Josh

1. //American Born Chinese// is the first graphic novel to win the Printz Award and be a finalist for the National Book Award. Why do you think it was picked for these awards and honors? Would you have chosen it? Explain. //American Born Chinese// was probably nominated for all of these awards because it had surprising amount of depth for a graphic novel. I can't say whether I would have chosen it for these awards though, because I haven't read many of the year's books. 2. Graphic novels appeal to a variety of people. There are a variety of graphic novel genres such as fantasy, super-hero, non-fiction, etc. Have you read graphic novels in the past? How did //American Born Chinese//compare? Graphically speaking what appealed to you? What did not? I have read read one graphic novel before, which was called //Bone//. It was pretty easy to read, like //American Born Chinese//, but it was much longer (about 1,000 pages long). Besides that, both books were pretty similar. They were both strange stories featuring more than one main character, they both had some humor, they both had a serious plot overall, and they both had themes about acceptance and change. I think that both stories were well-drawn and well-told through the drawings, but I prefer normal novels though, because the world of the story isn't drawn out for you in novels. 3. Did you find the graphic novel an effective way for Yang to tell his story? I did, because the posture and facial expressions of his characters, along with the scenery, were vital to his story, and Yang did a pretty good job with all of those things. 4. Yang uses humor to make light of experiences that are not so humorous for the immigrants that experience them. Often when reading we laugh at painful experiences of the characters. Have you or anyone you've known had experiences that were funny to others, but very painful to you? If possible, explain. Do you think Yang used the technique of humor appropriately? No experience stands out in my memory, but I'm sure I've had a few minor experiences like that. Yang used mostly irony for humor, which I liked, but at some points in the book the irony was twisted rather than humorous. 5. What can be learned from the Monkey King and //American Born Chinese//? That it's more important to do what makes you happy with yourself than to do things just to make others happy with you. 6. Yang uses a television show to tell Chin-Kee's story. Why do you think he does this? Was it effective? Why? I think he uses a television show because televisions display many of these stereotypes that he touches on. I don't think it was very effective though, because not much emphasis was put on the TV aspect. Besides Chin-Kee's name and behavior, all he had was the large panel at the beginning of Chin-Kee's story and the laugh and clap tracks. He could've done more, such as purposefully drawn the show with less depth and lighter, more flat colors. 7. The Monkey King chooses to be stuck in the mountain of rocks for 500 years, to escape he must return to his "true form." How do the other characters experience this in //American Born Chinese//? Have you experienced a similar situation in your life? Jin experiences this when he transforms into Danny, the guy he always wanted to be, but still isn't happy because he's not himself, and realizes he has to go back to being Jin. I can't recall a specific experience like this in my life. 8. Wei-Chen's transformer robot monkey symbolizes so much in the graphic novel. How do the characters in //American Born Chinese// "transform" themselves for American society? Do you "transform" yourselves? Why? Jin does a lot of transforming before Danny, with his hair and the way he speaks. Even Wei-Chen does some transforming, with the way he spoke, and the way he acted and shaped his reputation. He definitely changed his appearance at around the end of the book. I think that we all have at least one "stranger"; multiple personalities for different moods, though some are more of less exaggerated than others, even if you don't notice it in yourself. I think that it's important that you have some control over which personality you employ, and that you don't create a personality that doesn't fall under the general umbrella of the way you are.