As a young child Maxine Hong Kingston recalls being told that women “could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family”(Field 255). As a young Chinese girl who grew up in the United States, Maxine Kingston gained both hope and strength from the legends of these women swordsmen. These swordswomen of China were often depicted as heroines to be looked up to because they followed ideals important to the Confucian beliefs. These Confusion ideals first began to take shape during the Han dynasty. During this time period a woman’s role became more defined as the Confucian ideals began to take hold in the Chinese lifestyle. Women were told that their place was below a man’s place. They were told that their duty did not include taking control, that their duty was to produce sons, and that their beauty came from their obedience and passive nature. A woman’s place was in the house, she was to have no opinion of politics, nor was she to be outspoken. The ideal woman was quiet and passive, she was dutiful and obedient, she was skilled in cooking and sewing, and she produced sons to carry on the family lineage.
However, China’s history is riddled with stories, tales, legends, and biographies of women warriors. How does a woman who is told that to be a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother, she must follow this ideal, turn into a warrior of China(4. REAL QUESTION)? How does a woman warrior balance the woman and the warrior (5.RHETORICAL QUESTION)? These stories and legends are openly told to young women AND these warriors are not seen as a disgrace—in fact they are often looked up to (2. SIMPLE SENTENCE WITH AND & 3. DASH FOR EMPHASIS). HOWEVER, most of these stories are legends: heroic tales that have been altered to serve a purpose; very few stories remain of the real woman warriors (1. USE HOWEVER). After studying the stories of these women it appears that the woman warrior of China is a complex character of many faces. At times she is a hero, a legend, a woman who has mastered the art of fighting and the manner of bravery. Sometimes she is dutiful, poised, an obedient daughter who out of honor stepped out of her normal duty to fulfill another role. Other times she is hidden, forgotten, a flickering shadow buried deep in China’s history.
Her roles are vast, expanding from a legend, to a real woman, to a figure whose history has to be pieced together from the histories of others (8.ONE SENTENCE PARAGRAPH).
Throughout the history of China, the woman warrior has put on a masquerade of faces, acts, and roles. There are the legends: the women whose histories have been turned into a myths that reveal less THAN the whole truth, and THEN there are the real warriors: women whose stories are rarely ever told and have to be pieced together from the scattered histories of other’s biographies and epitaphs (6. THEN & THAN). Each warrior balances between myth and truth (7. LONG SENTENCE FOLLOWED BY SHORT). By piecing together the lives of these women warriors and the different ways they are presented, one can begin to understand the unique roles and complex position these women fill and decipher the difference between legend and reality.
(I tried playing with colons this week because I rarely use them, but I am not 100% sure I used them right in the more complex sentences)