Connecting a Theme

-The Theme of American born Chinese -An important theme in ABC is shame. The Monkey King, Jin Wang, and Danny are all ashamed of their identity. The Monkey King is ashamed of being a monkey when he realizes the gods and goddesses look down on him. Jin is ashamed of being Chinese when the kids in his class bully him because of it. He does before he returns beat up the other kings but he is still ashamed. And after he returns he declares that all monkeys must where shoes. The monkey king makes them do that because on page 13 the two panels and 14 first panel he is thrown out because he doesn’t have any shoes. Danny is ashamed of being Chin-Kee's cousin when people think of him as being like Chin-Kee. "By the time he leaves, no one thinks of me as Danny anymore. I'm Chin-Kee's cousin." All three characters are ashamed of their identity, and throughout the book they all try to push it away and become different people. -The Theme of Skud by Dennis Foon -An important theme in Skud is shame. Having dealt with gang fights, drugs and killings, Shane has experienced many tragedies throughout his life. After resigning as gang leader of the TMR, his life took a huge turn and he began to perceive the brighter side of life and what it means to be a good person. It is evident that Shane's life is the greater adventure as compared to the other characters, but he has experienced much more pain. that Shane had separate stages in his life, one more sorrow than the other. After adapting to a much different life style we can see the endpoint of his journey, the journey of his life.