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How Does Jin Change In American Born Chinese

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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

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