"White Tigers," Response (6)

I will start off by saying that this text is perhaps the best one I've read this year. The first part of the story is set up like a first-person warrior epic, and features the masterful use of literary devices such as imagery and symbolism to help drive the tale along. Also, I felt that the transitioning was brilliant in this piece, as it starts off with Kingston reminiscing of childhood stories regarding Fa Mu Lan warriors, and then jumping right into the folktale itself with her as the protagonist. Once the tale is told, the text transitions back into real life, with Kingston confessing that the story is essentially just that; a story. With this fluid transitioning throughout, it's pretty simple to keep up and stay with the author, unlike several of the other texts we've read in class this term. I also loved the end of the writing, in which the author contradicts the entire story of female Chinese warriors that she had been telling. According to Kingston, Chinese emigrants still view women as nothing more than wives and slaves, and they ultimately will have no power to fight for themselves. I felt that this was a twist to the reader, as after reading the tale of the White Tigers we would be expecting the author to have reached some epitomic point, but that is not the case. Overall, I enjoyed reading this piece, I felt that it was well-written and very interesting, with the use of several powerful literary devices.