American Born Chinese, pt. 2

Page 229 of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang depicts a scene in which the character, Wei-Chen, is having trouble with his identity. The Wei-Chen that we've been familiarized with up until this point is a nerdy, young boy who seems to be immune to the influences of society. He parades through life with a positive attitude and seems to be content with his decision to live on his own terms. On this page, though, we see a different Wei-Chen--one that has clearly succumbed to the outside forces that he has avoided up until this point. He is smoking a cigarette, driving a "tricked-out" car, and dressed in a way that would be thought of as "hip." However, in the fifth panel of the page, we see Wei-Chen as what he truly is--a monkey. This panel is illustrated in black and white to show that it is a step away from reality. What the main character, Jin, is literally seeing is the new Wei-Chen. However, the monkey illustration shows how Jin sees Wei-Chen when he looks at him as more than just an outward appearance. After learning that Wei-Chen is actually a son of the Monkey King, Jin is unable to look at Wei-Chen without seeing his true, underlying identity. Wei-Chen is desperately trying to cover up this identity by putting into practice all that he has learned about fitting in to society.