Summary Of American Born Chinese By Gene Luen Yang

Someone once said, “You’re always one decision away from a totally different life.” American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang follows three different characters as they experience hate and growth. Firstly, the Monkey King, a monkey who tries to be more than a monkey; Jin, a boy who tries to be more American; and lastly, Danny, an American boy who tries to forget his culture. In this book, readers see how all these stories connect and the growth each character goes through. After both Jin and the Monkey King meet someone like them or understand them, they realize their wrongdoings and start changing. Gene Luen Yang uses various literary devices to convey this evolution, including stages of the journey and themes. At the beginning of American Born

After the incident, it was stated that, “When he entered his royal chambers, the thick smell of monkey fur greeted him” (Chapter 1, pg. 20, panel 2). This is an action seen by many teenagers and growing children; once someone mentions their unique actions, they will realize and start to think that it is also weird. They will begin to change their identity into a more ‘normal' role, which the monkey king does by changing his height. It is the start of the stage of the journey: chaos. His stubbornness developed from the laughs of the deities, and it led to his downfall for 500 years. After some time, he meets Wong Lai-Tsao, a person who makes him realize that being a monkey is something not to be ashamed of, and he leaves his shoes. This is a symbol of how he started to accept his identity. For people to learn to accept themselves, they need someone to make them feel normal instead of an outcast. Jin Wang is an American-born Chinese who moves into a new town where he experiences a lot of stereotypes from both teachers and classmates. At first, he is shown as an innocent character experiencing the hate of the

However, they soon bond over their likeness to robot toys. This is an important theme: friendship. In further chapters, he is seen to be more accepting of being Chinese, but not as much as others due to finally having someone in similar situations. Wei Ching helped him realize that he wasn’t alone in their journey. Then he meets a girl named Amelia, whom he likes, and asks her out. However, her friend Greb tells him to leave her; she needs to maintain her popularity. This leads to a series of changes physically and mentally; he rejects his friend as ally and changes into an American boy. Here he is tortured by his cousin Chin-kee, who is the Monkey King and wants to bring him back to his path after his son failed. The reason was that he wanted to save another one from making the same mistake he did when he was younger. In human nature, people bond over their past experiences; even adults try to help younger children to prevent them from making bigger mistakes that they will regret. In the final chapter, he soon realizes the problems he caused his ex-friend. The Monkey King also shared his experience, making Jin feel that he wasn't the only one experiencing this type of