Did you know that two-thirds of the young population feel pressured to look a certain way? American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is a graphic novel about Jin Wang, an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. By using character and composition, Yang emphasizes transformation through the change in Jin’s actions and determination, indicating he feels pressured to assimilate to feel socially accepted. Through character development, Yang depicts Jin’s transformation through his actions as in American-born Chinese. On page 30, Mrs. Greeder introduces Jin to his new classmates, and she makes stereotypical assumptions about his identity. Jin's attitude remains unchanged, and he makes no effort to respond in any other …show more content…
It allows you to see that Jin wants to dismiss the introduction fast, so he chooses a one-worded response as a respectful way of ending the conversation. Meanwhile, as the story progresses (on page 97), we see older Jin coming home from school thinking about his crush, Amelia, and then we see Greg, the person she regularly hangs out with, pop up in his thoughts. Jin's determination then comes into focus, and we see that he concludes that he needs to change his hairstyle in order to win over the girl he likes. The author ensures that this hairstyle emphasizes that this is what he is required to do to meet this ideal vision of perfection. Yang accentuates character development by highlighting the shift in Jin's actions and thought process. This suggests that Jin values the way …show more content…
On page 30, Jin's presence is portrayed as less crucial than the others. Although the first panel is elongated across the top of the page, consuming space, and Jin is placed in the center, despite the fact that he is the one being discussed, we see half of Jin's body rather than his full body, and he is shown as a regular student due to his small size, allowing the audience to see Yang's choice, which is to make Jin average and fit in with everyone else, and he is not superior. The scene is the same even though the second panel is the smallest on the page and is off to the side. Mrs. Greeder continues to introduce Jin, who is this small person with only his head visible. This implies that Yang wants to focus on Ms.Greeder's introduction and the classroom setting over Jin, indicating the artistic choice to attract attention to the other elements of the story. On page 97, we begin to observe the development of a new concept. Jin is the focal point of all the panels; they operate in unison to allow us to follow his thought process in real-time through his thought bubbles, and we see how he introduces the idea of changing his physical appearance to impress his crush. This demonstrates that the shift is a narrative choice to better develop Jin’s story in a way that we are able to see him grow and learn over time, facing more important choices that impact him significantly
Another character that plays a part into the display of the changing character of Mr. Chiu is his wife. She was a flat and static character. Even though she had very few lines in the story, his thoughts on her has changed from admiration to belittling. He went from worrying about her well-being to calling her stupid for her choice of whom to call to save him. The character that came his rescue is Fenjin.
However, it still exists in our community and we see it everywhere. American Born Chinese by Luen Yang is a graphic novel that has a large idea behind the book which Transformation and understanding identity. American Born Chinese consists of three different storylines and each storyline has a different character that tries to fit into society and also be able to transfer back to his culture. The three main characters are ashamed of who they are. According
One face in particular, Lins, sticks out to Pei. Lin is the first person Pei meets. She then comforts Pei and informs her about life in silkwork, and they instantly connect and their relationship only gets stronger over time. Pei and Lin are inseparable; you would never see Pei not by Lin's side. However, all of Pei’s happiness and love towards Lin quickly ends when Lin unexpectedly passes away.
Everyone struggles at some point with how they want to be seen in the world. In the novel American Born Chinese written by Gene Leun Yang develops a fictional story with Jin Wang as the main Character. Jin struggles with his identity after moving from Chinatown to the suburbs. As a result of the American and Chinese cultures colliding, Jin Wang undergoes both physical and internal changes because he wants to fit in with everyone else. One type of change Jin Wang made after colliding with American culture is internal changes.
This is the only time a panel looks like this in the entire comic, emphasizing its significance to the reader. Furthermore, since the panel is hung on a wall like a crooked painting or art piece, it represents the mood of Anja, which is one of recklessness and disaster. In this quote, she is insinuating that she does not have the will to live and is having suicidal thoughts. This connects with what happened, as shown on pages 99-104 about her
In the novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang (2006), it talks about three different people’s stories. The author starts off with telling a story about a monkey called the Monkey King, who lives in the jungle, seeking for higher power to become considered a god in the book. The author also tells a story about an American born Chinese boy named Jin Wang, who moves from San Francisco and struggles with fitting in at a new school. The last story the author tells is about a boy named Danny who has his cousin Chin-Kee from China visit every year. Danny ends up struggling to keep his reputation in adequate shape at school after his cousin visits causing him to switch schools often.
American Born Chinese Informative Writing Essay Insecurity is something that most people struggle with at some point in their life, often feeling not good enough for others, or not good enough for themselves. In American Born Chinese, various heroic archetypes interact with Jin Wang on his personal journey, teaching him that wishing you were someone else will not change who are. Wishing you were someone else will not change who you are.
For instance, there is an understanding of the woman’s feelings as she describes “a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” and the pattern looking at her “as if it knew what a vicious influence it had” (Gilman 437). The personification is symbolic in displaying how the woman felt as she was stuck in the lonely room with allowance of her husband and Jennie, their child’s nanny, keeping their eyes on her with the dependence of her healing. Additionally, the woman specifies that behind the yellow wallpaper she can see “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to sulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman 438). As the appearance of the wallpaper is personified, the author taps into the hidden meaning that the woman’s sickness is taunting her as she is attempting to heal. In the end, readers are given the most significant piece of personification in the statement, “and then when the sun came and that awful pattern began to laugh at me, I declared that I would finish it today!”
The uniqueness of this pages is Mariko’s words or lack of words illustrated by Jillian to create a visual narrative. This is a void of space with stark blackness and the white bubble with the words, “That was totally stupid” (133). The words jump out along with the light coming out of the school’s door and you see Skim and Katie’s gray shadow against the white snow. This illustration allows the viewer to see into the darkness of the night and of the frustration of the two girls. Jillian could have left the two-page spread all black, but on the left side, she adds three panels.
In American Born Chinese, Jin Wang changes immensely from the beginning to the end of the story. At the beginning of the story, Jin Wang wants to fit in and break apart from his Chinese Heritage. By the end of the story, because of various external and internal conflicts, Jin has learned to accept his Chinese heritage. He has also experienced anger, happiness, regret, and guilt that all got him to the point where he learned to accept his heritage.
Gene Luen Yang’s character, Wei Chen changes his own moral principals when he is influenced by one of the main characters.
American Born Chinese is a story about Jin, an American with Chinese roots, who struggles with his identity - self-conscious about how he looks, sounds, and acts. Jin divides into three different identities; Jin his overall identity, Danny his typical American side, and Chin-Kee his racist stereotype Chinese side. This book is split into three different stories that represent the three different identities, The Monkey King’s story, Jin’s story, and Danny and Chin-Kee’s story. In the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang uses symbolism and literary elements to illustrate struggling with your identity can lead to a better understanding of who you are and where you came from. Jin is faced with racial discrimination, not fitting
In all three stories, the author uses parallel plots to create suspense and surprise. The story first starts out with the Money King and then it switches over to Jin-Wang’s story: from Jin-Wang’s story it switches to Danny’s. When the comic randomly switches perspectives in the second chapter readers are surprised because they probably weren’t expecting multiple stories in one. All three have similar conflicts so switching the stories makes readers want to know if the stories are connected and if so, how. Thus creating
A student walks to lunch with a homemade meal, excited to eat his food. He feels alienated as others walk by and comment about his food and Asian identity. It makes it hard for him to fit in, he feels embarrassed and thinks he needs to change. Jin Wang struggles with his own identity in the book American born Chinese. While searching for a way to fit in he meets others and navigates through school to find his true self.
The way Spiegelman lengthens or shortens a panel can make a moment go back in time or show the importance of a scene. He makes the reader use closure in order to get the timing in his story. Spigelman does so many times in Maus to go back and forth from present to past. He does this without confusing the reader, which is it makes his story well. On page 12 in Maus, the last two panels show a time change in the book.