"The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston.

"'You must not tell anyone... what I am going to tell you.'" (3) Is this not an ironic beginning for a memoir? When in fact, Maxine Hong Kingston, the author and narrator of The Woman Warrior, is doing the exact opposite, and telling everyone. The use of voice in her memoirs is not present merely on a literal level, but also a figurative. The entire book is a means of expression through a voice which …

…memoirs weren't enough help to find her voice, Kingston ends the book with a talk story which helps to tell her mother that she tells talk-stories too. She is no longer afraid of voice. As a young child Kingston was silenced constantly, tormented by verbal stories, and attacked with racial slurs. By the end of the book, also her door to adulthood, she has found her voice and overcome most of what had repressed her.