The Exploration of the Feminine Rebellion from the Ecofeminist Perspective in The Woman Warrior：Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts

張媛媛

【摘要】In The Woman Warrior：Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts，the Chinese women uses different weapons to rebel against the traditional Chinese patriarchy and the American society full of ethnic discrimination.Through textual analysis，this paper tries to explore the different modes the Chinese women in the novel choose to pursue independence and happiness，and seek the source of their power from the ecofeminist perspective.Hopefully this point would illuminate womens endeavor to struggle against the gender discrimination and achieve self-realization backed by the nature.

【關鍵詞】 feminine rebellion，ecofeminism

【中圖分類號】H319 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2018）06-0024-01

Women and nature are inexorably linked to each other.“The connection between women and nature is much closer than the connection between men and nature in reproduction and fostering due to womans biological structure.” （Pepper 1995，25）The female is the optimal spokesman for nature.Women can better understand the sameness between the mankind and the nature through their own unique experiences such as period and pregnancy out of special biological structure.Generally，people compare the relationship between the mankind and the nature to mother-child relationship.At all times and in all over the world，people regard nature that support life as “mother”.The word “mother” does have more connotations than just pointing to the female who give birth to babies.

Kingston unfolds the intimate relationship from two aspects.On aspect is that both women and nature are the victim of the patriarchal system，who are under the cruel oppression of the male for a long time.The other is that women get powerful physical and spiritual support from nature in the process of self-independence and self-reliance.

In the first chapter，the narrators aunt，no name woman has sex with another man after her husband leaving for America.Her adultery violating feudal ethical code pressed upon women irritates local villagers.They wait and count the day when the infant is to be born，and then mercilessly raid her home to punish her dissolute behavior.Whats worth mentioning is that the man who commits adultery with no name woman is never accused from beginning to end.In this desperate situation，no name woman can only seek refuge from nature.She escapes from her home and rushes to forward as far as she could to get rid of villagers abuses.She tries her best to get closed to her mother land，and delivers a baby in a pigsty，where a solid wall can separate herself from those mad villagers.

However，the nature around is also occupied and oppressed by the male just as herself.The tranquility and comfort she gets from the land is transitory.“At dawn the villagers on their way to the fields would stand around the fence and look.” （Kingston 1976，15）The ground beneath her feet shares the same fate with her，that is to be controlled and utilized by the man.So，even the mother land cannot protect her any more.Eventually，she jumped into the family well with her newborn baby.This is a silent revenge against the villagers and her family members.It is well known that water is the source of life.No matter how abhorrent the whole villagers think of her，and no matter how disgraceful her family members take for her，they all can not get rid of her.Because no name woman has been melted into the mother water.

In “White Tiger”，Kingston presents a beautiful natural landscape，portrays a harmonious unity between man and nature and further shows that the marvelous nature holding infinite power can provide human beings especially women with inexhaustible resource.At the age of 14，the narrator is put into the White Tiger hill for survival test.She is bare-handed，and the only support is nature.She collects dry woods from trees of life such as cherry tree and walnut to prepare fire，and get some nuts from squirrels.She follows the direction of the deer and collects fungi where the deer gnaws.Many animals there help the narrator to go through chilliness and starvation.The most touching one is a rabbit who dedicates his life to save the narrator.After eating up the last bit of grain，the narrator is so hungry that she bursts out crying and dreams of her mother cooking through the fire.At that moment，a rabbit jumps into the narrators sight，who reminds the narrator of what her parents have taught her about how to kill a rabbit to make clothes preventing from chilliness.But，the narrator only thinks of that this is a very cold night for little animals.She adds a branch to increase the fire.This rabbit gets closed to the fire step by step，and then，to her amazement，this rabbit jumps into the fire without hesitation.The rabbit kills himself to provide the narrator with energy to go through the survival test.The rabbit here is the embodiment of the selfless nature.In this story，it is clear that without natures powerful support，women can not pull through.

In the novel，Kingston illustrates her passion for the beautiful natural landscape and careful concern for the lovely animals.Whats more significant is that she focuses on the close connection between nature and women.In patriarchal system，both nature and women suffer great pain from mens oppression，and nature is great because it selflessly provides women with physical and spiritual support to fight against gender and ethnic discrimination.Furthermore，Kingston expresses her burning desire for reconstructing a society where there is a mutual dependence between human beings and nature，women and men.Only women and men live in harmony，and human beings and nature depend on each other，can nature get elevated and human beings get survived.

References

Kingston，Maxine Hong.1976.The Woman Warrior：Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts.New York：Vintage Books.

Pepper，David.1995.Modern Environmentalism：An Introduction.New York：Routledge.