No Name Woman: Maxine

In The Woman Warrior, No Name Woman, Maxine is told a story about her aunt. Afterwards she imagines what her aunt was like and describes different scenarios her aunt could have been in. Maxine's description and imagination reveals a lot about herself.

"For warm eyes or a soft voice or a slow walk-that's all-a few hairs, a line, a brightness, a sound, a pace, she gave up family. She offered us up for a charm that vanished with tiredness, a pigtail that didn't toss when the wind died. Why, the wrong lighting could erase the dearest thing about him." (page 8)

"If I made myself American-pretty so that the five or six Chinese boys in the class fell in love with me, everyone else- the Caucasian, Negro, and Japanese boys- would too. Sisterliness, dignified and honorable, made much more sense." (page 12)

These two quotes show that Maxine values family and her lineage over romance and love. In the first quote, Maxine scorns her aunt for choosing a man over family. She belittles her aunt's love for the man, saying that qualities in people weren't permanent. You could see someone amazing at first glance but with "the wrong lighting" they could change entirely.

In the second quote Maxine is stern on the fact that she should only attract Chinese boys and that being a sister to all boys was better than being loved by boys of different heritage. This shows she values her lineage over love. "Sisterliness, dignified and honorable, made much more sense." This part of the quotes sounds like she is also describing the nature of Chinese women, showing she commends Chinese behavior and prefers it to love.

"The work of preservation demands that the feelings playing around in one's guts not be turned into action. Just watch their passing like cherry blossoms. But perhaps my aunt, my forerunner, caught in a slow life, let dreams grow and fade and after some months or years went toward what persisted." (page 8)

The idea of her aunt having to let dreams grow and fade might have grown from a dream of her own that she had to let go. In her imagination her aunt at one point finally "went towards what persisted". Perhaps she wishes she had gone towards a dream that eluded her and conveyed it to her story to see one scenario where the dream was chased.