The Monkey King Identity Essay

The Power of Identity

Despite varying circumstances, both visually and contextually, the theme portraying that extreme measures are often taken when others are not accepting of an identity is developed by actions in American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

In the beginning of the book, The Monkey King is more or less serene and collected. At first the book shows some scenes on pages 10 and 11, where he is training peaceful, simple disciplines, and as stated on page 10, “The monkey king ruled with a firm but gentle hand.” This continues to be the case as the book goes on without much havoc. The problem arises when The Monkey King questions his own identity. This occurs when he attempts to enter a party full of gods and goddesses. Most of the

In both instances identity is being challenged, and one of the parties becomes violent, exhibiting how exceptional measures are taken towards the embarrassment that was caused by the situation. In the Monkey King’s case, the one who is getting his identity questioned is the one that inflicts the extreme action. On the other hand, in Danny’s case; the other party, the one that is embarrassed because of another character's identity, is the one that decides to take action to get his point across. Although the perspective differs, the situation is similar, and even the visual representation of these two have uncanny similarities. Both pages have different colors to portray how the characters are feeling. A monochromatic color palette is often used to show tranquility and integrity. On the other hand, the background turns to a caliginous shade of blue or even black in the panel directly before the violence erupts. Also in both scenes, the character that is widely accepted is noticeably larger than the one that is getting their identity questioned. The security guard (page 15) at the party towers over The Monkey King, showing how he has more power. Similarly, Danny is also a good amount taller than