In American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, I think the desire to be someone else is a theme most people can relate to. Just as the ever present transformer action figure throughout the novel, the Monkey King works to be a god, Jin Wang wants his appearance to match his American status, and Danny hopes to hide his association with his Chinese cousin. Though the Monkey King is accepted as a god by his fellow monkeys, he is not content, and believes he must prove it to the gods and goddesses of heaven. However, when rejected because of his being a monkey, he isolates himself, eventually appearing to his monkey followers to show that he has "mastered twelve major disciplines of Kung-Fu and transcended [his] former title" to now be called "The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven" (Yang 60). One discipline in particular, shape shifting, allows him to take on the human-like figure that he has always aspired to have. Yet, he is still rejected by the gods and goddesses, sentenced to imprisonment for five hundred years under a sealed mountain of rocks. He is only given a task by the gods when he accepts that he is a monkey and returns to his true form. Equal to the action figure that can change from car to robot, the Monkey King can try to disguise himself with his skills, but he will always be a monkey. I think this serves as an important message to young readers that no matter how much one attempts to be something they are not, it will never change who they are and who they were meant to be. Once they accept their fate and come to love who they are, it is much more fulfilling and a happier way to live.
This message also pertains to Jin Wang and Danny, who are actually the same person. In junior high, Jin transfers from San Francisco, but is treated by teachers and classmates as though he transferred from China. The stereotypes of intelligence, language, foods, and cultural rules follow him, causing him to wish for nothing more than to be an All-American boy on the outside as he is on the inside. This wish and some magic transforms him into just that, and he calls himself Danny. However, his past haunts him, when his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee comes for the annual visit that has caused him to transfer schools in the past. When his cousin proves the stereotypes the Jin Wang transformer had always avoided and he is upset, Danny returns to his former self and Chin-Kee transforms into the Monkey King. While he tries to change his exterior as Jin and his past as Danny, he is and will always be the son of Chinese immigrants. As the monkey tells Jin, he "could have saved [him]self from five hundred years' imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had [he] only realized how good it is to be a monkey" (Yang 223). Thus, Jin can only be satisfied when he accepts his identity, his relatives, and his past in the same way that the Monkey King can only be a true god when he uses monkey identity to serve his fellow monkeys and others instead of proving something that he is not. This philosophy can be transferred to today's society, as money, appearance, and background should not change who one is as a person.
I completely agree that the role of transformation and identity appears to play an important role in American Born Chinese, along with many other Young Adult Fiction novels. In the case of this novel, Yang is trying to say that trying to change who you are will not result in happiness. In fact, in one scene, the Chinese Herbalist's wife tells Jin that "it's easy to become anything you wish so long as you're willing to forfeit your soul" (Yang 29). Though ominous and strange at the time, we later learn her meaning when Jin transforms into Danny and tries to separate himself from his Chinese roots. He loses all sense of who he is and becomes someone he does not truly want to be. The combination of Jin’s, Danny’s, and the Monkey King’s tales all result in the knowledge that one should be proud of his or her identity, no matter what others say. In other YAF novels we’ve read this semester, for example Little Women, the themes of transformation and identity are still present, but utilized in a completely different way. Alcott consistently has the March sisters overcoming their flaws and dramatically transforming by the end of the novel. They try to change the faults they find in themselves in order to be the perfect “little women” their father wanted them to be in the beginning of the novel. In both novels, however, the characters need to accept who they are in order to find happiness. In this regard, many of the novels we have read this semester and will read are very similar.
ReplyDeleteThis was written by Maddie Stacey
Delete