The Woman Warrior: Are we all ghosts?

After class, I asked Professor Talusen a question I had about the book The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston. The question I had was: what is the purpose/significance of the second chapter in the book? (The chapter about the swordswoman training in the mountains with the two old spirits) Now, after finishing the book, I feel like I can almost answer my own question. What stuck me about the chapter was exactly what Kingston anticipated, I questioned what was actually going on in this portion of the book; was it an allegory, an extended metaphor or something entirely different. This chapter corroborates both Kingston’s style of writing and the situations of her childhood. Her writing forces the reader to constantly question the realm of reality they are currently in; are we hearing her thoughts as a child, is this a imagined story, etc. This almost confused writing style reflects the confusion surrounding her upbringing. Growing up she hardly ever knew the significance behind her mother’s elaborate ceremonies or traditions because they were never explained. She didn’t fit neatly into one group; she wasn’t a ghost because her family was from China, but she wasn’t ‘real’ because she did not grow up in China and know all the ways of the Chinese. Kingston was forced to grow up in between these realities and her writing forces her readers to constantly which between these realities as she was forced to do growing up as “a kind of ghost” in her families eyes.