In section one of The Women Warrior Kingston uses negative connotated words such as "death" and "ghost" repeatedly to make us perceive this section as if it were filled with hate and guilt. To help her get this point across, she uses imagery to her advantage. The villagers are portrayed as evil and revengeful, "Their knives dripped with the blood of our animals. They smeared blood on the doors and walls." To make sure we stay in this mind set of a "dark mood", she carefully organizes series of negative events and remarks, from beginning of this section till the end. Literally the first paragraph already mentions death and makes us wonder, why death? Why did she kill herself? Setting up the mood as negative and creating negative thoughts as we read. The last paragraph is drowning in negative words such as, neglect, ghost, suicide and haunts, leaving us with a negative mood as we finish reading this section.

Contradicting the first section, the second section builds up to a more positive mood with the story Maxine tells about Fa Mu Lan as herself. Kingston accomplishes this by adding imagery that supports her character as mighty and not miserable like in section one, "I guided the horse with my knees , freeing both hands for sword work, spinning green and silver circles around me."She also chooses to bring back the villagers but this time as angels, "Then the villagers relinquished their gifts to me-- their sons." This is a very effective strategy to show that not only did the mood of the villagers change but also of the section itself.