The Theme Of Identity Crisis In Gene Luen Yang's 'American Born Chinese'

Gene Luen Yang's “American Born Chinese” explores the identity crisis and coming-of-age story of Jin, the main character in the story. Jin moves from Chinatown, San Francisco, to the suburbs. When moving schools, the students bully him for being Chinese and tease him because of his identity. In addition, the monkey king is prohibited from attending a party for gods simply because he is a monkey. The monkey king and Jin encounter parallel elements in their stories, as they both learn that they should embrace their identities instead of trying to be someone they're not. First, they both change their appearance to fit in with others around them, later they learn to accept their appearance. Next, they both end up in difficult settings but end up in more

The monkey king attends a party for gods, but the guards at the door deny him access because he is a monkey. The guard also teases the monkey king because he is not wearing shoes. On page 60 the monkey king changes his appearance by becoming taller and more human-like to fit in with the gods. In addition, on page 56, he also starts to wear shoes to show he's more human-like. Meanwhile, Jin has a crush on a girl in his class named Amelia. He notices a guy talking to her and can make her laugh and smile. The guy talking to Amelia has a perm and is white. His name is Greg. On page 97, Jin decides to get a perm because Greg has one and that influenced Jin to get one to get closer to Amelia and fit in with his white classmates. In the end, Jin and the monkey king learn to accept their appearance. On page 159, the monkey king frees himself from the pile of rocks he's under by being his true self. This shows that he is finally ready to accept how he looks. On page 214, Jin changes back into his true self instead of his white self (Danny). Therefore, both of the characters end up accepting their true