Brave Orchid (Kingstons mother) talks story of an aunt of Maxine’s that commits suicide after giving birth to a child born from adultery. This “No Name Women” tale highlights Maxine’s enforced sense of silence when her mother insists Maxine not discuss her existence. “Don't let your father know that I told you [about your forgotten aunt]... Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you has never been born. The villagers are watchful” (1.9). Although Brave Orchid's story to Maxine is meant to keep her from premarital sex, she is highlighting the oppression and silence that Maxine embodies growing up. When Maxine breaks the silence and tells the tale of her aunt, she also breaks her internal silence which she has lived by since childhood. When Kingston expresses, “ 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”(1.16), she is exposing her family as well as creating the individuality of her unspoken aunt. She creates an identity for her aunt by re-writing her tale in a way that portrays her more as a victim rather than a nuisance. By creating this sense of individuality for her aunt, Maxine is able to create her own individuality and reject the oppression of silence that her culture
Brave Orchid (Kingstons mother) talks story of an aunt of Maxine’s that commits suicide after giving birth to a child born from adultery. This “No Name Women” tale highlights Maxine’s enforced sense of silence when her mother insists Maxine not discuss her existence. “Don't let your father know that I told you [about your forgotten aunt]... Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you has never been born. The villagers are watchful” (1.9). Although Brave Orchid's story to Maxine is meant to keep her from premarital sex, she is highlighting the oppression and silence that Maxine embodies growing up. When Maxine breaks the silence and tells the tale of her aunt, she also breaks her internal silence which she has lived by since childhood. When Kingston expresses, “ 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”(1.16), she is exposing her family as well as creating the individuality of her unspoken aunt. She creates an identity for her aunt by re-writing her tale in a way that portrays her more as a victim rather than a nuisance. By creating this sense of individuality for her aunt, Maxine is able to create her own individuality and reject the oppression of silence that her culture