Journey to the West is known as one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature as well as a legend in the Chinese culture. The monkey king is one of the four disciples following Tang Sanzang (or Xuanzang). Subsequently, the five embark on the journey to obtain the Buddhism sutras full of strange and dangerous encounters with various spirits and creatures. In American Born Chinese written by Gene Luen Yang, the author creatively utilizes and embeds the monkey king myth as three interwoven narratives to describe the identity of the characters using religious allusions. The formation of identity is demonstrated through the act of refusal. The monkey king refuses to stay as a monkey. Jin Wang refuses to let his peers know about his …show more content…
Equivalently, this is nirvana in Buddhism because all the desire is snuffed out. During the conversation between the monkey king and the creator of the universe, Tze-yo-tzuh directly states that the monkey king is only a monkey. Despite all his attempts to get rid of all the monkey attributes, he remains a monkey. When the monkey king uses his abilities to escape Tze-yo-tzuh’s palm, he fails and receives his punishment. It points out that there is order is always there and karma disrupts the order but order will always be achieved again. Balance is also achieved. The realization of identity shows that identity is like the order. Attempts to change the identity are like karma disrupting the order. At the end of the day, the identity remains the same regardless of the physical change and order is brought back. For example, the conversation between the monkey king and the creator of the universe directly and simply states that the monkey king is just a moneky despite all of his magical and powerful abilities. Regardless of how the monkey king attempts to escape the creator’s grasp, he never succeeds. Only when the monk comes to the monkey king, the monkey king realizes his own self and identity in saving the monk and leaving behind his shoes. By the end of the story, all three characters: the monkey king, Jin Wang, and Danny are liberated or achieved