Never Judge a Book by...

     American Born Chinese embodies the definition of never judge a book by its cover for so many different reasons, from it being a graphic novel, to the actual pictures in the book, and finally drastic change we see from the first half of the book to the second half.
     Graphic novels do not get much respect in classrooms across the country as we heard today in the Ted Talk with Gene Luen Yang.  Yet, from Yang's personal experience, graphic novels did something that technology never could.  Graphic novels immersed the students into the work and allowed them to go at their own pace. The illustrations and lessons in "comics are what I call permanent" (Yang). Essentially every part of the problem is laid out on the page in front of a student, allowing them to take it all in simultaneously or frame by frame.  The stigma of comics and graphic novels being for nerds or those who are immature has slowly been dispelled.  But, the stereotype still remain for many.  American Born Chinese shatters this by delivering important, some may even say crucial information, in a way that is easily attainable for all people. A potential reader may be quick to judge the book because it is indeed a graphic novel, but that judgement would be wrong.  Just as it may be easy to assume this graphic novel has nothing to teach, it is just as easy to quickly skim through and only read the words.  Be warned, this would be mistake number two.
     Students are infamous for taking the easy way out; they are all in a race to finish. This is the hidden trap in a graphic novel like American Born Chinese because the pictures themselves tell half of the story.  A reader may be going through the text and thinking one thing, but if they were to look at the pictures they reveal an entirely new representation.  For example on page 40 where the two American students are depicted as big, muscular jocks playing football, Jin and Wei-Chen are drawn extremely basic, small, and almost as a second thought.  This depiction can be taken in a larger context as the two Asian-American students feel small and insignificant in their own school.  They feel as if they are overshadowed by everyone else, not given a chance to fit in. Looking further to page 99 we can see Wei-Chen interacting with the monkey in the classroom.  If one were to closely examine this picture they could identify similarities between the way the money and Wei-Chen are drawn and depicted.  In one frame it even appears as if Wei-Chen's arm is a monkey arm, a dead giveaway for what is to come later in the graphic novel. This leads directly to the third possible mistake while dealing with this book: assuming things about the characters.
     I am guilty of making this mistake and presuming the three stories were similar in nature but not intertwined.  I believed there was a common theme or teaching that would reveal itself throughout the graphic novel.  Yet, the latter part of the book proves this wrong. It all begins with Cousin Chin-Kee who reveals his true form, the Monkey King, and implores 'Danny' "perhaps it is time to reveal yours [true form]" (Yang 213). 'Danny' then shifts back into Jin, a transformation we had just learned. American Born Chinese is full of these twists and turns, intertwining seemingly separate stories into one narrative.  This stands out as not only a theme in the book but a theme throughout America and our treatment of others.  We judge those by how they look, by where they're from, and never truly see them for who they are.
     Yang masks and hides characters true identities throughout the entire book but leaves us hints at the same time.  If you never picked up and gave this graphic novel a chance, you would not know.  If you never looked in depth at the pictures, you would not know.  If you assumed things about the characters, you would not know. Similarly, in real life if you judge and assume, you will never know.