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The Woman Warrior Literature and Writing Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

My aunt haunts me – her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes (1.49).

Kingston pays tribute to her aunt's memory by writing her story.

Quote #2

When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk-story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves […] [The white crane boxing story] was one of the tamer, more modern stories, mere introduction. My mother told others that followed swordswomen through woods and palaces for years. Night after night my mother would talk-story until we fell asleep. I couldn't tell where the stories left off and the dreams began, her voice the voice of the heroines in my sleep (2.1-2).

Brave Orchid equipped her children with role models through storytelling.

Quote #3

When I dream that I am wire without flesh, there is a letter on blue airmail paper that floats above the night ocean between here and China. It must arrive safely or else my grandmother and I will lose each other (2.183).

Kingston imagines that the ties between her grandmother and her is in the form of a letter.