They had carved their names and address on me, and I would come back.
-- Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (Epigraph)

Importance: This epigraph speaks to the connection to home and to family that lays claim to the main protagonist, Lizet, throughout the novel. As she attempts to learn the expectations of her new academic world in New York, there are also pressures, expectations, concerns and relationships that draw her back to Miami. Even when she has established her career and found her place in the world, there are connections to Miami, and even to Cuba, that continue to call her.

Oh, they’d say, But where are you from from? I was from from Miami, but eventually I learned to say what they were trying to figure out: My parents are from Cuba. No, I’ve never been. Yes, I still have family there. No, we don’t know Fidel Castro.
-- Lizet (chapter 2)

Importance: In arriving at Rawlings College, one...