Mrs. Tevlin
GD II
05/12/11
How does "experience" (including failures) help to stimulate growth in any of the characters from Monkey? Do they have regrets? Should They? Do you think "experience" is essential to the development of young people today? Explain. YOU MUST USE AT LEAST 3 DIRECT QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK WITH PAGE NUMBERS to get full credits.
According to Monkey, although each character has different personalities, they find the same spirit to reach enlightenment when they are on the way to the West together. Going through nine times nine ordeals to return to immortality, they challenge themselves by facing with dangerous levels. Except Tripitaka, his disciples have punishment by the Jade Emperor because of their sins. By joining the journey to the West, their sins can redeem completely. Therefore, Tripitaka and his disciples including Monkey, Pisgy, Sandy and a white horse are learning the truth of spirit and be able to face with calamities.
Monkey is a naughty character who raise an uproar in the Heaven. He is stubborn and always desires to show his great power to people. That is the reason he gets punishment from Buddha because he doesn’t know how to control himself to do things. Buddha punishes him to the bottom of the mountain for five hundred years. Then, finally he can get out of the mountain when Tripitaka removes the golden letters on the top of mountain to rescue him. However, at first, he still stays the same with his personality before. Kuan-yin has to give Tripitaka a cap to control Monkey. Monkey, with the spell of Tripitaka, has to obey him. Start from that point, step by step, Monkey complies to protect Tripitaka seriously. There is one more thing that Monkey’s weakness is impatient. In Sandy’s fight with Pigsy, he is “unable to control himself, he charges into battle just when Pigsy and the monster reach shore” (p.137). It causes Monkey cannot win the battle. Nevertheless, at the end, “Tripitaka is very pleased