Cycle 22: Character Analyst - A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe

A role I chose to be this cycle was the character analyst. The character analyst's job is to acknowledge what is figured out about the character's in this section. The section our class was assigned to read was A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, the last section of The Woman Warrior.

After reading A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe I realized the character that is most mentioned is Maxine. During this section the reader learns about Maxine during the time that she goes to school. As a reader you learn Maxine was a shy girl, as were all the your Chinese girls, when she first started going to school. So shy in fact that her teachers thought she had a IQ of zero and they made Maxine repeat kindergarten. But as this section unfolds it shows how Maxine evolved into a talkative, over-powering, smart young adult. After reading the part of this section when Maxine is going through school, I picture Maxine to be a bully.

"If you're not stupid," I said to the quiet girl, "what's your name?" She shook her head, and some hair caught in the tears; wet black hair stuck to the side of the pink and white face. I reached up (she was taller than I) and took a strand of hair. I pulled it. "Well, then, let's honk your hair," I said. "Honk. Honk." Then I pulled the other side -"ho-o-n-nk"-a long pull; "ho-o-n-n-nk-a longer pull. I could see her little white ears, like white cutworms curled underneath her hair. "Talk!" I yelled into her cutworm. (177)

Although Maxine might have had the intentions of helping this girl, it did not come off that way. It suprised me that Maxine acted in such a manner. After reading this section I learned that Maxine can be tough, but still trying to be helpful at the same time.