From The woman warrior / Maxine Hong Kingston

   In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston survives relational trauma and emotional hardship from her family life growing up. This does cause Maxine to doubt herself as a human as well as makes her hold herself to an impossible standard. She was constantly surrounded by the need to receive approval from family members. they would be making fun of things she can not change about herself, her appearance, and her voice which added to the emotional trauma developed from her earlier years in life. We see a lot of this in developmental stories especially from women as we typically develop conditions like body dysmorphia from a young age. The Chinese culture established a custom where people were very secretive and liked to keep everything very structured, Kingston's parents had engrained the words "don't tell" (455) in her brain. There becomes a decision between her and her parents because of this very reason. The secrets and the front being put on daily weighed heavy and she started to see herself backing away from those old Chinese customs because of the weight she had been carrying since childhood.