Kingston use of Storytelling in “No Name Women”

In “No Name Women” Kingston presents a fictional story about her forgotten Aunt to highlight her Asian American upbringing, family dynamics, gender roles, but mainly her thoughts and emotions towards her aunt’s story. The ways in which Kingston uses story telling is by including dialogue or quoted speech to tell the direct story she received from her mother. The impact from the quotes is it creates a sense of authenticity and sets up the element of a fictional story. By this I mean that the story contained imagery that described the setting and chronological events that built up tension leading to the plot. For example, when Kingston quotes from her mother, “…they threw mud and rocks at the house. Then they threw eggs and began slaughtering out stock. We could hear the animals scream their deaths…” (Kingston 4). These details helped me, as a reader, understand the intensity of the animosity from the villagers and the fear the mother felt during the raid.  

The details are not the only element that makes the piece conveying, so does Kingston’s commentary that analyzes her mom’s story. An example of this is when the writer ponders, “My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex”, then provides a cultural reasoning for this is because women in old China did not have a choice, so she comes to the conclusion that “Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil” (Kingston 6). This commentary presents the writer’s contemplations while also providing further explanation on the cultural context of the story. Kingston’s use of metacommentary helps the reader understand the significance and deeper level to the story. 

For these reasons I think combining these elements makes the writers’ storytelling method very powerful in helping the general audience understand the depts of the story.