American Born Chinese Themes: Shame, Identity, and Boxes
Now that you have read over half of American Born Chinese, you should be able to see themes emerging in all three different story lines within the graphic novel. Your assignment is to name one of those emerging themes and explain, using specific examples from the text, how you see each of the three story lines developing and extending that theme. Your post should be at least six sentences long. If you are unsure of the definition of "theme," consult your literary term glossary at the back of Social Justice.
Remember--read the post, and then click on the word "comments" just below that post. After you have written your post, add your first name, then "Doyle," then your period (so, Wonder Woman, Doyle 1-2). Then, select "Anonymous" for your identity and click "publish your comment."
You may comment upon your classmates responses, but be sure to do so respectfully. Remember to write your answer in complete sentence and avoid "IM"-speak.
posted by Peggy Doyle at
8:08 AM
41 Comments:
A theme that all three short stories have is “disguise”. The characters in the stories all want a disguise. In the main story, the one about Jin, Jin wants to escape his box. He is teased because he is different than all of his classmates. Jin has an American disguise in which he acts like everyone else, completely American, not Chinese. Some ways he changes is by eating a sandwich (not dumplings like he did at the beginning of the book), never speaking in Chinese, and so on. He also curls his hair later in the book to look like the American boys at his school. In the Monkey King’s short story, the Monkey King has a disguise too. At the beginning of the book, he is not included in a party just because he is a monkey. After that, the Monkey King studies kung fu for days and becomes a different animal. He is a bigger stronger animal and “not a monkey”. This is his disguise. The third short story is the one about Danny and Chin Kee. Danny is in high school and has been to a number of different schools because of his cousin Chin Kee. Chin Kee always comes to visit and always makes Danny’s friends think Danny is weird like Chin Kee. After that Danny’s friends don’t want to hang out with him anymore. Before Chin Kee comes to visit, Danny is in a disguise. Danny is acting cool around his friends in hope that they will still be his friends after Chin Kee comes to visit.
Kelly Slimmon
Doyle 1/2
In all three story lines the characters feel shame. Jin and Danny both are ashamed of their culture/family history. Jin is made fun of by the white kids in his school because he is Chinese. In order to fit in, Jin changes his hairstyle so that it looks like everybody else’s. Danny is ashamed and embarrassed to have Chin-kee around. Everybody at school makes fun of how Chin-kee acts and looks, and not only does everybody at the school make fun of Chin-kee, but they also make fun of Danny for being related to him. In the Monkey King’s story line, on page 20, the Monkey King goes home feeling ashamed of himself. He is ashamed of himself because he thought that he was known throughout all the heavens, but instead he finds that when he goes to the dinner party in heaven, he’s not allowed in because nobody knows who he is. All the characters feel shame throughout the story for reasons such as culture, and they try to be someone else that they are not.
Anna Peterson
Doyle 5-6
A theme that all three stories have is shame. Every single character (The Monkey King, Danny, and Jin) are ashamed for a reason. The Monkey King is ashamed because he is only a monkey and wants to be the ruler of all things even though he is the leader of all monkeys. Danny is ashamed because he has he has a cousin, Chin-Kee, that is very chinese and embarrasses Danny a lot. Danny doesn't even know how he is related to Chin-Kee. In the Jin story, he is embarrassed about his Chinese background even though he would be considered American. His parents are both Chinese. In one of Jin's school-years he thinks that he would be very embarrassed because a new kid, Wei Chen joined the school and he was WAY too Chinese. When Wei Chen thinks that he could be accepted by Jin to be friends with him, something does not go right. Jin acts way too insecure and acts as if he is popular. He does this by pointing to the popular kids playing football when Wei Chen asked who his friends were when Jin said no to Wei Chen's request to friendship.
Sam R.
October 3, 2012
Humanities
Peggy Doyle
Period 5(6)
4:37:57 PM
The main characters in each story, seem to have a "disguise" of some sort. In the story "American Born Chinese" Jin enters a new school, and the teacher says his name wrong, and says he came straight from China. Then at lunch three boys came and bullied Jin because he was eating dumplings. the next few days Jin brings in a sandwich, so that he could fit in with the other kids, and sure enough they didn't bully him. Jin found a pattern. If you disguised yourself as the other kids, they wont bully you as much. When Wei-Chen comes Jin does not like him, because after trying so hard to push away his identity, this guy comes and ruins his efforts. Jin finally finds the courage to ask out Amelia, (the girl he likes) and they have a lot of fun. When Amelia's friend finds out Jin went on a date with her, he goes up to Jin and says that he shouldn't ask Amelia out anymore. After that, Jin completely looses it.
The story with the monkey king is a bit similar, no one accepted him the way he was, so he changed, but in this story he changed and he wanted to rule everything. In the story Chin-Kee, Danny is having a wonderful time with his friends. Chin-kee comes to visit and he starts to loose his reputation. People start judging him by how his cousin acts, and less people talk to him.
Paryssa Khazaie
Doyle 1/2
All of these stories and the characters in them deal with shame in different ways. On page 96, when Jin, Wei Chen, and Suzy are laughing and some other students come by and call them racial slurs, they all blush in shame. This is a very different reaction than what the monkey king would have. On page 16 when the monkey king is kicked out of the dinner party, he freaks out and beats everyone up. Danny has the most peculiar way of dealing with shame, he has an internal war with himself until he goes berserk which he does later in the story after telling chin kee to go away. None of these ways are any more proactive than the last proving that none of these characters really know how to deal with shame.
Henry Schellinger
Doyle 1/2
A theme that all of the stories have is disguise. In American Born Chinese, the Monkey King tries to disguise who he is by wearing shoes. Also, Jin tries to disguise who is by eating different food, and eventually curling his hair to make it look like "a broccoli" for Amelia Harris. Later, he goes to even more drastic tactics, but I'm not going to say quite yet because it's later in the book. In High Yellow White Trash, Lisa Page puts on her "White Girl" disguise when she is with her mother, and then when she goes to her father she puts on her "Black Girl" disguise. In BWJ, Rebecca is also half white, half black. She brushes her hair straight and puts it in pink hair curlers when she's with her grandma. All of these characters are hiding who they are with a disguise to please other people.
Ilana Weisbach
Doyle 5-6
In the Monkey King’s story, the theme is about how no matter what you do, or how hard you try to change, you will always be yourself. Trying to be someone besides you will usually end badly. The Monkey King was told that being a monkey was bad, and so he tried to change into something else, and as a result all the gods thought he would destroy them when he simply wanted to be accepted. In Jin’s story, the theme is about shame of who you are. Jin is ashamed about being Asian, and tries to be more “American”. Jin starts eating sandwiches instead of dumplings, at first he didn’t want to have anything to do with Wei-Chen because Jin didn’t want to have anything to do with an “F.O.B”, and wanted only American friends. In Danny’s story, the theme is about stereotypes. Almost all of the Asian stereotypes are shown with Chin-Kee, and as a result he doesn’t even seem much like a real character. Then, when Melanie realizes that Chin-Kee is Danny’s cousin, she suddenly “noticed” that his teeth are bucking out a little (stereotype).
Elbert Du
Doyle 1/2
One of the themes that the 3 stories in American Born Chinese have is shame. The Monkey King is ashamed of being a Monkey, he wants to be more like the gods. Jin is ashamed of looking Chinese, when he is actually American. Danny is ashamed that he has a Chinese cousin that is better than him at everything and that people will think that he is exactly like Chin-Kee. The reason that these characters feel shame is because of the people around them. The reason that the Monkey KIng feels shame is because the guard kicks him out of the party because he does not wear shoes and isn't like the other gods. The reason that Jin feels shame is because on page 94, the other American kids mock Jin, Suzy, and Wei-Chen by speaking in a stereotypical way. The reason Danny feels shame is because on pages 121 and 124, the other kids make fun of Danny for having a Chinese cousin, and expect him to have the stereotypical Chinese eyes, and on page 124, Melanie tells Danny that he has buck teeth.
A theme that all stories have is "disguise". In HYWT the girl is half black half white but wants to get rid of the white side of herself. She thinks the African Americans have more fun and enjoy there selfs more than white people, and white people have a dull and boring culture. In BWJ the girl is also half black half white but she wants to white instead. In the book she straightens her hair and curls it when she's with her white grandma. What most stereotypical white girls do. In the Monkey King's story he tries to disguise him self by wearing shoes and practicing Kung Fu for days on end till he practically become an unstoppable god. In Jin's story he tries to become more American to fit in, and also gives him self a perm to impress Amelia. But his friend Wei-Chen is proud to be asian and shows it by eating out of a wok with chop sticks. Unlike Jin who eats sandwich's out of brown paper bags. In Danny's stories he has a disguise because Chin-Kee comes with danny for a week of school in America every year since the 8th grade. This results in Danny having to change schools every year. So he tries to disguise himself infront of his friends so they don't think he's weird like his cousin Chin-Kee.
Thomas Moran
Doyle 5-6
One theme that all of the characters share is having a disguise. The monkey king is ashamed of being a monkey so he tries to do something about it. He masters more kung fu and shape shifts into a human looking figure. Danny tries to disguise that he is Chinese. He plays basketball and has white friends. He even has white girlfriends. Jin also tries to disguise himself as a non chinese person. He curls his hair and he asks an all american girl out. All of the characters have a disguise and will do anything to keep it that way.
Aden G.
Doyle 1-2
A theme in ABC is that in the beginning of the story the monkey king doesn't want to be a monkey, because the guard and the other gods weren't treating him as an equal they were treating him like a piece of dirt. In result the monkey king thought that he shouldn't be a monkey and that he and all other monkeys needed to wear shoes. In the second story Jin is feeling shameful because he is not treated as an "American" for instance when he is eating dumplings the other boys start being mean to him. As a result he then eats sandwiches for lunch. In the third story, "Everybody Ruvs Chin-Kee." Danny is feeling embarrassed for having Chin-Kee as his cousin. One way that this is shown is that he tells the other boy that he always changes schools after Chin-Kee visits, because after no one treats him the same. For instance Melanie says I can see the family resemblance because your teeth our a little buck. Overall in all three stories all of the characters are happy for who they are and want to be different.
Miranda Mejia
Doyle 5/6
Adrian Morrison
Humanities
Period 1+2
A theme that all the stories have is all three characters have a disguise to hide from their true identity. With the Monkey King his disguise is his ability to shape shift into human form and the fact that he wears shoes. At first no one believes him, but over time he makes people realize that he is not a monkey through physical activities. With Jin his disguise is Danny it is his way of acting American. Playing basketball, eating sandwiches and blonde hair are all parts of his disguise. In all the scenarios, these people have something to hide, the Monkey King does not want to be looked at as a monkey, after all no one would take him seriously. Jin/Danny wants to fit in and in America, the way to fit in is to be American so that is what he wants to become. All these people are hiding from who they are, not because they think they are different only because others put them down, and so they created these disguises to hide from reality, but are they really necessary?
One similarity between all three of the stories is that all of the main characters feel shame. In the monkey kings storie,he has shame because he is a monkey and so cannot go into dinner parties. To fix this, he makes all monkeys wear shoes and literaly makes himself look more human with shape shifting. In Jin's storie, he is ashamed of his race, the fact he was born chinese. People think Jin's asian even though he was born in San Fransisco. So he tries to make himself look and act more ameracan. In Chin Kee'story, Danny is ashamed of the fact he has such a weird, steriotypical asian cousin. Danny has had to switch between many schools just because of Chin Kee's week long visits. So Danny just tries to act cool and hope Chin Kee won't come back.
David Pan
Oct 3, 2012
Doyle 5/6
Lily Levitt
Miss Doyle
10/3/12
Pd. 5-6
In American Born Chinese a theme that occurs many times in the book is shame because each of the three main characters feels ashamed of themselves or someone they know sometime in the book. In the beginning of the Monkey King story, the monkey king is very happy with who he is. But when he is not allowed into the dinner party because he was a monkey and wasn’t wearing shoes, he started to believe that something was wrong with being a monkey. That is why on page 20 the book shows the Monkey King trying to change the smell of his royal chamber so that it didn’t smell like monkey fur. On page 55 the monkey king also tries to change who he is by wearing and having all of the other monkeys to wear shoes. In Jin’s section Jin also feels ashamed of himself; he is ashamed of being Chinese. But Jin didn’t start out being ashamed, he became ashamed when he started at Mayflower Elementary School and the other kids made him feel like he didn’t belong. One of the ways you can tell that he is ashamed of being Asian is when he gets a perm to look like Greg’s hair, who is an American boy in his class. In the Chin-Kee section the character of Danny feels ashamed of his overly stereotypical Asian cousin, and that is why on page 126 Danny is telling Steve that every year after Chin-Kee visits he is always so embarrassed that he has to transfer schools. Each of the main characters feels ashamed of something about themselves and they try to change themselves instead of embracing their differences.
In Jin's story, he wants to be accepted as a American. He doesn't want to be recognized as the "Asian". He starts eating more American and acting more American. For example, he eats a sandwich and drinks a juice box for lunch. In the monkey king's story he doesn't want to be a monkey. He is getting denied by the humans (gods). He feels bad about who he is. That is why he is trying to act American. Example; Wearing shoes. He makes all of his monkey's wear shoes.
Ashwin A
Doyle 1-2
A theme that all the three stories have is shame. In Jin's story he is feeling ashamed about being chinese so he tries to cover it up by eating "american" food and trying to be cool, even though he is friends with other asian kids (Wei-Chen and Susie. In the Monkey King's story the Monkey King is feeling ashamed about himself because he is a monkey and not a god and so is not accepted by the gods. He tries to cover this up by, first, wearing shoes, and then totally changing his appearance with his newly acquired power of shapeshifting. Another thing that the monkey king does is get violent, but he gets trapped under a pile of rocks for 500 years, so it didn't really turn out so well for him. In Danny's story, Danny is feeling ashamed because of his cousin, Chin Kee. Chin Kee is a combination of all the bad stereotypes of chinese people and he really embarrasses Danny at school. Danny always hopes that after his friends see that he has a cousin like Chin Kee that they will still be his friends, but that never really works out, and as a consequence Danny has had to change school a lot over.
One theme all three story lines show is identity changing. In the Jin/Wei-Chen storyline, Jin is trying to change his identity to impress Amelia and to fit in with all the other kids. Examples of this are when he gets a perm to look more like Greg and when he uses abbreviations like F.O.B. and word to your mother. In the Monkey King storyline he is trying to change form being a monkey. It is unsure what he wants to be, probably a god or (as he calls himself) “The Great Sage Equal of Heaven”. He tries to change his identity by learning all of the secret kung-fu tricks and by wearing shoes but he still is a monkey just like Jin is still Asian. In the Danny storyline Danny is trying to separate himself from Chin-Kee and his Asian parents. He doesn’t really do anything but the author hides the parent’s faces to show Danny’s shame in them.
David A.
Doyle 5-6
All three stories share the theme of shame. Jin is ashamed of being Asian, Danny is ashamed of being related to Chin-Kee, and the Monkey King is ashamed of being a monkey. Jin is picked on at school when he first arrives, and other kids make fun of what he eats, along with thinking him and Suzy are related or arranged to get married. Similarly, people assume that Danny is like Chin-Kee, so they are mean to him. They are so mean that Danny has transferred to three different schools in three years. He wants to not be associated with Chin-Kee so that he does not picked on. Also, the Monkey King is kicked out of a dinner party of the gods because he is a monkey. The other gods do not accept him, no matter how much power he has, because he is a monkey. He is ashamed of being a monkey, because the gods will not accept him as a deity. All three characters feel ashamed because of what they are or who they know, and have issues very similar to each other.
John McKee
Doyle 1-2
One of the emerging themes is shame. In all three parallel storylines shame plays a big part of the plot. In the Monkey King’s story he is ashamed of being a monkey. He only starts to feel this shame when other people start to shun him because of this. He first feels ashamed of being a monkey after on pages fourteen and fifteen, he is not allowed into the dinner party because he is a monkey. This is not fair because he may be a monkey, but he is also a deity. When he gets back that night, he smells the monkey fur smell for the first time. I think this shows that he starts to notice the fact that he is a monkey, which means that he cannot do certain things, for the first time. Then, in Jin’s story, Jin is ashamed of being Chinese. I think that the other kids teasing him about him being Chinese brought on this shame. For example, on page thirty-two, Jin is teased for bringing dumplings for lunch. Then, the next thing we know, Jin is eating a sandwich for lunch. Jin wants to fit in; he wants to be thought of as an American. He should already be thought of this way because although he looks Chinese, and is, he was born in San Francisco. Nobody should need to feel ashamed of his or her race. Shame plays a part in Danny’s storyline too. Danny feels ashamed of being related to Chin-Kee. He does not want to be thought of as related to Chin-Kee. Danny is embarrassed of Chin-Kee; he doesn’t want to be judged or teased because of his cousin. On page 127 Danny says, “By the time he leaves, no one thinks of me as Danny anymore. I’m Chin-Kee’s cousin.” This makes Danny ashamed to have a cousin who is so awkward, so memorable. He feels shame that he is related to someone who eats weird food, speaks with an accent, and acts like he knows everything when he is in Danny's school. Danny doesn’t even know how he is related to Chin-Kee.
Anna
Doyle 1-2
10/03/12
In all of the three branches of the story the characters are burdened with shame in different, yet similar ways. On page 96, Wei Chen, Jin, and Suzy are laughing and some other students make fun of them, by using different racial slurs. They all blush, because they are ashamed of they’re race. All of the characters in this branch of the novel have different ways of dealing with they’re shame. For example, Jin deals with his shame by hiding his identity, and trying to push his race away. Jin eats a sandwich for lunch and tries to speak like an American, while Wei-Chen embraces his race by eating dumplings and dating a girl who is also Asian. Although Wei-Chen is keeping his culture, he is still ashamed when the other kids make fun of the Asian race. The Monkey King has a very different kind of shame. When the Monkey Kind is told that he is not a “human” (real deity) he is upset and feels shameful. The monkey King deals with this shame by completely changing what he is. The kind of shame that Danny has is shame of his family. Danny tries to push his cousin ChinKee away, because Danny feels that ChinKee is embarrassing around Danny’s friends. Danny gets to the point where he is so upset with ChinKee that he finally just tells him to get out of Danny’s life. Danny also has the struggles of faint Asian traits, like buckteeth, which was pointed out by his crush. Having these faint Asian traits make it difficult for Danny because he has to try to hide small things, which can be more difficult than being completely Asian because with being Asian he could learn to embrace it, like Wei-Chen, but does not really have that option with who he is now.
Meghan Behnke
Humanities 1-2
Doyle
These three short stories all share somethings in common. The first thing about them that they have in common is that the main characters are all ashamed about something. All three stories have main characters that want something, but cannot get it because of their identity. Danny is ashamed of his asian heritage. People at his school make fun of him because his cousin "Chin-Kee" is a complete asian stereotype and gives Danny a bad reputation at all the schools he has attended. Danny acts cool around his friends in order to make them see him as a really cool, and awesome kid.
Jin is American born Chinese. At Jin's school, much like in the story about Danny, people make fun of him because of his Asian heritage. During the school year, another asian kid enrolls in his school. Jin becomes his best friend but he also trys to be more american and "cool". Jin does this by eating american foods like sandwiches, and acting more american. Jin cannot escape his asian identity.
The monkey king is the king of the monkeys and he sees himself as an all mighty lord. he decided to go to a party, but when he gets there the guard wont let him in because he is a monkey. The Monkey king gets very enraged and he goes back to his mountain and studies the art of kung-fu until he is at his peak of mightiness. He shape-shifts himself into a more human-like body so that people wont call him a monkey.
The characters in this story are all trying to change themselves in order to fit in.
I think that there is and emerging theme between the monkey king and Jin. In the monkey kings story he is ashamed of being a monkey. At the dinner party that he is going to go at the beginning of the book they do not let him in because of the fact that he is a monkey. Because of that the monkey king wants to change who he is. So he tells everybody to wear shoes, then he transformed himself into a human looking monkey. In Jin story when he first moves he thinks that if he doesn’t act American he would get picked on, and he was kind of right, to do that he changes what he eats for lunch he changes his hair.
Miranda Mireles
Humanities 1-2
Sageus
Truitt
10/3/12
1-2 Humanities
One of the themes in American Born Chinese is of course, stereotypes. The stereotypes are rather terrible. Stereotypes have almost an opposite effect in ABC. The stereotypes make you think of how bad they can be and you end up against them. The first used stereotype was when Jin arrived at school. One of the boys said, “My mama says Chinese people eat dogs.” The greatest stereotype of them all is actually a character, Chin-Kee. In ABC Chin-Kee is always supported by a laugh track. This laugh track is like a talk show track. The track makes it seem like Chin-Kee is a joke for people to see and laugh about. The other stereotype is buckteeth. Through out the entire story calling someone “buckteeth” was used as an insult. “Buckteeth” was used for calling people Chinese in a mean way. One place “buckteeth” was used as an insult was when Melanie told Danny that his teeth were looking a little bucked out. She used this to compare him to Chin-Kee, Danny’s cousin. Over all, stereotypes in ABC where used against them self’s.
Arjun Dhar
Doyle
1-2
10/3/12
ABC
The theme that is going to be discussed is shame. Shame is felt by three characters in this book, and they are Jin, Danny and the monkey king. Each feels shame in a similar way, they are all ashamed of who they are and society puts this shame on them. The monkey king feels ashamed of being a monkey because on pages 13-20, he is not allowed to enter the dinner party because he did not wear shoes. He feels so ashamed and embarrassed that he was not allowed into the dinner party, that when he returns home he notices the smell of monkey fur, a smell he has never noticed before. The monkey king also makes all monkeys wear shoes. Jin also feels ashamed of who he is. Everyone makes rumors about him. On page 31, Jin is accused of eating dogs and there is a rumor that Jin and Suzy Nakamura were arranged to marry each other on their 13th birthday.
Danny also feels ashamed because of his cousin Chin-kee; Chin-kee embarrasses Danny by acting Chinese. On page 50, Chin-kee says “such pletty amellican girl must bind feet and bear Chin-kees children. This offends Danny’s girlfriend and she leaves. Chin-kee plays jokes and eats weird food and keeps answering questions, this attracts attention and the negativity rubs off on Danny. Chin-kee is the reason that Danny keeps on being transferred. On pages 126-127, Danny says that he finally starts fitting in school, then Chin-kee ruins it, and at the end of the year Danny is no longer Danny, he is just Chin-kee’s cousin and has to be transferred. The monkey king tries his best not to be a monkey; he changes appearance and gives himself a new name. However, he still feels ashamed because on page 62, the dragon king tells the monkey king that none of the gods wanted to go near his kingdom because they did not like fleas.
The monkey king tells everyone that he is not a monkey and beats them up if they question him, and ends up being punished by Tze-Yo-Tzuh the creator of everything and ends up under a mountain for 500 years. Jin however is being teased; he is called buck toothed and a chink even though he tries not to be Chinese unlike his friend Wei-chen. Jin also likes a girl named Amelia and tries his best to make conversation but may think that she would not like him because he is Chinese. Danny is not being teased, but Chin-kee makes his popularity drop, so Danny tries to be as different from Chin-kee as possible.
Therefore, shame is a theme that runs through the story and affects the characters in the same way.
All three stories in American Born Chinese have shame as a theme. Jin is ashamed to be Asian because the other kids at his school make fun of him and don’t want to be friends with him because of Asian stereotypes. Danny is ashamed of his Asian cousin Chin-Kee. Chin-Kee is the stereotype of an Asian. He has had to change schools three times because people made fun of him because of his cousin. On page 126 he says, ”I’m only a junior and I’ve already been to three different schools.” The monkey king is ashamed of being just a monkey. He wants to be a god but doesn’t want to be a monkey so he learns twelve disciples to become more powerful. He wants to show everyone that he isn’t just a monkey so he goes to announce that he is no longer a monkey to heaven. Page 61. “ To announce my new name to all of heaven.” All of the stories have shame in them and it is because of other people that there is shame.
Clara, Doyle 1
In all three stories “identity” is a problem. All the main characters only realize their racial or fake identities after the “normal” people comment on them. In Jin’s case (American Born Chinese) the teachers and students make stereotypical comments. Jin’s third grade teacher stereotypes his name and his old home. Timmy makes a racist comment that, “Chinese people eat dogs. Jin as a young boy was put in an Asian box, his mother went to a Chinese herbalist for her allergies and at Jin’s old apartment the kids who watched television were all drawn as Asian. In WBJ Rebecca Walker feels confused after being called a “black girl”. “Suddenly I don’t know what I am... I don’t know how not to be a black girl. In HYWT Lisa Page figures she is “High yellow white trash...to be black yet aware of a white heritage” but her identity changes when her parents divorce and cause a racial segregation in her eyes. When Lisa’s parents divorce she is forced to be two different identities, her white one and her black one. In ABC and WBJ the main characters start out not knowing what their true identities are but learn what their false identities. All the stories have a constantly changing identity depending on what others see them as.
Rachel Schonbaum Humanities 5-6 10/3/12
The theme captivating all three of the stories would be” disguise” and “masks”. In ABC, the three different perspectives all base upon becoming another or putting on a mask. In the Monkey King story, he starts out enjoying the fact that he is a monkey, then to disliking the fact that he is a monkey. Because of other people, he came out of his box and had became big and strong to disprove the ones who had laughed at him. In Jin’s story, he is being teased and treated badly just because he is different from everyone else. So because of that, he tries to disguise himself by acting more American and not as much Asian as he used to. In Danny’s story, he puts on a disguise because he knows that he the kids in his school will tease him because of his cousin, Chin-Kee. So he puts on a disguise that is trying to make him look cool before his cousin arrives to mess it all up. In each part of the story, all the characters are quite the same with similar problems and boxes that are trying to be solved with actions that wouldn’t do anything to change that like Jin does with his hair of the Monkey King does with putting shoes on everyone’s feet.
Jacob Shkrob
Doyle 5/6
There are three parallel stories in American Born Chinese: Jin’s story, the Monkey King’s story, and Danny’s story. All of these stories are very similar, and they all share one of the main themes of the graphic novel, shame. In Jin’s story, Jin is ashamed that he is Chinese. He was born in America, but the kids and teachers at school assume he was born in China because of his appearance. When he just got to his new school, he ate dumplings for lunch, but when other kids started teasing him, he wanted to be more American, so he switched to sandwiches. He was embarrassed that he had buckteeth and black hair. When Wei-Chen comes to his school, Jin doesn’t want to be his friend because it won’t help him blend in. In the Monkey King’s story, the Monkey King wants to attend a dinner party, but he isn’t allowed to because he is a monkey and he doesn’t wear shoes. The Monkey King feels ashamed because the other deities are attending the party, but he can’t, because he is different. Danny’s story is very similar to Jin’s story. Danny is American, and everyone at school likes him. But, Chin-Kee happens to be his cousin. Chin-Kee has buckteeth, yellow skin, and everything that the stereotypical Chinese have. In chapter 6, when Danny tries to explain everything to Steve, he says that every year, when Chin-Kee comes to visit him, he becomes Chin-Kee’s cousin, instead of Danny. The kids at school think of Danny differently because of Chin-Kee, and Danny gets so embarrassed that he has to change schools. In all three stories, the characters are embarrassed because of society. Before the Monkey King went to the dinner party, he thought of himself as the “Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain”, but after he was rejected, he starts thinking of himself differently. Jin doesn’t really notice that his race makes a difference until society points it out. Danny wouldn’t really mind Chin-Kee if he hadn’t affected his relationship with Melanie and the kids at school. Jin, the Monkey King, and Danny are embarrassed by their identity because of society, and they try to fit in by changing the way they act and look.
Alice
Doyle 1-2
Shame is a theme in all three stories. In Jin's story, he is ashamed of being Chinese. All of the popular or "normal" kids are American. In the beginning of the book, Jin is eating dumplings for lunch. The other kids make fun of him and he is ashamed of himself. Later in the book Jin is shown eating a sandwich, like all of the American kids. In the Monkey King, when he tries to go to the dinner party, he is sent away because he is a monkey. The monkey king goes home ashamed of who he is. The monkey fur smell that he tries to get rid of represents his identity. Later in the book, the monkey king says that all monkeys must wear shoes, just like everyone else who was let into the dinner party does. In Danny's story, he is ashamed of Chin-kee. He tries to tell Chin-kee to be quiet and not do anything that seems out of the ordinary, or "weird", but Chin-kee continues to embarrass Danny.
One of the themes in all three stories is "disguise". In all the stories, the characters wan't to be something they're not. In "American Born Chinese" the Monkey King goes out of his way to change. At the beginning of the story when he is not aloud to go to the dinner party because he is a monkey he wants to change into anything but himself. He creates a law that says everyone has to wear shoes and even claims that he is not a monkey because he is born from a rock. In Danny's story he acts like he is so different. When his cousin Chin-Kee comes to visit he is worried that people won't be his friends anymore after Chin-kee leaves. It shows that he is in a disguise and not showing his whole self because if his friends wouldn't stay friends with him after his cousin visits then they are not Danny's real friends. In Jin's story he goes out of his way to act not Chinese. When Wei Chen comes to visit he acts like he is not Chinese. Wei Chen speaks in Mandarin and wants to be his friends because he is Chinese. Jin says that he doesn't want to be his friends because he is friends with the "popular" crowd. He wants to be the majority (white) so he acts as if he is.
Megan Moran
Doyle 5-6
A theme that all three story lines have is shame. Each one of the stories have at least one person is ashamed of himself. On page 20, the speech is “the thick smell of monkey fur greeted him. He’d never noticed it before… thinking of ways to get rid of it.” What this says about the monkey king is that he is ashamed of the monkey in him. This is because of what the other people (humans) said a bout him. On page 127, the speech that Danny tells his friend is “… By the time he leaves, no one thinks of me as Danny anymore. I’m Chin-Kee’s cousin.” Danny is ashamed of his family. He does not want to be like chin-Kee, and most importantly, he does not want people to think he is like Chin-Kee. On page 97, there are drawings that show Jin being ashamed of his Chinese heritage/hair. He thinks that by getting rid of his stereotypical Asian hair cut, and getting a perm will make him less Chinese and less himself. This theme of shame is in all of the stories, and the shame is always brought up by people that don’t like the way they are.
Jessica Franks
Doyle 5-6
One theme shows itself more than the others, that theme is “disguise”. All the main characters in each story have their own disguises. In the story about Jin everyone makes fun of him because he is Chinese. Because of this Jin puts on his “American disguise” to be more like the other students at his school. On page 89 the second panel shows Wei-Chen eating from his lunch bowl with chopsticks, while Jin is eating a sandwich this shows that Jin tries being more “American” because usually Jin would eat dumplings like on page 32. Jin stopped eating dumplings because the other white kids would make fun of him for eating “their dogs”. Monkey King has his own disguise because when he went to the dinner party for the gods the guard told him that he could not go in because he wasn’t wearing shows. After this happened Monkey King trains for days on end becoming bigger, better and stronger also he wore shoes from then on this shows that he was trying to be more human. Whenever someone would address Monkey King as a monkey he would get angry and deny that he was a monkey like on page 68. Danny in his own story has to move to many different schools because of his cousin Chin-Kee. Danny would get the flow of school and maybe get a group of good friends. For one week his cousin Chin-Kee would come visit for a week and embarrass Danny in front of all his friends, then his friends would stop being his friend because of Chin-kee and soon it would get so bad that he would have to switch schools. Danny has to put on a disguise of being this great awesome guy so that Chin-Kee would not embarrass him when he came to visit.
Sonny
Doyle 5-6
With each of the main characters in American Born Chinese there is the theme of disguising and changing themselves. In Jin's story, he wants more respect from the other kids. Jin tries to change himself by restyling his hair to look like Greg's, what he thinks of as "american hair". In The Monkey King's story, he tries to get rid of the smell of the monkey fur and makes all of his subjects wear shoes, because of how the gods at the dinner party treated him. In Danny's story, after Chin-kee leaves, Danny always changes schools. All the kids at his school make fun of him for being related to Chin-kee and so at the new schools he puts on the disguise that he doesn't exist until Chin-kee comes for a visit. But, as the Herbalist's wife says on page 29, "It's easy to become anything you wish, so long as you are willing to forfeit your soul."
Olivia Issa
Doyle 5/6
One theme all the stories have is disguise. In ABC Jin is always trying to be an American boy. In HYWT Lisa switches from being a “white girl” to being a “black girl”. In BWJ Rebecca puts on a “white girl” disguise to fit in with kids in her school. In ABC when Jin first came to the school the boys made fun of him for what he ate. He was eating dumplings with chopsticks. Later in the book when he is eating with Wei-Chen he is eating a Sandwich with his hands, that is his “American” disguise. In HYWT Lisa changes who she is depending on which side of her family she is with. When she is with her father she talks and acts like a “black girl”. When she is with her white side of the family she becomes a “white girl”. I think she is more comfortable with her fathers side because they are more laid back and don’t criticize her. In BWJ Rebecca tries to be a white girl so that Bryan will like her. She brushes her hair straight every night to make her like and American girl. When she is with her grandma she puts her hair in pink hair roller. In all these stories Jin, Lisa, and Rebecca are hiding who they are because they are ashamed of who they are. They are changing themselves to impress others
Cecile Ngo
5-6
A theme that all stories have is "disguise". In HYWT the girl is half black half white but wants to get rid of the white side of herself. She thinks the African Americans have more fun and enjoy there selfs more than white people, and white people have a dull and boring culture. In BWJ the girl is also half black half white but she wants to white instead. In the book she straightens her hair and curls it when she's with her white grandma. What most stereotypical white girls do. In the Monkey King's story he tries to disguise him self by wearing shoes and practicing Kung Fu for days on end till he practically become an unstoppable god. In Jin's story he tries to become more American to fit in, and also gives him self a perm to impress Amelia. But his friend Wei-Chen is proud to be asian and shows it by eating out of a wok with chop sticks. Unlike Jin who eats sandwich's out of brown paper bags. In Danny's stories he has a disguise because Chin-Kee comes with danny for a week of school in America every year since the 8th grade. This results in Danny having to change schools every year. So he tries to disguise himself infront of his friends so they don't think he's weird like his cousin Chin-Kee.
Thomas Moran
Doyle 5-6
Corrected version:
An important theme in the book American Born Chinese is shame. At school, kids are mean to Jin because he is Chinese, which makes Jin ashamed. The Monkey King is ashamed of being a monkey because the gods won't accept him. A good example of this is when they won't let him into the dinner party because he is a monkey. When he leaves, he starts being ashamed of being a monkey. Danny is ashamed of being Chin-Kee's cousin because Chin-Kee embarrasses him at school, so every year he has to go to a new school. Chin-Kee embarrasses him in class when he blurts out answers and at lunch when he eats strange food. Shame is what makes these stories the way they are.
Helena, Doyle 1-2
I think that the tree main themes in American born Chinese are Disguise Shame and Fitting in. The reason that this is, is because in the first few chapter Jin just was starting to take his place in school as almost an outcast-like person then Chen come along an wants to be his friend and throughout the chapter they both just want to fit in.Also Jin feels a lot of shame in his culture of being Asian-American. And diguise because Jin wants to hide who Jin really is an fit in.
-Dave
All of the stories in American Born Chinese are about shame, fitting in and boxes all of which, are connected. People around the main characters put boxes around them, "rules", set paths, and these characters feel if they veer off the path they have to feel shame and this makes them try to be someone they're not. By doing this they think they are getting out of their boxes by changing something about them or getting a disguise, but this is just putting them into another box. But all in all this is just them trying to fit in. Examples in the text of shame, boxes and fitting in appear multiple times in each of the stories. One good example in Jin's story is the situation when Wei-Chen, Suzy and Jin are talking and some kids come along and say some really racist things. You can literally see the shame on their faces and, sadly, the guilt of the "boxes" they think they're in, and desperately just want to fit in. The same kind of situation happens with the Monkey King and Danny where they find themselves in situations where they come to realize they don't fit in with every on else and are expected to feel ashamed of it.
A theme that all three of the stories have in them is "shame". In "ABC" Jin the main character, is ashamed when Wei-Chen comes to the school that Jin is at. Jin is ashamed because Wei- Chen only talks to Jin in chinese, or Korean (I am not sure because Jin is Chinese and Wei- Chen is Korean). Also in American Born Chinese, when Danny's cousin Chin-Kee comes. Danny is ashamed because of Chin-Kee's food. Danny is also ashamed because of Chin-Kee's accent and how Chin-kee always know the answer. Danny is also ashamed when Chin-Kee pees in Steve's coke. Shame also appears in " High Yellow White Trash". Lisa-Paige is ashamed of when she speaks because white people think she talks really loud and how she talks differently. For instance when Lisa- Paige says "y'all" and "Whatcha". Lisa and her siblings have to leave the room when they are at their mom's Family's family reunion and it's time for the picture. the reason is because everyone on Lisa- Paige's mom side's friends are always ask the mom's mom why the kids are black. Lisa- Paige is also a little ashamed when she is with black people because she is not acting normally she is trying to blend in. Those are a few examples of "shame.
Jenna Pandolfi
Doyle 1-2
10/7
The main theme that the three parables have in common is “shame”. In the first story “Monkey King”, Monkey King is ashamed of who he is. He is embarrassed that he is a monkey because the other gods and kings made fun of him for being different. He wishes that he could be “normal” like everyone else. In the second story about Jin, he is ashamed of his Asian heritage. He hates that people base him off of Asian stereotypes that are nothing like his personality. In the third story “Everyone Ruvs Chin-kee”, Danny is embarrassed of his Asian cousin Chin-kee, because he is a very stereotypical Asian person and Danny is tired of getting the reputation “Chin-kee’s cousin”. Another theme is disguises. Monkey King masters Kung-fu and shape shifts into a more man-like monkey. He wears shoes that are found as a very human-like aspect. Jin gets a perm so that his hair looks more like the other boy’s hair at his school. Jin also tells his friend Wei-Chen from Taiwan that he needs to act and speak more like an American boy, than a Taiwanese boy, so that people won’t make fun of them for speaking Chinese. Danny switches schools every year after Chin-kee comes to visit, because he gets made fun of so much.
-Michael Rubin
One theme that American Born Chinese has is shame. Jin is ashamed of his ethnicity because he has been made fun of many times throughout of the book because he is Chinese. Examples of this is when Jin changes his hairstyle to look like Greg's, who is American. Jin, Wei-Chen and Suzy Nakamura, (All the Asians in the school), Are teased by the bullies, because they are "slit eyed." At the beginning of the story, monkey king is ashamed of himself because when he tried to go to the dinner party, he wasn't accepted, because he was a monkey and was not wearing shoes. He was ashamed of himself cause he thought he was the king and can do anything he wants.
Jonah Bauer
Doyle 5-6
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