There is a common symbol found throughout ancient culture, the triumvirate. From the Christian Holy Trinity, Islamic Wudu and Salat, the First Triumvirate of Rome, etc., the number three is important. This matters to us, why? Because in American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, and The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, three is the number of selves. Both novels explore their themes and ideas through the idea of ​​a triumvirate or three-part identity. This is best summarized in the Judeo-Christian interpretation of the first three numbers: first is perfect singularity, two is dualistic chaos, and three is perfect synthesis. It’s one and two, chaos and order, synthesized by three. This concept of synthesis representing three is a great example of its meaning in books, in which the authors show that the characters have three aspects of their own identity. Although identity is infinitely complex and discrete, the three sections that the authors divide it into are: first, the internally idealized self-image, the idealized version of oneself constructed in one's own mind; second, the externally created image and identity, the version of oneself created from the stereotypes and ideas of society; and third, the true internal self, one's real identity, not socially unchanged, but self-constructed. The idealized inner image and the externally created image are constantly in conflict, but united in their attempt to modify the third. Both works use their themes and literary structures to show us the power that society has over individual identity and action, and that when social identity and self-image convolute a person's true self , we must remember that our true identity is who we are. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, is a story told, similar to our main theme, in three parts. It begins in a mystical Chinese kingdom, where the Monkey King rises from the rock to rule all the other monkeys. He has mastered the disciplines prerequisite to attaining divinity and is ready to attend a celestial dinner, reserved for those of God. He arrives, but is refused entry by a guard. This moment, as we will see later, is representative of the aspect of identity that the king represents. The guard, while treating him with seemingly the utmost courtesy, refuses him entry, first citing his shoes, then stating flatly: “Look. You may be a king, you may even be a deity, but you are still a monkey” (p. 15). In this sentence, the guard implies: “you are neither wanted nor accepted, leave”. This rejection causes the king to leave heaven in anger and embarrassment, but upon his return, the meaning of the guard's words is cemented by his thoughts: "When he entered the royal chamber, the thick smell of monkey fur greeted. He had never noticed it before. He stayed up the rest of the night thinking of a way to get rid of it” (p.20). This is accompanied by him sitting on his throne, alone, surrounded by darkness. It is the symbol of his determination. He only noticed the smell for the first time, because he became aware of the fact that as a monkey he is considered a lower class citizen in god society, a metaphor for society dominated by whites. It's the Monkey King's identity crisis, he's a monkey, but because of the way other deities think about monkeys, he doesn't want to be one. Even if the deities do notnot impose, he has adopted their mental image of what a “good god” is and wants to become one. The Monkey King is representative of the internally idealized self-image. He used external sociological perspectives on abstract concepts such as "the ideal monkey" and "the ideal god" and set out to become them. He said: “My ideal identity is this, because I want my ideal. identity to reflect the ideals of others for me. This is Yang's way of explaining to us why people become internally idealized images of themselves, why they abandon their essence to become what they are not, for acceptance and for love. Our next story is that of our main character, a little boy named Jin Wang, born to Chinese immigrants who came to America to study. He was born in San Francisco's Chinatown and grew up there with several friends, all of Chinese descent. During a weekly visit with his mother to a Chinese herbalist, Jin waits outside, with the herbalist's wife, playing with a Transformer toy. One day, she asked him: “So boyfriend, what do you plan to become when you grow up?” » (p.27). Jin tells her an idealized fantasy of being a Transformer, and she responds with a simple statement: "It's easy to become anything you want... as long as you're willing to give up your soul" (p. 29). This is the symbol of the central identity conflict: you can achieve your goal of becoming an idealization, if you are willing to become iconoclastic toward your true self. Yang tells us that the result of trying to accept your internally idealized self-image and making it what you are, you lose your rights to your true self, your "soul." This concept of an internally idealized self-image taking over one's true identity is also illustrated. in a quote from Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye: "It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if his eyes, those eyes that held the images and knew the sights, if his eyes were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different” (p. 46). This quote illustrates that the main character, Pecola, has internalized an image of perfection and beauty, in this case, as stated throughout the text: “Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big, pretty blue eyes” (p.45). This is a unifying theme of the two texts; they use their characters' thoughts to show how society affects their perceptions of themselves and others. We see that the Monkey King is told that he is less because he is a monkey, so he wants to become what others see as the ideal, a great and powerful sage who is not a monkey, but he is “civilized”. Pecola sees this cherry-cheeked, idolized girl with big blue eyes, and is delighted, seeing her as society's embodiment of beauty, as illustrated here: "She was never capable, after her cinema education , to look at a face and I did not assign it a category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was that which it absorbed entirely on the silver screen” (p. 122). Society transmitted a message, via films, directly into his mind; he said "beauty is on a ladder, that's where you fall, if you had blue eyes you would be here instead". These two characters, although they belong to a world and a species apart, are representative of the same idea, of what happens to a person's true self when the idealized image of themselves exceeds their true identity . As previously mentioned, in Morrison's text, Shirley Temple is the "ideal American girl", but in Yang's novel we see the darker side of externally created images, the racist stereotype. It is presented in aSaturday morning cartoon called “Everybody Ruvs Chin-Kee.” Early on, we see the stereotype of Asian accents alternating l's and r's, and Chin-Kee's name recalls both the Chinese demonym and the racial slur "Chink." We also see at the bottom of each panel taking place during the show, laughter, and even though Chin-Kee's mouth is almost always open, this laughter is not his, it is the laughter of children, mocking of a racist stereotype. This is representative of the aspect of identity that Chin-Kee symbolizes, the externally created image. Because it is an image created by society, children accept it as truth and as a subject of mockery. Chin-Kee, in his physical appearance, is also a walking stereotype. He constantly jumps, has cartoonish buck teeth and a calf-length braid. He constantly drools, and when he sees Melaine, he is openly perverted towards her. In everything from his appearance to his suitcases being Chinese to the takeout containers, Chin-Kee is a stereotype. It exists to show the negative result of an externally created image. Due to the pessimistic, fault-seeking nature of society, negative aspects are amplified and everything else is minimized, similar to the internal effect of adopting an internally idealized self-image. Yang uses this to show the relationship between the one and the two of identity, to show how they are connected and interdependent, and Yang only reaffirms this later. Morrison continues this trend toward stereotyping, but in his novel the external focus the identity created is not a direct negative; however, by definition, when you create a standard, something must be lower than something else. The following quote illustrates this concept perfectly: “Along with the idea of ​​romantic love, she discovered another idea: physical beauty. Probably the most destructive idea in the history of human thought. Both were born of envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in dissolution. Whereas in Chin-Kee and Yang's text this external image is blatant and loud, Morrison shows a more subtle side of it, one that seems more dangerous. Powerful words like “envy, insecurity, and dissolution” set the tone of grief and loss, the central tones of the book. Morrison aims to create a pervasive feeling, as if this physical beauty, an abstraction of a specific figure (i.e. Shirley Temple) was the idealized external identity, it was dangerous, it could corrupt your true self, hiding who you really are under a mask. miasma of darkness and dissent. Although Morrison's miasma of identity may seemingly be limited to abstract ideas of physical beauty, this is simply not the case. This is a pervasive theme and, although in different forms, we see it manifest in both novels. In Yang's text, we see it manifest as the result of senseless violence. Due to the way the Monkey King is treated, he first states, the day after his embarrassment, that all monkeys must wear shoes, and the first panel of this section shows them stumbling and unable to jump around trees . It is Yang who shows the effect of constraining an internally idealized image on oneself. Although it is not shown, it can be assumed that the king himself has the same problem, but he does not repeal his decree. It's debilitating, but because of the society here, the celestials refusing him entry and citing his lack of shoes, he goes through with it. He then retreats to a cave to master the other eight celestial disciplines of kung fu, and upon his return, his physical appearance has transformed into a more human form. In the fields of psychology andIn psychotherapy, changing one's appearance can indicate a fundamental change in identity and being. Here it indicates a fundamental pursuit of identity change. The Monkey King then receives a message informing him that he has been sentenced to death, but when he arrives at his execution and announces his change of name: "I will henceforth be called the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven" (p. 60), it arouses laughter and derision. The author uses this to communicate to us the Monkey King's altered thoughts and ideals, how they have been altered by societal structure, but how, due to his physical appearance, a show of force is necessary. We see the king continue to rampage across the land, defeating Lao-Tzu, Death, and even the second highest God of Taoism. Finally, defeated, the celestials flee to the emissaries of Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the creator of all things. When the king meets him, he is immediately arrogant and contemptuous. To think that it's even beyond Yo-Tzuh's reach and that no one created it. It is then revealed to him that “It is I who formed you within this rock” (p.70). This implies the symbolic place of Yo-Tzuh in the identity network. He is the purest form of the true self, because he knows everything and created everything in its original form, therefore, implicitly, he created everyone's true identity. Despite this, consistent with his previous actions, the king is dismissive, claiming that he can easily escape Yo-Tzuh's reach. He flies away, seemingly escaping the outstretched hand of God, rushing quickly across the entire universe, beyond its border, to five golden pillars, seemingly at the end of creation. He writes his “name” and urinates on the pillar, to illustrate his supposed domination. He returns to Yo-Tzuh, laughing scornfully at his accomplishments, but is shocked to see that those golden pillars at the end of creation were Yo-Tzuh's five fingers. He flew over what he thought was every boundary, and was still bound. It is Yang who shows us the underlying power of true identity. Yo-Tzuh never even lifted a finger, and he was nonetheless significantly more powerful and powerful than the king. Even when one or another of the externally created factors comes into conflict, the true identity remains, ever patient, omnipresent. Although this display of power is somewhat humiliating for the kings, he refuses to believe Yo-Tzuh. It is the symbol of an internally idealized identity refusing to accept its own origin. Because it is something stored in the mind, he insists that it must be created primarily by the mind. Contrary to this, Yo-Tzuh said to the king: “I don't make mistakes little monkey. A monkey I wanted you to be. You are a monkey” (p.81). Of course, the Monkey King, so altered by Society that God himself cannot shake his resolve, rejects this and apparently with sadness, Yo-Tzuh locks him in a mountain of rock, with a golden seal preventing his Kung-Fu, magic. with which he became the “Great Sage”. Although the "Great Sage" is the internally idealized identity, we have yet to fully address our main character in Yang's work, Jin. We return to Jin at middle school and see that he has started falling in love with a girl named Amelia, and seeing that she is best friends with a boy who previously (p.33) showed Jin some compassion towards to racism, Jin begins to see this boy, Greg, as an ideal. He sees the image of Greg in his mind, then Greg and Amelia, then Just Greg's perm. This is a sign that Jin internalizes what he thinks is an American social ideal, permed hair, and that the next day he physically integrates it into himself. The next day, we start to see a visual pattern, Jin's hairliterally crackling with lightning, representative of his confidence, acquired because he feels more in tune with society. This begins a change in identity between Jin and the Monkey King. The king's point of view is shown to us in the parable of a humble monk named Wong Lai-Tsao. After showing compassion to Yo-Tzuh's disguised emissaries for many years, they reveal themselves and entrust Wong with a sacred task: to deliver three packages to the west and find several companions along the way, the first of whom is a monkey familiar in human form. This entire story, as well as the rest of the Monkey King plot, is based on a famous 16th century Chinese novel: Journey To The West, which details the story of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong and 3 others delivering sacred texts Buddhists, after Wong is freed from the punishment of going on a celestial rampage and revolt (sound familiar?). This connection to one of the four great novels of classical Chinese literature is useful, as the text promotes themes of virtue and the cooperation between spirituality and identity. As Wong begins his journey, he travels far across the country, eventually arriving at Monkey King Mountain, in the middle of a demon-infested land. Despite his knowledge of the demons about to attack him, Wong attempts to speak to the king, to convince him of his place, summarized here: "To find your true identity... in the will of Tze-Yo-Tzou.. . it is the highest of all freedoms” (p.149). This quote, coupled with the fact that it is spoken as Wong is about to die, causes the king to realize that he does not need Kung-Fu and magic to return to his true form, it is i.e. his true identity, he just needs to accept himself. for who he is. As the king escapes and frees Wong, he is elated, but before he brings the seriously injured monk to medical help, he must do one thing, he takes off his shoes. This indicates his total rejection of his previously adopted identity, he is no longer "The Great Sage", he is who Yo-Tzuh wanted, a monkey, and as we all know, why would a monkey need shoes ? This is the place where Jin and the Monkey King switch. They walk a kilometer in each other's shoes before uniting. It starts with a lie. Jin wants to go out with Amelia and needs Wei, his best friend, to lie about being home because Jin's family has a "no dating until after graduation" rule. Wei, who we later learn is forbidden from lying, is forced into the idealized self-image, which the entire American world Jin has made part of and removed from his true self and beliefs . This is further evidence of Jin's identity transformation. As evidenced on the back cover: "He's just an all-American boy in love with an all-American girl" (p. back cover). Jin simply wants a “normal” and “American” life even though these are abstract and inaccessible concepts. This idea is present in both novels: in Morrison's text, the idea of ​​a societal ideal, as previously stated, is represented by Shirley Temple. Because Claudia does not like Shirley Temple, she is ostracized, as illustrated here: “She and Frieda had a long conversation about how beautiful Shirley Temple was. I couldn’t join them in their worship because I hated Shirley” (p. 35). Claudia sees this as internalized American racism. Because she, a black girl, does not admire Shirley, a white girl, she is alienated. This internalized belief, although shared not by Pecola, but by Claudia, is an expression of Pecola's deeply held belief about blue eyes. She is shown having a burning and powerful convictionabout eyes, as shown here: “Every night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. She prayed fervently for a year. Although she was somewhat discouraged, she was not without hope. To achieve something as wonderful as this would take a very, very long time. Thus thrown into the unshakeable conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. She would only see what there was to see; the eyes of others” (p. 47). The repetitive and seemingly psychotic nature of this practice, its obvious futility and the fact that Pecola repeats this every night, with fervor and power, shows the conviction she has: that if she prays and believes, she will be considered beautiful, because in Pecola's mind: Blue eyes => Beauty => Social acceptance This logical sequence expresses Pecola's internally idealized identity. In her identity crisis, struggling with her externally created image, of an ugly black girl. Pecola has the insurmountable struggle to overcome her own psychological barrier which she perceives as external, with only a weak belief and a pathetic prayer to protect her. She is trying to climb a mountain with a stepladder. This is symbolized by Pecola's disconnected way of telling the story, a third-person omniscient point of view, which represents Pecola's crisis. The narrator is someone who is omnipresent and all-encompassing, and he knows almost everything about her, but notice, the narrator never actually looks at her thoughts, we never see any direct thought dialogue from Pecola's head into the narrator's perspective, it is representative of the fact. that Pecola fights against his crisis internally. Because she unconsciously knows that she will never be able to change her outlook, that is to say become beautiful to herself, she has blocked her mind internally to allow her to create her own fantasy. The parallel theme to this is found in Yang's text. Jin's conflict does not serve as a mountain or a stepladder, but rather Jin forms a physical outer shell, in the form of Danny. Due to abuse from his classmate Greg, who asked him to stop dating Amelia, implying that Jin is a bad influence on her, because of his race. After quietly and sadly accepting Greg's "favor", we see Jin go about the day, with his crackling perm, a symbol of his determination, but as he suddenly approaches Greg, who is standing with Amelia, this fire goes out. He must have built up this electricity and fervor throughout the day, and Greg, sitting there passively, is stifling him. It is the symbol of the power that a person “universally” accepted by society exercises over a stranger. Jin tried really hard, even physically changing his appearance with his hair, and this boy, who is and turned out to be one of the popular and accepted kids in elementary school, "defeats" him in less than a second . This expresses Jin's spirit that no matter what he does, people who are American and white, or more abstractly, socially accepted, are better, universally, no matter what. As a last effort to try to accept, as he sits with Suzy, waiting for Wei, as she begins to cry because he is called Chink, he, with the crackling hair, leans over and kiss. She immediately hits him, yells at him, asks him why he would do that, and storms off. He is then visited at home by Wei, distraught and wanting to know why his best friend just tried to kiss his girlfriend. They begin to fight, eventually ending with Wei punching Jin and leaving. That night, he remembers the herbalist's wife, all those years ago, telling him what to do to become everything he wanted. This triggers a merge.