West Indian Moth And Chinese Butterfly

The figure of a madwoman is popular among the feminists. Antoinette and Moon Orchid are madwomen narrated respectively in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. They are both depicted as the victims of the patriarchal system. Antoinette ends her life in fire like a moth; Moon Orchid is another tragic version of Madame Butterfly, a famous character in an American opera. However, a post-colonialist analysis will reveal that the narratives of the two mad women are different. This dissertation sets out to explore the different narratives of Antoinette and Moon Orchid from a post-colonialist perspective. Then it probes into the reason that accounts for the difference.Jean Rhys and Maxine Hong Kingston are both diasporic women writers. Jean Rhys, a Creole in the West Indies, migrates to England at the age of 17, while Maxine Hong Kingston is an American-born Chinese. A major characteristic of life in diaspora is rootless. Therefore, they both turn to writing for their subjectivity and presence. Antoinette, portrayed by Jean Rhys is actually the madwoman Bertha confined in the attic by Charlotte Bronte in the famous novel Jane Eyre. Like her author, Jean Rhys, Antoinette is also a Creole from the West Indies. Moon Orchid is a Chinese woman who crosses over the Pacific at an old age to get back her bigamous husband in the United States. It is obvious that the two madwomen are both from the third-world countries of their authors' origin. But they are represented differently. The depiction of Antoinette dismantles Charlotte Bronte's imperialist narrative, whereas the portrayal of Moon Orchid is a hegemonic or imperialist narrative. This dissertation explores the diametrically different narratives, focusing on the narration of the reasons for the women's madness.After expounding the different madwomen narratives, this dissertation moves on to try to answer the question: what causes the difference? Finally it gets the answer in the authors' different cultural identification. Straddling two cultures, Jean Rhys is unable to identify with either. She is always a loiterer in England with writing as acomfort. Maxine Hong Kingston, who identifies herself as an American, successfully assimilates into the dominant culture. Writing is her means to claim the Chinese American identity. Therefore, Jean Rhys, who suffers the similar misery as Antoinette, intends to correct Antoinette's unfair treatment by Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre, whereas Maxine Hong Kingston, an American, in handling her third-world madwoman, assumes a posture of hegemonic superiority.To conclude, Jean Rhys and Maxine Hong Kingston have made diametrically different madwomen narratives in their books. One is a deconstructivist narrative against the imperialist writing, whereas the other is an imperialist narrative. The difference of the narratives is a consequence of their different diasporic identification. Jean Rhys is a wanderer in England, while Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American in the United States.