Silence :: essays research papers fc

SilenceIn Maxine Hong Kingstons autobiographical piece Silence, she describes her softness to speak side of meat when she was in grade school. Kindergarten was the birthplace of her silence because she was a Chinese girl attending an American school. She was very embarrassed of her inability, and when moments came up where she had to speak, self-hatred filled her day because of that squeaky voice she possessed (422). Kingston notes that she never talked to anyone at school for her first year of silence, except for one or cardinal other Chinese kids in her class. Maxines sister, who was even worse than she was, stayed almost completely silent for three years. Both went to the kindred school and were in the same second grade class because Maxine had flunked kindergarten.The first time Kingston had to speak English in kindergarten was the moment silence infiltrated her world. Simple dialogue such as hello or asking for directions was hell for her because people usually couldnt hea r her the first time she asked, and her voice became weaker every time she tried to recur the question (422). No matter what, speaking English just shattered her self-esteem. Maxine covered her school artwork with black paint. In a sense, she was creating something beautiful that symbolized her futuristic ability to speak English well, then covering it with black paint that symbolized a curtain that would, in time, rise and reveal her artwork of exceptional English dialogue. Her teachers notified her parents of the paintings, but they could not understand English. So, Kingstons parents thought of it as something bad, according to the seriousness of the teachers expressions about them. As her father said, the parents and teachers of criminals were executed (423).Though Maxine was low-key in American school, it didnt mean that she was quiet in Chinese school which started after American school at 500pm and ended at 730pm. This was her escape from English where most of the kids, inc luding a couple of Negro kids that enrolled, could talk, shout, sing, chant, and joke around without the fear of embarrassment. Children were allowed to do whatever they wished during recess. Chinese school was where the accomplished boys in American school played tricks on girls, and where the girls had fistfights during recess because there were no rules. They played dangerous games in dangerous areas of the school and even wandered remove into the city while the teachers sat in the classrooms and drank tea and warmed their hands at a stove (425).