In the tale of Fa-Mu-Lan, the narrator is given a survival test, where she has to survive a mountain trek without provisions. During that trek, the narrator finds herself weary from hunger. Hunger brings out her animal instincts, because she needs to stay strong to live. "On the fourth and fifth days, my eyesight sharp with hunger, I saw deer and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where deer nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality" (25). The narrator is forced to search for her food to eat. The hungrier she becomes, the more feral she is. Meat also played a role in the connection between food and strength. During the beginning of her story she claimed she no longer needed meat. After she became s

Brave Orchid was very bitter about the differences between Chinese culture and American culture. One of those differences included the connection between wealth and food. In America the popular belief was changing and many skinny people were regarded as healthier than overweight citizens. Brave Orchid kept old traditions with her. Brave Orchid talks to her daughter: "That's the year you turned old. Look at you, hair gone gray, and you haven't even fattened up yet. I know how the Chinese talk about us. 'They're so poor,' they say, 'they can't afford to fatten up any of their daughters.' 'Years in America,' they say, ' and they don't eat.' Oh the shame of it - a whole family of skinny children. And your father - he's so skinny he's disappearing" (101). Brave Orchid's opinions may not have had an impact on the narrator as she replies, "Don't worry about him, Mama. Doctors are saying that skinny people live longer" (102). Brave Orchid's comments and the narrator's reply shows that she wasn't strongly influenced by Brave Orchid, yet Kingston continues to reference the topic throughout the book. In the chapter At the Western Place, Brave Orchid meets her sister Moon Orchid at the airport.

Eating is vitally important in the memoir The Woman Warrior. It is regarded as a sign of strength in the book. That point is shown through Fa-Mu-Lan, the story of heroes, and through relatives in China. With those, Kingston became educated in two differing cultures, possibly influenced by both. The connection between hunger and strength is well known throughout the ages, as the old military adage states, "An Army marches on its stomach."

Brave Orchid's bitterness toward American culture influenced the narrator. Fat carried not only excess lipids, it carried wealth and power in Brave Orchid's opinion. Women were more beautiful with fat because wealth

Some common words found in the essay are:
Woman Warrior, Chen Luan-feng, Brave Orchid, Communists Communists, Brave Orchid's, Wei Pang, Warrior Food, China Kingston, Kao Chung, Moon Orchid, brave orchid, brave orchid's, woman warrior, hunger hunger, tale fa-mu-lan, person powerful, 206 narrator, throughout book, skinny people, themselves relatives,
Approximate Word count = 1258
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)