No Name Woman' Story Analysis
This is 'No Name Woman' essay story analysis. In the story “No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston, a pregnant woman, who was shamed by her family and community, kills her newborn and then herself. The idea of killing a child, especially an infant is unthinkable for most people. We simply cannot understand how or why a person would do such a thing, something so cruel. Neonaticide is the act of killing a child less than 24 hours after it’s born. Filicide is a parent or guardian killing their child. Both are desperate and unthinkable acts. Luckily, most of us will never have to go through what mothers like her go through. However we can still try to understand in order to fix the problem; maternal neonaticide and filicide are symptoms of under-supported young women and a system of silence. Their point of view, mindset, and actions need to be further discussed in our society to reduce the death of children by the hand of their mothers.
Denial is a strong mental block, especially in extreme situations. The no-name woman got pregnant despite the fact her “husband had been gone for years”. She had an arranged marriage. She kept her pregnancy a secret for as long as she could. Like many women in this kind of situations she probably“experienced a strong feeling of denial”. The woman had her community and family on the line, and when being pregnant can ruin your entire life your mind will do anything to believe it isn’t true. For her and many others, the idea of it alone was terrifying, this often leads to what French psychiatrist, Michel Dubec, describes as a “mental abortion”. They convince themselves that they are not pregnant to avoid the issue together. It is a mental reaction to the strong fear that comes with the risk of losing everything andthis denial is what leads a person to not realize about the pregnancy until the baby is there. It can lead to neonaticide.
Another mindset the no-name woman could have been in is what Michelle Oberman describes as “magical thinking”. “Magical thinking” is a tendency often found in teens; it means the ideology that if you wish it away it will stop being true. If the woman just wishes and hopes for a miscarriage, then she forces herself to believe it will happen in order to avoid the hard truth. A forensic psychologist and expert on infanticide and neonaticide said the mother is “working really, really hard not to think about this; and working really, really hard not to plan; and working really, really hard to hide her pregnancy from the people around her,' as a way to cope. Given the probable young age of the no-name woman, it is more than likely that she was simply trying to wish it away the whole time.
Regardless of being in denial or using “magical thinking” the no-name woman was in a horrible position. Which if not already abundantly clear was made so by her community whenthey “threw mud and rocks at the house” and killed their [her family’s] livestock. An attack of their property by the whole community showed the severity of hatred towards her. To them, she brought dishonor and betrayal to the community. Her family did not help either; they “cursed her” and told her that she killed them. She was unsupported in every way, she had no one to guide her or talk to her about it. The pregnancy isolated her in every way, which is incredibly common for women that commit neonaticide. They are often “unmarried, isolated from the men who fathered their children and emotionally distant from friends and family” and young. The no-name woman fits these characteristics except for unmarried; however, her husband was away for years so that socially she might as well have been unmarried. These desperate women have nowhere to go and no one to help them take care of the baby. Their lack of support and guidance leads to impulsive and irresponsible behavior
Women who commit neonaticide often suffer from magical thinking or denial. There are about 300 known neonaticide cases in the U.S. each year, and surprisinglyhese mothers are rarely mentally ill. Shock and the stress of pregnancy can make a woman do horrible things; One woman, Veronique Courjault, killed three of her children all directly after birth. She suffocated all three: she put two in the freezer and burned one in a fireplace.. She was 38, had two living sons, volunteered at a kindergarden, had a husband, and a stable job. Nothing about her would suggest she would do something this cruel. She had convinced herself she wasn’t pregnant every time and then she would panic. Women in this birth psychosis make impulsive and unreasonable choices. One woman gave birth to twins, suffocated them, and then left them in a laundry basket for days. Denial and shock can do a lot to a person, andbortion never even occurs to many of them because are so caught up denying or believing it will go away. Even in areas where abortion is easy to access, if you do not want to believe you’re pregnant you won’t get one. If people in good situations can kill their children like this it’s not surprising that the no-name woman could.
It is hard to find a woman more desperate than the no-name woman. Someone who was so sure how terrible their lives would be that she had to kill her child and herself. One such woman is Margaret Garner, a pregnant slave who escaped with her children. After she gave birth the slave owner and other masters surrounded the house she was seeking refuge in. She declared she would kill herself and all her children before going back to slavery. She grabbed a butcher knife, and killed one of her daughters; then swung trying to kill the others, but she was overpowered and stopped. She, like the no-name woman, wanted to do what was best for her children; death was what she chose. They both decided in desperate situations. They are unlike the girls we hear about who give birth in bathrooms and leave the babies there. They thought about these decisions. In desperation, they killed their own children. It's an altruistic murder.
The no-name woman’s child is by no means the only victim. So how do we stop things like this from happening again? We cannot stop every instance. There is no organization that can fix this problem. This has to be solved on a case by case basis. People need support and people to talk to. We need to as a society remove the fear of rejection, families threatening to cut girls off is the reason some of them will go to any length to avoid it. They will kill these children and sometimes themselves out of desperation . Women, especially young women, need people they can talk to and tell about their issues. Friends and family need to pay closer attention to their loved ones. No one should have to give birth alone. It is dangerous and can lead to terrible decisions.
In conclusion, “No Name Woman” is a tragedy but could have been avoided had a family and community cared less about their supposed honor, and more about the lives of the woman and her child. Valuing the lives of people over stupid social codes is so important because no reputation is worth the death of someone else.
