ingston because she feels that women are being watched to make sure they are behaving the right way for society. Kingston then shows us later in her own telling of Fa Mu Lan, that she is actually strong and doesn’t need to conform to society’s stereotypes.I also believe that the story about her “Father’s drowned-in-the-well sister” is a warning to be cautious of people trying to take advantage of her. Brave Orchid is trying to instill the fact that she doesn’t have to do what other people demand her to do, as in the example of her aunt’s admirer, when he told Kingston’s aunt to have sex with him and she didn’t say no, then it ruined her life and disrupted her families lives. Kingston wrote, “The fear did not stop but permeated everywhere. She told the man, “I think I’m pregnant.” He organized the raid against her.” Another major point Brave Orchid makes from the story is not to let someone that is untrustworthy get the upper hand in a situation where they would have the power to take advantage of her, to save themselves from shame and humiliation. She is trying to make Kingston deal with honest people and make good friends through a rather frightening story of humiliation and deceit. In the re-telling of the Fa Mu Lan myth, Kinston shows the strengths and warrior like abilities of her character, rather than the weaknesses her mother scares her with, in the story of the “No Name Woman.” “When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk-story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves.” Fa Mu Lan helps her get out of the circle of the average subservient Chinese woman and strive to be something better than a housewife or a slave. She gets an abundance of inspiration from the heroine in the myth, pretending the hero is she. Kingston is inspired to break the mold of the typical Chinese woman. From...
