The Patriarchy Of The Chen Family In Monkey King By Christina Garcia

In the novel Monkey King, Christina Garcia focuses a lot on the patriarchy of the Chen family tree. It makes sense since Chen Pan is the original forefather and without him this story would not have started. However, I found the stories of Lucrecia Chen and Chen Fang rather compelling. Lucrecia is the foremother of the Cheng family and her past is a tragic one. Her mother was raped by the slave master and got pregnant with her. Lucrecia did not realize this until after her mother had passed. When she was reflecting back to her mom she thought about how her “... Mama had loved her in spite of her hatred for him” ( Pg. 133). Her mom gave her unconditional love despite where she came from. In turn, Lucrecia did the same with her son Victor Manuel. She was protective of him and loved him despite him

Her story is unfortunate and she is never able to really find her place in the world. Her mother was distraught when Chen Fang was born a female and was never able to truly acknowledge her as her daughter. Her father left when she was a baby to remarry. Since her mother told her father that she was a boy she crossdressed all the way into her teens. When she finally had to marry, her in laws did not like and accept her very much until she got pregnant. In a fateful turn of events, she reluctantly abandons her son. This is a decision that haunts her for the rest of her life. Even when it comes to love Chen Fang is deserted by her lover. Although melancholy, Chen Fang does not seem bitter. When she is in her cell after being accused of being a traitor against her country she still fantasizes about one day visiting her family in Cuba. She is never resentful of her father for leaving and in fact longs to be a part of his family. Perhaps, one of the reasons Garcia may have included Fang’s story is to sort of echo the journey of the Chen family trying to find their own place in the