The Use of Cultural Memories in Ceremony and The Woman Warrior

Abstract

Leslie M. Silko and Maxine Hong Kingston, through each ethnic American character Tayo and a no-named narrator, explore what it takes for a Native-American and a Chinese-American to be successfully assimilated to the white-centered American society in The Ceremony and The Woman Warrior. The entrance of the ethnic- Americans into the mainstream American society is certainly not a simple transition but involves a complicated negotiation between two cultures. The most conspicuous issue that complicates this transition is what to do with the ethnic cultural heritage they inherited. This paper, thus, illuminates how Silko and Kingston meditate on the historico-cultural relations between the Native Americans and the White Americans and the Chinese and materialize their cultural memories in the characterization and the narrative technique. Ultimately, this paper will show that thanks to these two ethnic American writers' sincere explorations and creative visions, similar and yet different ethnic characters are beautifully woven into the multicultural literature of America.