Woman Warrior By Kingston Essays - Personal Life, Brain

Woman Warrior By Kingston Food strengthens us, without it we are weak. Eating has always been an important factor with families living in poor conditions. Often, those who could not help to produce more food are considered inferior or unworthy to eat. Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior is no exception, due to the relation it creates between eating and the strength of people. This is shown through the tale of Fa-Mu-Lan, the story of the eaters, and the references to the fellow relatives left in China. In the tale of Fa-Mu-Lan, the narrator is given a survival test, where she has to survive a mountain trek without provisions. During that trek, the narrator finds herself weary from hunger. Hunger brings out her animal instincts, because she needs to stay strong to live. ?On the fourth and fifth days, my eyesight sharp with hunger, I saw deer and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where deer nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality? (25). The narrator is forced to search for her food to eat. The hungrier she becomes, the more feral she is. Meat also played a role in the connection between food and strength. During the beginning of her story she claimed she no longer needed meat. After she became starving, she breaks down and eats meat. I saw the rabbit had sacrificed itself for me. It had made me a gift of meat? (26). Her will was eroded by the hunger because as her hunger increased, she became weaker and her resolve was easier to destroy. When the narrator was not starving she was in control of her faculties. Hunger however, strips her even of vision, as she imagines things that do not exist. The narrator says, ?Hunger also changes the world when eating can't be habit, then neither can seeing. I saw two people made of gold dancing the earth's axis? (27). Viewing two gold dancers would be wonderful to witness, however the chances are very slim. The hunger had weakened her to the point of confusion, and possibly dilution. Just as hunger weakens a person so they cannot command themselves, eating will make a person powerful and the masters of others. The stories of the heroes who ate heaping amounts of food illustrate that those who can eat have extraordinary powers. The narrator says before, that her mother is powerfulbecause she can eat anything ? quick, pluck out the carp's eyes, one for Mother and one for Father. All heroes are bold towards food? (88). Her mother is master of the ghost because she can consume it. The story of Kao Chung also illustrates this point. This hero eats five chickens and drinks ten bottles of wine prior to slaying a sea-monster. The scholar-hunter Wei Pang was also a great eater; in fact, he was the most fantastic according to the narrator. He shoots a glowing sphere composed of flesh with eyes in it, and then eats it with his servant. Bye eating, these two heroes are able to conquer their foes. The story of Chen Luan-feng is another is another example of how eating makes a person powerful. By eating forbidden foods, Chen calls down an angry thunder god whose leg is chopped off by Chen, and the thunder god is then at the mercy of Chen. ?Big eaters win? (90) is the comment regarding an anonymous scholar from Hanchow. This scholar discovers some valuables on the side of the road; however, an evil frog guards them. He chases that frog off only to have two smaller frogs com that night. He proceeds to eat every frog that visits him, ?And at the end of the month the frogs stopped coming, leaving the scholar with the white silk and silver ingots? (90). These heroes are rewarded for their eating habits, but those who cannot eat are weak. The relatives of the narrator are always asking for money. They are weak characters because they are forced to rely on others to live. Unlike the heroes who command themselves and others, these relatives are not even in command of their own life, rather they have given up their life to the Communists. Because the Communists are cheating them out of food, they are starving and weak. The narrator says, ?What I will inherit someday is a green address book full of names. I'll send the relatives money, and they'll write me stories of their hunger? (206). The narrator describes the relatives very unflattering. They are considered lazy and unable to

Free Essays on Cultural Relativism

Bennett 1 There are an enormous amount of people in this world that we live in. All of these people belong to different cultures and societies. Each society has traits and customs that make it different from any other. Every society has their own way of looking at and dealing with certain situations. â€Å"Different societies have different moral codes† (Rachels 618). This claim is known as Cultural Relativism. â€Å"Cultural Relativism, as it has been called, challenges our ordinary belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. There is no such thing as universal truth in ethics: there there are only the various cultural codes, and nothing more. Moreover, our own code has no special status, it is merely one among many† (Rachels 618). It is clear that the answer to the question of ethics is, Cultural Relativism. The subject of murder is probably the most common issue thought to be an absolute wrong. This is not always the case; murder has its place in many cultures. Eskimo customs are very different from our own. â€Å"The Eskimos practice infanticide as well as the killing of elders. So there seemed to be, in this society, remarkably little respect for life† (Rachels 617). We view these customs as inferior to ours. But when you look at it, this practice is necessary for the survival of the of the group. The elders are too old to contribute to the group but yet they consume precious food. The males within the Eskimo groups are looked higher upon because they are the hunters and food providers. The killing of female infants helps keep the ratio of males and females even. So many males die when there out hunting. If they didn’t kill the female babies then the females would dominate the group and they would never have food. Infanticide and killing of elders does not mea n that Eskimos have less compassion for their children, nor less respect for human life, they just know that murder is sometimes needed to... Free Essays on Cultural Relativism Free Essays on Cultural Relativism Bennett 1 There are an enormous amount of people in this world that we live in. All of these people belong to different cultures and societies. Each society has traits and customs that make it different from any other. Every society has their own way of looking at and dealing with certain situations. â€Å"Different societies have different moral codes† (Rachels 618). This claim is known as Cultural Relativism. â€Å"Cultural Relativism, as it has been called, challenges our ordinary belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. There is no such thing as universal truth in ethics: there there are only the various cultural codes, and nothing more. Moreover, our own code has no special status, it is merely one among many† (Rachels 618). It is clear that the answer to the question of ethics is, Cultural Relativism. The subject of murder is probably the most common issue thought to be an absolute wrong. This is not always the case; murder has its place in many cultures. Eskimo customs are very different from our own. â€Å"The Eskimos practice infanticide as well as the killing of elders. So there seemed to be, in this society, remarkably little respect for life† (Rachels 617). We view these customs as inferior to ours. But when you look at it, this practice is necessary for the survival of the of the group. The elders are too old to contribute to the group but yet they consume precious food. The males within the Eskimo groups are looked higher upon because they are the hunters and food providers. The killing of female infants helps keep the ratio of males and females even. So many males die when there out hunting. If they didn’t kill the female babies then the females would dominate the group and they would never have food. Infanticide and killing of elders does not mea n that Eskimos have less compassion for their children, nor less respect for human life, they just know that murder is sometimes needed to...