The Woman Warrior 2

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Like I have said in other DB posts, the immigrant experience in America can never be summarized by one experience. Regardless, America is a distinct place and any immigrant to this land must be prepared to deal with these issues. What makes the Orchid sister's experiences interesting, however, is the intersection of gender roles across societies and cultures.
Brave Orchid, to me, is the archetypal matriarchal leader of an immigrant family and is thus able to use her power and leverage as an elderly and experience woman to keep control over her immigrant family. She is addicted to work and providing for her family, in fact saying "I can't stop working. When I stop working, I hurt. My head, my back, my legs hurt. I get dizzy. I can't stop" (Kingston 106). At the same time, life in this new country is not at all easy and she sacrifices much to provide for her family. However, her strength, her intelligence, and her cunning allow her to scratch out an existence for her family in the "Gold Mountain."http://www.corycatures.com/images/studio_color/Gold-Mountain-album-art.jpg

Her sister, Moon Orchid, is perhaps the complete opposite of Brave Orchid's experience. Where Brave Orchid is strong, is never brought down by the fact that she is a woman, and his brave enough to stand up to the injustices of men, her sister is timid and unwilling to change her position in life. She is also unable to adjust to the changes of an American life. As her "husband" points out, "You can't talk to [Americans]. You can barely talk to me" (Kingston 152). Thus, Moon Orchid is destined to live the life of an outcast, someone unable to cope to American way of life. Her status as a married woman whose husband barely acknowledges her existence means she is in an even more precarious position. She is in affect a widow in a foreign land. What hope does she have of living a truly happy or productive life? Her ensuing madness is not surprising.
As our countries gender and race relations continue to liberalize, I wonder if these issues will still be relevant. Will a Chinese woman who lives under the same social codes as Brave Orchid still regard everyone as "ghosts" and be unable to adapt to American ways? Who knows. What I do know is that we as Americans can do little to change the shock of integrating into our society, but we can definitely focus on being as receptive as possible to each others differences. We must show that we are receptive to the cultures of others, even if we don't agree with certain aspects of them. We must show that while certain cultures may have patriarchal elements that we do not agree with, we understand the history of their cultures and thus must accept them. So maybe while we may not be able to change the experience of Moon Orchid, we must still be receptive of her background and understand what she is going through.

Citation:
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.