John Wayne Gacy Appearance Vs Reality

John Wayne Gacy, a seemingly-ordinary man and devoted father, lived a simple life in Cook County, Illinois. Gacy was an affable man who made a living as a clown. Other than his atypical career choice, as many would find his line of work laughable, he was just an average Joe. Imagine the shock when it was discovered that Gacy, in reality, was a serial murderer who killed over two-dozen young men (Kemp para 7). The man who seemed like a nobody turned out to be a heinous monster. The disparity between reality and appearance is crucial to understand. Appearance, being more subjective, is the way individuals view the world. This perception is typically veiled by personal beliefs, experiences, and societal influences. Appearances are not absolute;
they are very ambiguous as the world appears differently to every individual. In the music video of MGMT’s popular song, “Kids,” it displays to viewers the appearance of society through the eyes of a toddler (Wyngarden and Goldwasser). To the toddler, the world is full of monsters and this is due to the fact that the toddler has not been fully assimilated, and feels overwhelmed when surrounded by aspects of life that he does not understand. He does not recognize these strangers around him, and this fear of the unknown portrays itself in the strangers’ monstrous appearances. As the kid grows up, he will learn the reality of things; the fact there were no monsters at all. Appearances also create ideals; they construct the way things should be, rather than how they really are. Relating back to Gacy, who on the outside looked like a friendly individual with no strange quirks, he ideally should have been a mundane man. Consequently, it is due to the fact that appearances mask reality, that the notion of Gacy being a serial murderer was inconceivable. If society was willing to distinguish the appearance of things and reality, and prevent appearances from obscuring the truth, the deaths of the young men may have been prevented. Reality, unlike appearances, is absolute. It is the truth of all matters. However, most people find it difficult to face reality, and accept the truth. The truth is much harsher than the appearance of things. This is evident in Plato’s “The Republic: Book VII,” where the story of “The Allegory of the Cave,” is presented (Plato and Slings). In this short segment, Plato discusses a small civilization of people living in caves. They are chained up, facing a cave wall, with a fire burning behind them. When objects move past the fire, their shadows are reflected on the cave walls. However, these reflections are erroneous, as the fire distorts the size and shape of the objects. The individuals chained are, alas, blinded by this illusion. One day, a member of the group is freed from his chains, and he begins to realize the truth of the fire and the cave. As he attempts to leave the cave, he is blinded by the light of the outside world, or the truth. The immediate impact of learning the truth is the most painful; the individual wants to go back into the darkness to relieve the pain, but fortunately, he does not give in. As he begins to accept the truth and learn to cope with the harshness of reality, he becomes enlightened. The truth can certainly be hurtful at times, but it is a necessary pain. The dualism of reality and appearance is not only evident in society and philosophy, but it is also reflected upon in the novel, Monkey, a translated and condensed version of Journey to the West by Wu Chéng'ēn. Monkey is translated by Arthur Waley. In the novel, during Tripitaka’s journey to find Buddha at the temple of the Great Thunder Clap, he is met with many characters and obstacles that personify the necessity of uncovering the truth behind appearances. During Tripitaka’s first stage of the journey, he is encumbered by his lack of a disciple to accompany and protect him.
Luckily, he was able to reach the Mountain of the Two Frontiers where Monkey was imprisoned. Along the way, as others came upon Tripitaka and his disciple, Monkey, they would declare how unfortunate it is that Tripitaka had to take on a monster as a disciple. Monkey would be constantly undermined due to his appearance as a small, hairy imp and was never truly respected. In one particular situation, a farmer was burdened by a demon on his land, and Monkey offered his help. However, the farmer merely exclaimed, “Isn’t it enough to have a monster in the house as son-in-law,’ grumbled the old man, ‘without your bringing in this frightful creature to molest me?’” (148). The old man viewed Monkey as only a nuisance, but as it turns out, Monkey was much more powerful than he appeared, and was able to successfully remove the demon. Throughout the journey, Monkey is subjected to disrespect from others due to his appearance and the fact that he was a monkey. He was rarely taken seriously for his intellects, while in reality, Monkey was more advanced intellectually than even Tripitaka. Monkey was able to do 72 transformations, cloud-soar, see lands thousands of leagues away, and he was extremely strong and was the only one who could carry and resize the iron cudgel (weighed 13,500 pounds). On top of these amazing feats, Monkey was also immortal as he had eaten Lao
Tzu’s pills. Monkey’s primitive appearance is discordant with the reality of his powers. As Tripitaka continues on his journey, he is thwarted by demons on the path. As mentioned earlier, Tripitaka and Monkey had arrived at a farm troubled by the presence of a demon, who turned out to be Pigsy. Prior to encountering Pigsy, Tripitaka’s horse had been eaten up by the dragon of the Eagle Grief River, and similarly, the dragon becomes a disciple as well. After leaving the farm, the journey came to a halt once again as the company is held back by a river. At that river, a monster appears, and attacks the pilgrims (159). We know this monster as Sandy, Trikitaka’s third and last disciple. Now, all these disciples were initially seen as terrifying monsters who enjoyed preying on the livelihoods of humans. In reality, however, all three of them were highly-regarded individuals who made a mistake. Pigsy had been the captain general in heaven, but his lust got the best of him, and he was sent to Earth to live out his life as a gluttonous pig. Sandy was a high-official who accidentally broke the Jade Emperor’s plate at a party, and the dragon had disobeyed his father. The reality is, these were not monsters, they were merely individuals who were severely punished for their mistakes. Besides the disciples, Tripitaka is also wrongfully perceived. Tripitaka, being a devote Buddhist, is praised for his illumination and is highly-respected by those he meet on his journey. He is seen as being all-knowing and is the most revered out of the four. Unfortunately, appearances are deceiving. Tripitaka is, in actuality, a coward. Whenever he reaches a hurdle in the road, he becomes hopeless and whimpers. It is usually up to Monkey to reassure him and truthfully, without Monkey or any others helping him along, Tripitaka would not have made it past one day on his journey. In reality, despite his status as a learned man, he is very incompetent. This misjudgment of character has been seen time and time again, not just in folktales, but also in fairy tales, specifically the French “Beauty and the Beast” (Cole and Schwarz). In the fairy tale, the female protagonist is made to live with Beast in his castle in order to save her father’s life. When she first approaches the castle, she is mesmerized by its beauty, but as soon as she meets Beast, she becomes terrified due to his grotesque appearance. As time goes by, she adapts to having Beast around, but she still misses her family. One night, she inquires about a visit to her family. Beast, reluctant to see her so sad, agrees. While she is with her family again, her brothers attempt to convince her to kill the Beast. It is during her time away from Beast that she realizes how kind-hearted and loving Beast truly is, despite his blood-curdling appearance. With the help of a magical ring, she is transported back to the castle, where she agrees to marry Beast. As it turns out, Beast was actually a prince who was cursed. Despite the cliché happy ending, this tale, along with Monkey, demonstrates the importance of not judging a book by its cover. Continuing along with Monkey, there are several instances of disillusionments involving individuals who feign virtue, but were really wicked demons.
The first instance takes place in the city of Crow-Cock. The city had been suffering from a severe drought when a wizard appeared and was able call the winds and summon the rain, along with turning stone into gold (167). This wizard appeared to be a savior to the citizens of Crow-Cock, but unbeknownst to them, came with an evil agenda. The wizard, in private with the king of Crow-cock, murdered the king and took on the appearance of the king. For three years, he deceived the citizens of Crow-cock, along with the king’s ladies at court, wife and son, with his false identity. Fortunately, Tripitaka was able to learn about this incidence when the king’s ghost appeared in his dream, and Monkey was able to settle everything, and exposed the false-king. The next instance takes place in the country of Cart-Slow. Similar to Crow-cock, Cart-Slow had also been subjected to extreme drought. Suddenly, during the midst of the plague, three immortals arrive and were able to summon the wind and bring rain whenever they desired (213). Again, these individuals who were perceived as being liberators, came with an evil intent. Seeing as the immortals were Taoists, they proclaimed that the Buddhists, who attempted to pray for rain and were ultimately unsuccessful, were shams and must be prohibited from practicing their religion (214). The three
immortals went on to advocate the enslavement of Buddhists. Luckily, Monkey was able to save the day again, and rid the country of these villains. The last instance in which a villain pretends to be virtuous involves the Great King of Miracles. Similar to the previous two fiends, the Great King of Miracles ensures that the Buddhists living nearby will receive enough rain and fertile soil for the year. However, in order to maintain the service provided, the Buddhists must sacrifice a child every year. This fraudulent act of kindness is exposed by the monster’s desire for unadulterated human flesh. As it just so happens, Monkey is able to save them from the abuse. In all three instances, the demons initially appeared as righteous individuals, who saved populations from droughts and guaranteed rain and gold to the citizens. This seemingly benevolent act was, in reality, only a façade. All the demons had ill intentions, be it from disguising as the king, oppressing Buddhists, or demanding human sacrifice. Monkey, being as strong as he is, was able to purge these places of the demons. This again relates back to Monkey’s appearance as a rascal, when, in reality, Monkey is the hero. Besides these small details of the novel that pertains to the dichotomy of reality versus appearance, the entire journey taken by Tripitaka to retrieve scriptures from Buddha was a representation of this ideology. In other words, the whole journey was an illusion. Throughout the story, readers are made to believe that Tripitaka is traveling to India in order to obtain these sacred scriptures that China lacked. However, when looked at logically, it is improbable for any of the events to have taken place. First of all, Tripitaka’s disciples are talking animals, besides Sandy, who is the only other human. In research, it has been shown that language is limited to humans, and although certain animals may have the ability to communicate, this form of communication is not advanced enough to be considered as language, which connotes some form of abstract thinking. Monkey and Pigsy can be seen speaking coherently with Tripitaka, which is absurd. It is also very strange how Monkey and Pigsy are able to talk, yet the dragon, disguised as a horse, cannot. It seems as though this fictitious ability for animals to speak is discriminatory as well. Beyond this slight nuance, Tripitaka also encounters demons, gods and immortals, which is not possible since the latter group live in a whole different world. The demons, god and immortals are from heaven, the afterlife, while Tripitaka is still in the mortal life. The two worlds cannot collide, and there are no direct interactions between the two. Furthermore, the major evidence for the illusion of this journey is when Tripitaka reaches Buddha’s true citadel, and while he is crossing the river, he notices a strange object floating down the river. Waley translate, “Suddenly they saw a body in the water, drifting rapidly down stream…’Don’t be frightened, Master…That’s you…My best congratulations’…He [Tripitaka] had discarded his earthly body; he was cleansed from the corruption of the senses, from the fleshy inheritance of those bygone years” (282). It was his earthly body, drowning in the river, which Tripitaka sees. He has officially discarded all his ties to the mortal world, and is able to reach the status of Buddha. This ending, in itself, is very sensible as Buddhism revolves around the notion of removing oneself from worldly desires, and the ultimate removal would be death. However, with all these impossibilities combined, it creates a sense of doubt regarding whether or not the journey took place. This “journey,” in reality, could have just been a series of improbable events imagined by Tripitaka while he was meditating to achieve enlightenment. Though, even if the journey did happen, it was still an illusion for Tripitaka, as he was unaware that he would have to die in order to obtain the scriptures, which is made clear from his shock of seeing his body in the river. Being able to recognize the truth behind appearances is vital, not just in relation to the novel, but also as a key life-skill. It is important to not only understand the truth of situations, but also not to let appearances shape your judgment of others.