Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Toni Morrison’s Beloved

• Morrison’s novel uses ghosts as a motif and symbol to explore similar themes of Lineage and Family and Language and Storytelling.
• Courses centered on writing techniques might focus on the scene in which the character Beloved first appears out of thin air.
• Beloved on SuperSummary

May-Lee Chai’s Useful Phrases for Immigrants

• Chai’s short story collection paints portraits of the contemporary Chinese Diaspora and scenes from current-day China.
• Chai’s depictions add context and nuance to the culture and stories depicted in Kingston’s memoir.

Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men

• Like The Woman Warrior, this book by Kingston blends myth, memoir, and fiction to create a genre-bending work that furthers her exploration of Language and Storytelling, Lineage and Family, and the Chinese immigrant experience in the United States.
• Where The Woman Warrior focuses on female figures in Kingston’s life and imagination, China Men centers male figures.
• China Men on SuperSummary