American Born Chinese Thesis

In the novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang (2006), it talks about three different people’s stories. The author starts off with telling a story about a monkey called the Monkey King, who lives in the jungle, seeking for higher power to become considered a god in the book. The author also tells a story about an American born Chinese boy named Jin Wang, who moves from San Francisco and struggles with fitting in at a new school. The last story the author tells is about a boy named Danny who has his cousin Chin-Kee from China visit every year. Danny ends up struggling to keep his reputation in adequate shape at school after his cousin visits causing him to switch schools often. When the author talks about Jin Wang and Danny, they both seek to earn their crush, Jin Wang wants to call Amelia Harris his girlfriend and Danny wants to call Melanie his girlfriend. The author tells all these stories in the book, but connects them together, in the end, making the puzzle come together, demonstrating how intersectionality and oppressions are shown in society today. Initially, Yang demonstrates intersectionality with both the characters Jin Wang and Danny by showing how they struggle to fit in at school. He starts off by having the teacher introduce Jin to his class, when the

Yang demonstrates this through three different stories in the book, yet he ties them together to show the experience of growing up Chinese. This novel shows just how much judgment there is in society and how everyone experiences society differently. Everyone has a different intersectionality making people experience society differently, shaping individuals into who they are today. Without intersectionality, everyone would be the same and there would be no diversity amongst people