Immigrants' problems of identity in America: A study in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior
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Department of English
Abstract
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior explores the hardships of
searching identity in America as a Chinese immigrant through the conflict between first
generation and second generation immigrants. The novel tells their story and their
efforts to rise above their working class status in America while they feel isolated in
different surroundings. Kingston's experience is not unlike that of other immigrants who
come to America to escape hardship in their homeland and hope to live the American
Dream. The analysis shows that the road to American success has numerous obstacles,
and immigrants encounter many of them on their journey. One conflict relates to their
cultural identities when America becomes the meeting of two cultures, which, for
immigrants, becomes a place of contradictions and hatred, anger and exploitation.