday. How might the historical and cultural context in which Kingston came of age have influenced her writing?

The Woman Warrior begins, “You must not tell anyone […] what I am about to tell you” (3). What role does the breaking of taboos—especially taboos around secrecy and femininity—play in this story?

Kingston presents her mother, Brave Orchid, as a dynamo and a traditionalist who both breaks and upholds stereotypes. How do Brave Orchid’s internal contradictions affect Kingston’s writing about womanhood?

During the visionary “White Tigers” chapter, Kingston recounts learning “dragon ways,” the capacity to make your mind big enough for paradox. How does paradox function in this story?

Ghosts and hauntings are deeply real in the world of The Woman Warrior. What role do they play?

Why do you think the book is titled The Woman Warrior? Why is this archetypal figure the one that Kingston singles out?

Kingston lists Virginia Woolf and Walt Whitman among her influences. How might the work of these writers have affected the form of Kingston’s memoir?

When characters in The Woman Warrior are upset or ill, family and friends soothe their spirits by rubbing their earlobes and chanting their line of descent. How ancestry and inheritance play out in The Woman Warrior—and how might these ideas be linked to the body?