The Woman Warrior

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the book over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. One of Kingston’s main challenges is finding her personal power.

• How does Kingston become the woman warrior in her own life? (topic sentence)
• Compare the talk-story in “White Tigers” to Kingston’s life experiences. What obstacles did she overcome to find her personal power? Cite meaningful examples from the text and connect them directly to the events in “White Tigers.”
• In your final sentences, connect these aspects of the memoir to its title, The Woman Warrior. If possible, contextualize Kingston’s life story with connections to the Hero’s Journey.

2. Throughout The Woman Warrior, Kingston explores the tension between herself and her mother as a conflict rooted in the sex-based expectations that she finds stifling. Yet, Kingston’s mother defied many of those expectations in her own life, and later the two women find a sense of commonality.

• How are Kingston and her mother alike? (topic sentence)
• Compare Kingston as a child to her mother as a young woman, and compare what Kingston reveals about her own adult life with her mother’s. Cite details from the text to support your characterizations.
• Conclude your essay by explaining what Kingston’s depictions say about her thoughts on Lineage and Family.

3. Kingston constantly depicts her younger self struggling with silence as an aspect of Chinese culture.

• What historical events and attitudes contribute to the Chinese immigrant culture of silence in The Woman Warrior? What aspects of American culture challenge it? (topic sentence)
• When framing your argument, consider the historical context for the memoir. What world events would have contributed to the culture of silence in American Chinese immigrants? What aspects of silence were actually part of Chinese culture before emigration? Use multiple examples from the text to support your answers.
• Close your essay with an examination of whether Kingston successfully resolves her challenges to the culture of silence in which she grew up.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Analyze Kingston’s use of the talk-story throughout The Woman Warrior. How does the talk-story impact and shape Kingston’s view of life? How does her use of talk-story affect the structure of the memoir itself? Refer to and discuss instances of talk-story from the text. Cite all quotations with a page number.

2. In many literary works featuring the supernatural, ghosts are both literal and figurative. Kingston’s family refers to anyone and anything without a home, a land, or a culture as a ghost. Review Brave Orchid’s story in “Shaman” alongside what Kingston reveals about the Chinese countryside. What everyday challenges or historical moments could those ghosts represent? Cite specific details from the text and include any additional research from pre-reading.

3. Kingston presents her mother, Brave Orchid, as both a dynamo and a traditionalist who both breaks and upholds stereotypes. How do Brave Orchid’s internal contradictions affect Kingston’s writing about womanhood? Closely examine the paradox between Kingston’s ideas about her mother’s ideas and the complexity of Brave Orchid’s life before and after coming to America. How does this memoir’s content and structure contradict the frustrated child Kingston presented herself as? Cite specific details from the text to support your arguments.