Environment can change any person, place, or thing. It is defined as: the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings. One's surroundings can influence them in many ways, it can change them physically and mentally, knowingly or not. What one surrounds themselves with becomes who they are and how they act. In the novels the The Color of Water, American Born Chinese, and Santa Claus in Baghdad, the different forms of environment changed Ruth, Jin, and Mujahid as characters through the people that surrounded them, their views on cultural beliefs, and the situations in the places they live resulting in making them at peace with their role in society. Ruth and Jin are content with their role in society because of the people that surrounded them. Each individual character’s relationships with other …show more content…
His family from the village also changed him. Before coming he would say things that suggested the only type of jihad was warlike, but at the end of the story after his encounters with the olive tree, a brand new perspective was created. This contributes to his larger self peace with society by finding a good and evil in everything and him realizing that violence never is the only option, and can be very ineffective. Jin was also impacted by ChinKee other known as the monkey king in disguise. After Jin transformed into a stereotypical “perfect boy” ChinKee created the results of Jin being content with his ethnicity. Jin was ashamed of his culture and hated that ChinKee reminded him of it,“I'm sick of you ruining my life, ChinKee! I want you to pack up and go back to where you came from!” (205 ABC) Once the Monkey King reveals himself, Jin is transformed back and finally is content with his ethnicity. This shows ChinKee’s ultimate impact on Jin, which was making Jin at peace with the world because of his