Monkey: Journey to the West is told in three major parts. The first being the monkeys early life history and spirit, and the second about Tripitakas family and history before leaving to obtain the religious Buddhist scriptures. The remaining section has to do with his three animal spirit disciples, monkey, pig, and a fish. The story of the Monkey shows the struggles of educating oneself on a spiritual path. The characters are representations of religious figures in Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The Monkey represents restlessness and powerful energy, which has to be under control before the journey to the religious scriptures can start.
After a while he becomes worried about the thought of death and reincarnation. Buddhists believe in cycle of birth, life and death in order to achieve what they call Nirvana. One must release their self desire in order to obtain the ultimate goal. The Monkey desires to be immortal, however Confucianism recognizes death to be one of the most important times in ones life.
Monkey decides that he must explore the ends of the world in order to find a way to get around death and reincarnation because he is not happy with the ways on the three religions. His journey leads him across