Maxine Hong Kingston

For many of the writers discussed in class, family stories are a guide to live by. The family stories told, give an outline of morals as well as a way to stay close to their true family. Both Cofer and Stone show how family stories give them a very strong form of acceptance. Acceptance is key for each of the writers because they both face the challenge of living as multicultural people in a world that tends to shame diversity. These stories are extremely important to Cofer and Stone; questioning them would violate all they believe in. However, there is another side to this subject. Maxine Hong Kingston reveals to the reader a different side to family stories. A side that is not of love and acceptance, but more of hate, betrayal, and rejection. In some cultures family circles cannot always be of love and protection. In her case she reveals to the reader a family circle that would murder in order to keep the circle clean of sin, no matter what the cost. Judith Ortiz Cofer the author of "Casa: A partial remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood" shows how family stories can control a person's life. Cofer was never one to disagree with what she was told. She was raised a Navy brat who was both Puerto Rican and American. Cofer was never normal and always wondered what normal truly was. She went on to say, "Their weirdness was a measuring stick I used in my serious quest for a definition of normal"(Cofer 273). Cofer was on this quest because she was a "Cultural chameleon"(Cofer 273). While traveling from the United States to Puerto Rico she spoke English with a Spanish accent and Spanish with an English accent causing people to see her differently. This was hard on Cofer as a child, she searched for what she could call her roots. These stories did not only teach her how to live life as a good woman, but "more specifically a Puerto Rican women"(Cofer 271). This aspect of her life became an issue to her that was very important in her life. The women of