Comparison Of Monkey And Journey To The West

George Bernard Shaw, a renowned writer and Irish playwright, details how “life isn 't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”. In both Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, as well as Journey to the West by Wu-Cheng-en, the central characters participate in a series of events that lead to the establishment of their personalities and aspirations. Monkey, a shared protagonist of the novels, lives in a world of self-absorption and his immature, unjustified actions bring severe punishment, continuing the rest of his endless life while trapped under a pile of rocks. Later, a monk arrives at Monkey’s imprisonment site to ask for accompaniment towards a long, perilous journey into the West. Monkey soon redeems himself of his
Yang constructs his novel with a pattern of three differing viewpoints from several main characters, including Monkey. Just as in Journey to the West, Monkey is found by a monk wishing to travel to the western lands of Buddha and hoping to deliver important religious scripts safely. Monkey has been chosen as a disciple for the quest, however he needs to free himself from the mountain of rock that has kept him prisoner for countless centuries. The monk explains how, “the form you have taken is not truly your own. Return to your true form and you shall be freed” (Yang 145 slide 1). This, and only this can release Monkey from his imprisonment, yet his pride does not allow him to think sensibly. He is still under the impression that immortality is the greatest achievement one can achieve, even at the cost of freedom. The mountain essentially symbolizes a desire to change one’s identity in order to feel acceptance. The only way to sever such a craving is to return to original form and shed the layers of artificial self. Eventually, Monkey does exactly so and finds that being himself puts the stressful outlook on life at ease and boosts his confidence behind his identity. Once the main protagonist, Jin Wang discovers that his so-called ‘cousin’, Chin-Kee is actually a disguise of the Monkey King, he finds that his cultural identity has been quickly degrading. Monkey gives an important piece of advice to Jin, telling how “I would have saved myself from five hundred years’ imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey” (Yang 223 slide 4). This thought-provoking comment hit Jin with such tenacity that he immediately feels ashamed for denying his