Power

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no identity except for the story her mother told her and in “Mary” Marguerite’s new boss, Mrs. Cullinan changed her name to Mary which then, in a way, removed Marguerite’s original identity and gave her a new one, one she didn’t want.
By changing Marguerite’s name, Mrs. Cullinan proves how much she has over a little black servant like Marguerite. A rich white member of the society, in which Marguerite grew up, has more and control over things than someone of a poor background or a black background. Mrs. Cullinan wasn’t the first to incite the drastic change of Marguerite’s name, although she started it off by calling her Margaret, it was in fact, one of her friends who suggested that “the name’s too long. I’d never bother myself. I’d call her Mary if I was you.”(5) As if showing off to her friends, and proving that she really does have control and over black people, she starts calling her Mary, much to Marguerite’s disgust. Marguerite soon learned that Mrs. Cullinan had ...

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started off with all of the in the beginning of the essay, but she then lost it all when Marguerite smashed the dishes and regained control of her own life.
“’You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘what I am about to tell you.’”(341) Kingston’s mother tells her the story of her father’s sister, her aunt who is the woman with no name. She tells about how she disgraced their family by becoming pregnant by a man other than her husband and how her family disowned her and refused to even utter her name for the rest of time. The first sentence of the story shows that a person of the Chinese culture holds a very high respect for their family’s rules and wishes. Kingston’s mother ...

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