The Woman Warrior: Maxine Hong Kingston: March 24, 2010

Quote" Brave Orchid put her sister to work, cleaning, sewing and cooking. Moon Orchid was eager to work, roughing it in the wilderness. But Brave Orchid scolded her" Can't you go any faster than that?" It infuriated Brave Orchid that her sister held each dish up with her fore finger and squirted detergent on the back and front and them=n ran water without plugging the drain. "
it was longer, then she talked about how her aunt, Moon Orchid couldn't even hem a dress.

Significance: I think here what her mother was trying to say was that her sister was the "lovely useless type". Her mother thought that her sister has spent too much time in America and she has become useless for simple tasks. But it also seemed that she thought her sister was always like this " Just a pretty face type". Overall, i think her mother thought her sister was completely useless. She also thought that her sister had lost her Chinese blood because in China, the women worked hard and spoke little, and her sister spoke too much and didn't work properly.

Real life Relevance: i think that her mother is sort of like my older aunts when they chastise my cousins and i for not doing the work we are assigned right. Like when they send us to work on cleaning something, there is always something we are doing wrong.

Question: has anyone ever told you you don't do anything right?
2nd Quote" You're pretty." said Moon Orchid "Why thank you." the girl replied. how vain she thought, she marveled at their vanity.

Significance: I think here she is trying to say that the girls are not Chines polite as in they do not deny their beauty or intelligence when they are given a compliment as do traditional chines females do. Her Aunt thinks that the girls are vain and conceited for not denying the compliment.

Relevance: In other cultures, it is also traditional to deny compliments, it is now also American politeness to deny compliments. You are also considered conceited when you agree with the person telling you the compliment

Question: Do you think it is poite to deny a compliment?