max's imagination

In Woman Warrior, Maxine has an amazing imagination that takes many twists and turns. She takes the story of her aunt and adds to it, gives a backstory, an explanation, and brings it to life. I think Maxine's imagination tells us a lot about her. She's a young girl who's just beginning to learn about life and all the burdens of it, these stories are just a way for her to think about what kind of person she is. Apparently she's blunt, but maybe she doesn't show it, she just thinks it. Maxine feels connected to her aunt because she feels like she might disappoint her parents. She knows she cannot live up to her parents expectations and she shares the fear of being forgotten. "But there is more to this silence: they want me to participate in her punishment. And I have." Maxine feels out of place and the only person that she can relate to is her dead aunt. She wants to break the rules, she wants to live her life freely but she can only do it through the memory of her aunt. She also says, "Unless I see her life branching into mine, she gives me no ancestral help." Well it seems liket he aunts life does branch into her life because she's still fascinated by it. I think with all the scenerios that she creates, the closer she feels to the aunt she never knew.

Maxine's life must be lonely if the only thing she relates to is a nameless ghost.