Response: American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

3 different seemingly unrelated stories are interlaced with each other throughout the book and they all tie in together at the end.  The school life of an awkward Chinese American kid.  The tale of the Monkey King.  And a tale of a white kid whose life is haunted by a Chinese stereotype caricature cousin.  I think the school life tale represents a reality.  The Monkey King story represents cultural roots/identity in a pure way that is unconnected to the experiences of the real world (I think the Monkey King is a character many people take pride in and like to identify with).  The white kid/Chinese counterpart story represents the inner fantasy of feeling normal and wanting to be like everyone else but having this uncontrollable negative force prevent/disrupt that experience.