Personal Graphic Novel – A Lantern’s Light”
Graphic Novel TIEA:
In the book American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang shows how other people’s words at an early age can change one’s behavior towards other people through Jin’s childhood relationship with his classmates and teacher. When Jin transfers to his new school, he is one of the only Asians in his class and unfortunately, Jin notices that his classmates are only focused on stereotypes. “Rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible.” (31). His classmates don’t like Jin because his culture is not like theirs and since they feel that Jin is very different from them due to his race, they come up with stereotypes that further isolate Jin from them. They do not want anything to do with him or know very much about his culture, which is why they make hurtful comments to Jin. Their relationship (making rude comments towards Jin) stems off of hate from the classmates, which causes Jin to feel self conscious about his Asian heritage. From the moment he stepped into class, he was already subjected to the underlying racism that exists in American culture from his classmates. These rumors are based off of stereotypes that Chinese people are still very primitive in their ways and since neither Suzy or Jin wants to be associated with something so negative, they avoided each other, in turn, avoiding that specific stereotype. Jin is being exposed to stereotypes and racism from classmates and teachers early on and this type of interaction leaves a mental scar that stays with him, not just for that day, but for years to come. These types of interactions where the teacher and classmate assume he eats dogs makes him try his hardest to avoid fulfilling the Asian stereotypes that they expect him to satisfy, so anything that deals with Asian culture, even if it’s something as simple and as innocent as interacting with another Asian classmate, Jin avoids it. The rumors are ignorant to the point where it’s outright racist, but since Jin is so young, this is all he is used to and all he knows.From that point on, Jin has unconsciously decided he wants nothing to do with Asians because just a few seconds later, he avoids contact with the only other Asian in the class, Suzy, for the rest of the year. Due to other people’s hatred of Asian culture, Jin was also influenced because he believes all the negative rumors his classmates have told him, and doesn’t want to be associated as Asian anymore. Without even noticing, Jin’s perception of Asians, especially himself, has been affected by the negative rumors that surrounded him at a vulnerable age. It took away his behavior and identity as an Asian because it made him feel like there was no place for Asians in America. What his classmates said heavily influenced his life and the way he portrays himself to others.
MLA citation: Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006.
Illustrator TIEA:
In the graphic novel American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien use recurring characters and choice in color in order to emphasize meaning behind Jin’s transformation to the audience. Jin was so caught up in wanting to feel like an American that he betrayed Wei Chen’s trust, but still felt no remorse when he went to sleep at night. In the illustration, Jin dreams that the herb woman that told him he could be anything he wants to be if he sells his soul, came back and transformed Jin into what he desires to be. (Yang, Pien, 194). In the page, Jin’s transformation to an American is made all the more prominent by a physical depiction of the contrast between Jin’s old body, and Jin as an American. From the picture, the use of the woman from his childhood, it shows the audience that Jin is willing to do anything to become an American because then he will be what he has always wanted to be. When Jin was young, his perception of the woman was that she was crazy to think he would do something as drastic as sell his soul in order to become a transformer. However, when the woman comes back in his life, this time as a dream, the difference in how Jin used to think and what Jin thinks now is made more clear to the audience because now, Jin is willing to do anything to become American, including losing his identity as an Asian. Although Jin thought he would never do something like sell his soul, after seeing Jin transform into an American, the idea that Jin didn’t sell his soul, but rather, lost a part of it is given to the audience by how quickly Jin made the decision to forget his Asian identity. The black background gives off the effect that the readers are now in Jin’s mind and they can see all the things that he desires most. In his mind, Jin has turned himself into what he’s always wanted to be. The readers are able to see how drastic the difference between what Jin sees himself as and what Jin desires for others to see him as because the illustrator chose to gradually change the colors of Jin’s face on the same page until he was blonde and his eyes were blue. To be able to see the process of transforming through his hair color, the audience is shown the contrast between Jin’s 2 identities. The first is Jin’s identity as an Asian, shown on the left, before his transition. His second identity is the American part of him, his desire to look like how everyone else around him looks and how he feels like American on the inside, but doesn’t look like one. The contrast in the colors highlights to the audience how the different the 2 cultures/identities within Jin are. It shows how different Jin desires to be from his Asian heritage and since the black background conveys the idea that the readers are in Jin’s mind, it’s almost as if the audience is able to see how Jin’s 2 identities are fighting with each other in his mind to be “Jin’s true identity”. Jin’s mind is confused as to whether he is Asian or whether he is American because although it is obvious that he is physically Asian, Jin feels and relates more towards his American identity, so putting his physical transformation between both identities on the same page is emphasizing to the readers that Jin doesn’t want to be Asian anymore because he feels more like an American. By only describing the mental change in Jin would not be able to show how much his mindset on being an Asian has changed, but through an illustration of physical change in Jin, the contrast in Jin is much more prominent.
MLA citation: Yang, G., Lark, P. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006.
Discussion Documents:
Discussion Prep. Document 1:
Discussion Prep. Document 2:
Discussion Prep. Document 3: