American Born Chinese...

When asked to read this text I yet again was discouraged because I figured I couldn't really get into the Scott McCloud book - Understanding Comics. But this story was captivating for my mind. When I first began to read the story I started with the story of the monkey king, I was so interested i skipped over to the next Monkey King chapter and read that. Then I went back and read the story of the little boy moving to a new school and how hard it was for him to adapt. It was a sad story because of course the "american" children were mean to him because he looked different. So as I skipped ahead and read all of the little boys stories I realized just who the next chapter was. So I read the final of the three chapters and read the whole book in less than an hour. I feel as if this story is one that can capture the mind and hold on to it because in a sense it was an old chinese proverb, and there was more than meaning behind it...

My favorite set of panels in the story were those of the little boy, Jin I feel like for me he was the whole essence of the story, his journey was realizing that someone is always looking out for you and you should cherish your true friendships and not abandon them but grow from them. The little boy also was selfish and wanted to forget who he was he didn't want to be chinese american but just american, this was his journey of the soul searching and recognition of all that is true to knowing who you are as as person... When Jin was young and his mother would take him to the chinese herbalist and he would sit in his chair and play with his transformer toy he was in a sense foreshadowing to what he later wanted to become. Yet when you read these panels you see the herbalist wife she in a sense puts the idea of trading your soul for your inner most desires. This doesn't appeal to the little boy just yet. I think this story also allows "American" children to take a different perspective of what it is like to grow up "different" children lose their innocence occasionally and the story with Jin proves just that, and a good friend will always have your back.

This book really was a graphic novel, in a sense you could picture yourself in the story with the monkey king, feeling the frustration of being left out for something you cant help. When he was excluded from the dinner party for "not wearing shoes" when really it was just the fact he was a monkey you could feel the frustration when he attacked the bouncer, the animation in his face allowed to you take a look inside his inner emotions and relate to the frustrations we've all felt when being made fun of. The colors in this story we attention grabbing and allowed you to stay attentive and keep you interested in the story. In a way it played with your mind as if the color was a feeling. There were also changes of night and day in the story and you could see the change. In the end it was the color for me that I think kept me wanting more. I wanted to know what happened to everyone and it was an interesting twist, all i can say is by the end of the story i was left wanting more and more.