In the fictional graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, the main man vs society conflict is one of the main characters Jin Wang vs his classmates and teacher. The story of Jin Wang's journey begins with him crying in a car with a transformer. It gives background information on how his parents were both students at the University of San Francisco. They ended up moving to Chinatown in San Francisco. They lived in an apartment complex with boys that were around Jin’s age. They enjoyed watching the Transformers show together. He then meets the herbalist's wife, who tells him he can be anything as long as he forfeits his soul. Once he arrives in class, his name and background is misread to the class by the teacher. The teacher says …show more content…
Even though Jin Wang is an American citizen, he is treated like an immigrant. That is also why the author included the name of the elementary school as Mayflower. The author subtly hints at the fact that people think of Jin as an outsider and an enemy. A boy named Timmy raises his hand with a skeptical and mistrustful look. The teacher calls on him and he says “‘My momma says Chinese people eat dogs.’ Now be nice Timmy! I'm sure Jin doesn’t do that! In fact, Jin’s family probably stopped that sort of thing as soon as they came to the United States!’” (Yang 31). This is another example of the many prejudices that Jin faces. It is a very popular belief that all the other countries in the world are uncivilized and that coming to the U.S. is what makes them act normal. Because the teacher has confirmed Timmy's inquiry about Jin being a dog eater, other kids in the class now have a bigger reason to stay away from him. He eats peoples beloved pets, what’s stopping him from eating theirs? In conclusion, this shows that Jin Wang faces the biggest man versus society conflict because it is already in these peoples minds that Jin is weird and so he never gets a chance to be normal because no one is letting