Maxine Hong Kingston “No Name Woman” Theme/Setting

I think some of the themes of "No Name Woman" are the difficulties of being apart of two completely different cultures and the place of women in different cultures. The setting and point of view definitely affect the theme of the story. The setting, which is in China and America, helps illustrate the great differences between the cultures and how hard it is to find a median between the two. The narrator has a hard time finding this balance and it can be seen by how she narrates the story and explains her feelings about different situations. She doesn't know whether to feel sorry for her aunt or feel disgraced by her. Setting also affects the place of women in society. When the narrators aunt was pregnant, she was seen as an outcast because women were supposed to be faithful to their husbands. If not, the consequences were severe. However, in America if a woman is unfaithful to her husband, usually she is not shunned and made an outcast.