"Those of us who belong to America's first generations had to understand how the invisible world that immigrants built around our childhoods fit into solid America." Maxine Hong Kingston is a native of Stockton, California, born in 1940. The essay "No Name Woman" is from her book "The Woman Warrior" (1976). Kingston is, in its daily life, surrounded by “ghosts” of its past cultural heritage. The concept of role identity parallels Ms. Kingston's essay. In the concept of role identity, the factors that surround us in our daily lives continually shape and reshape who we are and who we will become. In this concept, taken from the structural school of symbolic interaction, we tend to conform our self-perception to adapt to individual social situations as we are exposed to them. The theory behind the concept of role identity is that we all play different "roles" in society, at different levels, which can include our families, our workplaces, our peers, our daily experiences and even within ourselves . Therefore, we continually change and evolve toward our “sense of self.” Kingston, born Chinese-American, struggles with her self-esteem as she attempts to balance her American lifestyle with that of her Chinese family's rich cultural beliefs; although, even as she begins to accept her "role identity" within her family structure, as an author she realizes that she will be "haunted" simply by writing about it. The body of Kingston's essay references a story told by his mother. her about her aunt. His mother used stories reflecting events from the family's past to try to teach him important life lessons. In the story, Kingston's aunt becomes pregnant outside of her marriage. Since the pregnancy occurred at a time when f...... middle of paper ...... they surrounded her. She longs for a deeper connection to her past, but she realizes that isn't the case, at least not where her family is concerned. She must adhere to the role of faithful daughter as it has been established over many generations and strive not to bring shame to the family as her aunt did many years ago. As a writer and author of the essay “No Name Woman,” Maxine Hong Kingston continues to struggle with her sense of identity. She feels a sense of betrayal towards her family, torn between her loyalty to them and her desire to write about her aunt. She feels that by writing about her and revealing her story, her aunt still “haunts” her today. She writes: “The Chinese are still afraid of the drowned man, whose weeping ghost, with wet hair hanging down and skin swollen, waits silently at the water's edge to slaughter a substitute..."