Philosopher King Post 1 in White Tigers

Our class does Literature Circles for the books we read. My job for the Chapter, White Tigers, is the Philosopher King. As the Philosopher King, I am supposed to look for the different themes in the chapter. In the first 16 pages of White Tigers in The Woman Warrior, there were many themes introduced. I am going to talk about four of them.

1. Learning/Training: In the beginning of the chapter, Maxine is telling the story of Fa Mu Lan. She is imagining that she is Fa Mu Lan. An elderly couple asks Fa Mu Lan if she wants to become a warrior to protect her town. She agrees, and goes into training with the couple for 15 years. She learns many things from the couple, such as being very quiet around animals and learning to control her body. She becomes so strong, that she is able to control when her irises dilate.

2. Discipline: When Fa Mu Lan turns 14, the elderly couple takes her blindfolded into the mountain of white tigers. They give her no food and no assistance on how to get back to their home. Fa Mu Lan has to figure out how to survive on very little food and water. She doesn’t take a bite of food until day 10 in the mountains. She gets water by melting snow. An interesting part of this chapter is when a rabbit comes by her while she is near a fire. The rabbit actually jumps into the fire, sacrificing itself, so Fa Mu Lan can eat.


3. Revenge: This is not only an important theme because Fa Mu Lan has this word carved onto her back by her parents, but it is the reason why she started training to become a warrior. She became a warrior because she wanted to protect her village from people that steal from them. She also wanted to get revenge for the people that came to the village and raided them.


4. Pain: Fa Mu Lan suffers through a lot of pain in this chapter. She suffers physical pain. Getting that word carved into your back with a knife doesn’t exactly feel like a massage, does it? She also suffers emotional pain. All she can do is watch while her husband and brother go to war and fight.