Type: Literary Analysis
Pages: 5 | Words: 1474
Reading Time: 7 Minutes

Throughout the story, Jin struggles between his identity and a desire for transformation. How does Gene Luen Yang use the characters of Chin-Kee and Danny to represent Jin’s struggle in the story? In the end, how does Jin resolve this struggle? How has he changed as a result?

In this story it is quite obvious that Jin was somebody who was eager to be a transformer and wanted to have an identity among his classmates as he was new. He spends most of his time in school as a normal boy but his life changes after the story merges with Danny and Chin-Kee’s story. One day when he goes out for a movie with Amelia he has a nice time but before planning to meet her again he gets warned by Greg no to date her again. He ignores Greg but the next time he goes out with Amelia he notices Greg to be around. He turns to Suzy to kiss her but she punches him on his cheek. Jin calls Wei Chen a FOB since people believed that Jin was engaged to Suzy. Wei Chen gets mad and punches Jin. Though Danny’s story is completely different it plays a major part in Jin’s life and they both turn out to be one story at the end. While Jin gets punched by Suzy and Chen on one hand, Danny and Chin-Kee get into a fight on the other. Danny gets mad at Chin-Kee for embarrassing him in class and bothering his classmates. The fact that both Jin and Danny’s life are miserable at the moment is a bit strange but this is the point when both the stories merge together. What happens next is that Jin dreams of the herbalist’s wife and wakes up as Danny. He finds it hard to believe his eyes but he has to. In a way this was totally awesome for Jin since all he ever wanted was to be a transformer. He transforms into Danny at the point when Danny is in a fight with Chin-Kee. Jin which is now Danny finds himself fighting with Chin-Kee. He punches Chin-Kee on his head and Chin-kee’s head flies off and what happens next is even more shocking. Chin-Kee had turned out to become the monkey king. Yes he is talking about the olden monkey king whose folk and legendary tale is known all over China. He was rejected at a party because he was a monkey and wasn’t wearing shoes which made him furious and he trapped himself in his chamber to learn the 12 disciplines of kung fu. He was then executed to his underwater kingdom where he caused a total mess and a complete disaster. He was finally stopped but his creator Tze-yo-tzuh. However, he marked his name on five gold pillars. Later his creator showed him his hands which were the actual five pillars. He was then trapped in a mountain of rubble. He lived there for years but came out when a monk asked him to be his teacher. He refused at first but later excepted when two giants attacked the monk. He used his kung fu disciplines to fight against the giants and was victorious. He then spent his life as the monk’s teacher.

Now after a long time the monkey king appeared in the story in the form of Chin-Kee. The monkey king transforms Danny back to Jin and tells him a very unexpected story. He tells Jin that he is the father of Wei Chen. Jin hardly believes what he says but then he feels that the monkey king isn’t lying. The king confesses that he lied to Wei Chen which is why his son didn’t want his dad to visit him anymore. So the king had to change his appearance. He assured that he didn’t intend to hurt Jin but he was there to protect him as his conscience. He just wanted Jin and Wei chin to follow the right path.

As the author more and more familiar with the character but there seemed to be less and less of a point doing in so. There were already so many Monkey king comics that practically were his own genre. The author eventually came up with the idea to use the monkey king as a lens through which to reflect on my own experience as an Asian American. As the author began writing the script, on the other hand, he realize that this would require one drastic alter to the original story .As its spirit the trip to the west is a Buddhist morality tale. In the original, the monkey King have raised chaos among the gods of all extra traditional Chinese religions , and it is only the Buddha that is lastly able to put him in his place. In American born Chinese the author has also replaced the story’s Buddhist underpinnings with the ones who are Christians, drawings from his own faith. As one and all could see that the Christianity deceit in the very centre of the authors personality as an Asian American. He would even walk off so far to say that Christianity is a extremely vital part of the Asian American familiarity .Simply for the prove visit a Christian student group on any branch of university. More probably that not it would be found that there is a sea of Asian faces. Through adopting this olden Western religion that is both a part of and at odds with current Western culture they attempt to make sense of their selves But its all rite for the author to take an age old Chinese folk story and tear out its Buddhist heart.

So in a very real sense the Monkey king is worldwide He’s been around a long time, and the author thought that he’s sturdy enough to follow them wherever they would go, to exemplify whatever philosophies and values they arrived at .To be truthful the author entirely not comfortable with this fact but he was comfortable enough with it to be able to finish American born Chinese and may be that’s all that matters .Author also summarized some significant differences between him and Jin as he didn’t really looks like him when he was a kid and unlike Jin he had white friends in elementary school . His best friend in third and fourth grade was a white. Lastly the true face of racial discrimination in as varied a community as the San Francisco Bay area is much more complex than the area which is in the story. They had hurled racist insults at one another with a resolute fierceness, usually in front of white viewers .This is one race related grade school memory that had burned with particular strength. A Chinese migrant boy a year younger than the author began to attend the school. All the teachers used to pestering the author to be his friend as he can really help Jin out.

After finding out the whole story Jin accepts a business card from the king and visits a bakery daily. One fine day he sees Wei Chen outside in a car with cigarettes and other groceries. He had approached him and tells him that he met his father and narrates the whole incident. Jin told this to Wei Chen not because he wanted to mock him but because he wanted to give him the message of his father’s apology. His father wanted to apologize for his lies. Wei Chen accepted the apology and things were different now. Everything was more stable than it was at the beginning. Jin was much more satisfied as he found his identity and he experienced a transformation. At this point I would say that the lady who once gave advice to Jin was absolutely right. She told him that he could get anything he wants if he forfeits his soul and this actually happened. He had achieved what he wanted. The monkey king was forgiven by his son and all the hard work he did just to be with his son finally paid off. The author has used a very unique way or style to merge all the stories. He has written the story in such a way that keeps the reader attracted. All the stories turn out to be very unexpected. We can say that this story has a happy ending just like any other story since all the characters get what they wanted. The king gets his son, Jin gets his identity and gets the chance to be a transformer. The roles of Danny and Chin-Kee in the story were just like means of transformation which the author used. This is how the story comes to an end. To sum up, I would say it was a great example of how to write transformations and linking stories being informative at the same time.

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