A person's identity cannot be given to them, instead a person must achieve a sense of her character through personal experience and self search. In "No Name Woman", Maxine Hong Kingston recalls the events of her aunt's life in the elusive world of her Chinese roots. The story of her aunt is told by her mother and Kingston recreates the events into an exploratory story to help herself figure out what part of her existence …showed first 75 words of 1636 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1636 total…in a struggle between her drive to find meaning in her cultural roots as a Chinese woman and the unfavorable status that women hold in Chinese tradition. Since women of the old country had little freedom, Kingston can only imagine what her aunt's life was actually like, thus the story of "No Name Woman" was written. Through this story, Kingston relies on the story of her aunt to help her understand who she truly is.