In Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese, three storylines are introduced which contribute to the central conflict that deviation from the norm is something to fear and avoid. In two of those three cases, this idea is brought upon by society and the influence of others. In the case of the Monkey King, his life is fulfilling and happy, up until the point where the dinner party of the gods rejects him. He is left feeling a sense of dissatisfaction with his identity and a severe drop in self esteem. Despite a feeling of rage toward the other gods, he begins to want to become like them, he wants to be part of the norm, as he reflects on page 20 of the graphic novel, the caption states, "the smell of monkey fur greeted him. He'd never noticed it before. He stayed awake for the rest of the night thinking of ways to get rid of it."
This transition into low self-esteem and displeasure with one's old customs is reflected in the experiences of Jin, the main character of the novel. After coming from San Francisco, where his community was supportive and similar to him, as were the Monkey King's subjects, Jin arrives at Mayflower Elementary, where he is immediately ostracized and looked down on (31-32). Despite his animosity toward his caucasian bullies, Jin begins to feel inferior to them, and wants to become like them, even styling his hair a certain way to mimick one of his classmates, in an effort to appear more likable to his crush (98).
Both of these characters originally had high self-esteen and happy lives, but were told by their societies that who they were made them inferior. Unfortunately for both of these characters, they fell into the trap of believing them.
I disagree with idea that deviation from the norm is something to fear and avoid as being the central idea of the graphic novel. Rather, the central idea is to be yourself, that you should not assimilate with the norm and, in doing so, reject your identity. The Monkey King and Jin, while both originally happy with their identities, do reject them as the story progresses. For example, the Monkey King staunchly denies his identity, stating that “[he is] not a monkey” (Luen Yang 62). Meanwhile, Jin, when Wei-Chen approaches him speaking Mandarin, tersely responds that he should “speak English” (37). However, these decisions the characters make are framed as bad. The Monkey King’s rejection of his identity causes strife between him and the gods, who continue to reject him even as he tries to conform to be like them. Jin’s response to Wei-Chen is portrayed as being mean, causing Wei-Chen to sweat nervously and stutter. The characters continue their rejection of their identities, the Monkey King refusing to aid Wong Lai-Tsao until he is stabbed, and Jin adopting Greg’s perm and being ridiculed for it. Trying to assimilate with the norm is portrayed negatively and as being futile. But while the characters do fall into the trap of believing that they need to conform, but they later realize that it is ok to be themselves. The Monkey King himself states how he realized “how good it is to be a monkey” (223).
ReplyDeleteI aggree with you, looking back at my post, I see that I worded my statement badly. I did not mean to imply the idea that one should want to assimilate and forget one's culture, in fact I meant the opposite, that one should find pride and confidence in one's true heritage and customs. Thank you for your response, as it helped me to see a crucial flaw in my phrasing.
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