Constructing Identity between Illusion and Reality in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior

This paper explores the process of identity construction in Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel, “The Woman Warrior”, insisting upon instruments and literary tools, such as illusions, temporal innovation and persuasive strategies. In close relation to the central theme of the novel – the issue of identity and its development from a young age, in relation to one’s cultural heritage – this research focuses on the existence of illusions, as well as the way in which these are employed or combined with other techniques, in order to achieve the final goal of creating identity. The article analyses structures from the novel from different perspectives (literary, stylistic, temporal, persuasive) and the findings have shown that the recurrence of literary illusions, shaped from the effective combination of reality, myth and personal insights, creates the proper environment for self-reference construction and identity assimilation. In this respect, the usage of literary symbols and motifs, all gravitating around the concept of the woman warrior, is strongly connected to the Chinese society’s principles and perspective towards women and their behaviour. Additionally, different aspects from the novel, such as the narrative and the poetic ones, are completed by the descriptive discourse. This strategy gives a faithful image of the foreground, stimulating the readers’ imagination and sense of creativity. As a result, this paper observed that the novel written by Kingston constructed a testimony of oneself though the power of storytelling. This technique enlarged the topic of the book, creating a means of constructing identity and reclaiming agency for the female characters, as well as for the author herself.