Maxine Kumin

In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the author creates a conflict between a Chinese mother and her daughter. The relationship between the mother who wanted her daughter to be prodigy, and her daughter who refused to be prodigy is presented (43). She uses dialogue, irony, similes and metaphors to illustrate and set her writing. Tan’s main message that stands out in the story is parents-to-kids relationship, in this case mother-to-daughter relationship. With all the details given by the…

The rhetorical devices tone and parallelism are used in both the memoir, Funny In Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas, and the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang in order to entertain readers and develop the over-arching theme of self-acceptance. Dumas uses colloquial and comic tones in Funny In Farsi in order to keep readers engaged and understate the impact of the hardships she faced on her road to self-acceptance. In the chapter “I Ran and I Ran and I Ran”, Dumas tells the story of…

Through various viewpoints, overlapping timelines and embellishments manifested by the author, Maxine Hong-Kingston is able to examine female roles and their assimilation into Chinese/Chinese-American society and culture; an extensive projection of Kingston’s intimate past and selfhood. Within this memoir, Kingston attempts to resolve the complexity of her own identity, being a Chinese-American, as she continuously discovers her cultural roots and sorts their placement within her own life. In…

The Women Warrior is a book by Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior talks about stories about women. The theme of this story is about gender roles. It is gender roles, because it shouldn’t define who you are and what you can do. This memoir finds its way onto many women for the gender issues it raises, especially regarding the role of women in traditional Chinese society. The Women Warrior talks about stories of women. One of very few themes are gender roles. The story…

Kingston struggles to express her ideas and beliefs rationally because she never had a teacher, which in turn makes her feel weak and powerless in comparison to the knowledge and self control of the Woman Warrior. While the Woman Warrior lives with the old people they teach her many lessons. One of those lessons is on self control and how to make the right decision that is beneficial to the majority of people. Kingston describes the Woman Warrior’s struggle to control her emotions when her…

Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior is an autobiography based on her childhood memories; even so, she uses techniques of characterization as if it is a fictional piece. She introduces memorable characters with unique personalities. These characters are the many people who have an impact on her childhood. After being introduced, Kingston fleshes them out through their dialogue and manner of speaking, and develops them through their interactions with others and changes to their surroundings.…

her poem “The Sound of Night,” Maxine Kumin manages to play on these emotions through the utilization of descriptive diction and repetition. Kumin’s word choice within the poem allows the speaker to emphasize the sounds in the forest, create an irrationally fearful tone, and accentuate the joy and relief that comes with the arrival of the sun. When the sun goes down, an entirely different type of noise can be heard. Through the employment of descriptive language, Kumin displays the sounds that…

Onomatopoeia is a prominent element in the poem “The Sound of Night” written by Maxine Kumin. “The Sound of Night” highlights the sense of sound in place of vision. The reader imagines the sounds being described rather than visualizing what the scene might look like. Kumin’s use of onomatopoeia aids in magnifying the theme and tone of this poem by creating an audible experience which immerses the reader. The main theme of “The Sound of Night” is the premise that when one sense is removed,…

The relationship between human beings and animals is always a complex one. In the poems “Travelling through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, the two writers establish scenes in which the speakers face the death of animals but capture their speakers’ opinions on animal lives from different perspectives. While the gloomy and serious tone in Stafford’s work stands a stark contrast with the light-hearted one in the “Woodchucks” as the speakers’ inner feelings differ,…

Anne Sexton was born Anne Gray Harvey on November 9, 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts. Sexton was the daughter of Ralph Churchill Harvey and Mary Gray Staples and the youngest of three children. In 1945, she was enrolled in Rogers Hall in order to deal with her rebellious attitude and turn her into a mature woman. Sexton began writing poetry in Rogers Hall and after graduating she went to Garland School in Boston, where she met her future husband, Alfred Muller Sexton II. After the marriage they…