Her Mother

Upon finishing Tasting the Sky I was astounded by

Ibtisam’s mother. Sending her children to an orphanage because she could not be locked in the house with them seemed so cruel. Her sons were thin. They told her parents that in the winter it was so cold that they could not sleep. That they were frequently beaten by other boys. They told their parents of the neglect that they faced from the caretakers, never having enough food. Still their mother insisted that they could not move home. Not until their father pleaded and made “adequate” arrangement for her. I can see how her mother felt to a certain degree. However, at the health and well-being of her own children she chose herself. Throughout the book their mother constantly harps at them to be safe. Ibtisam reflects on how she remembers how her mother said to walk close to the wall, as to not be noticed. She also remembers her mother yelling at them if they got too close to the windows as soldiers were practicing outside. Yet, through all of this she sends them to an orphanage as if they had no parents. And here they have two. Not just one but two parents. Neither are sick. Both of good health and she pushed her small children into the orphanage. Ibtisam reflects on how she would wet the bed. How numerous children would wet the bed. Her mother let them be neglected by her own hand, so that she may have happiness. This I found shocking.

It Destroys a Country, it Destroys a Family, it Destroys a Soul

Tasting the Sky is a very poetic novel. The author captures the beauty amidst all the struggle. At the same time, she depicts the angst of war and tyranny on, not only lifestyles, but how these things begrudge the human soul. People were created to live freely. When placed in an environment where they lack liberty the soul cannot breathe; an individual cannot be. In the book, the narrator creates her own freedom, her post office box. This magical little box give her access to the entire world. She writes to people of all different ethnicities and countries. She is no longer the progeny of a war-torn country. She is just a mere resident of Ramallah. She writes of her day. She writes of the beautiful language of Arabic. She answers their questions and asks her own. In that post office box holds her small freedom.

The narrator also talks of her  father and his dreams. In his nightmares, he screams and rages and thrashes about. She talks of when she wakes him and he cannot even speak about the horrors his subconscious has grudged up from the deep. In dreams, you cannot run away. She ponders the thought, “Is that because he has lived his whole life not knowing freedom? Or does he hide his freedom somewhere, the way I hide mine in Post Office Box 34?” Her father is not only plagued in real life by the fears that have filled his life, but those fears have followed him into his sleep. Lack of freedom, destroys.

It destroys a country, it destroys a family, it destroys a soul.

“Ashamed? Of loving Dante?”

Ahh finally, RESOLUTION! I was beginning to feel the burden of Ari. The dead weight that he carried on his shoulders not only made him heavy but his readers too. His struggle at his own inner lie, Ari just would not let himself see his own truth. So, he lived and loved in misery. He even brought Dante to suffering, near the end. He said he couldn’t do it anymore. Couldn’t be friends with someone he was in love with. Dante had discovered his secret and greeted it with fervent acceptance. I think this troubled Ari the most. The fact that Dante was so okay with wanting to kiss other boys. The fact that Dante decided to quit lying to himself. How he then began to live his life according to that truth as well. Meanwhile, Ari is watching him in his happiness and new found freedom. Ari watches him and Ari wants to experience that with him. Only, he doesn’t even know it. Ari bottles emotions, tucks them in drawers and shuts them tight. Only he lives in a sort of confused agony in his own mind. Ashamed of so much. His thoughts, his natural body, and most of all his love for Dante. His resolve is a great feeling. Ari finally releases his pain and confusion and allows himself to understand. He takes his shame out of the equation and is left with his raw emotion, which he has no choice but to face. Ari finally takes a good long look in the mirror and sees with clear eyes the person he is. And he is free! Of the burdens of his love. At the end, he reminisces of his mother’s reaction,

“Ashamed? Of loving Dante?”

“Do You Remember the Summer of the Rain…”

And it’s happening. The harder Ari tries to shut out parts of himself the worse off he becomes. Ari is in a state of denial. He cannot accept gratitude for saving Dante in the accident. Ari, for some reason, does not want anyone to know how much he cares for Dante. If he says the heroic deed was only instinct than it will discredit any large amount of affection that he holds for Dante. Meaning Ari is protecting his “image” for the public and also, lying to himself which keeps his “image” about himself in line with what everybody else believes he should be. This falls in line with quote that is repeated several times in the book, “The problem with my life was that it was always someone else’s idea”. He is angry with his dad for not talking and angry at his mom for rules. He is mad at himself and just about everything else. Ari starts to become a loner. Keeping to himself, he thinks that his state of confusion will go away if he bottles everything up. Then Dante leaves and school starts up. Ari has a pessimistic attitude at just about everything as his depression grows. It may not even be depression. Ari is trying to be someone else. He is trying to abide by his mother’s rules, keep up with the experiences Dante is having, and find a way to talk to his dad. It all seems futile to him though. He starts working and even has his first adult beverages all the while never letting anyone in. Ari remains a constant occupant of his thoughts. They never go away and things never seem to get any clearer.

Classic Identity Crisis

So, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe or Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of Themselves. This is a classic case of identity crisis, representing and appealing to adolescents today. Both main characters have no idea who they are. Now that they have hit this period of change and “coming into one’s own” they are lost more than ever. The book is told from Aristotle’s or Ari’s point of view. There is a part in the book where Ari is re-reading entries in his journal and adding new. He had written about the bodily changes he was experiencing, a key sign of puberty. He made a list of things that he did not understand. These were new things that were never open to his eyes before. This makes adolescence seem as if a curtain is being lifted from the individual’s eyes. That they are able to see the world in the reality that it is, rather than the romanced depiction that plays through a child’s eyes. But since he was, also, not an adult he could not fully grasp this new world. He does not know how to process these emotions and thoughts that seem to plague him. He lacks the ability to pin point problems and feels with primitive emotion, feeling and not understanding.

 Ari looks at Dante as though he has it all figured out. Dante is described as having adult like mannerisms. Ari notes on several occasions of how Dante does not seem to really be fifteen. Stating that the way he talks and acts is mature like.

In this way, the book is portraying how youths can obtain quality guidance from their peers, but the peers that are producing the guidance are those that act like adults. This, in turn, means that adults are the ones for which youths should look to for guidance. 

And if those parts were to disappear?

So, who is Gene Luen Yang really speaking too? Is it a message about how Asian Americans are treated or is it a message about not losing your history? Is it a depiction of racism or of turning your back on who you are? For all intents and purposes I will be focusing on the aspect of how American Born Chinese reflects on how your history is key to the person you become. The primary source of this comes from the Herbalist’s wife and her message. Earlier in the book she had asked Jin what he wanted to be when he gre up. He wanted to be a transformer. She told him you can become anything as long as you are willing to sacrifice your soul. Later, the night when Jin is undergoing his transformation he dreams of the Herbalist’s wife. She says to him, “So little friend, you’ve done it.” In the morning Jin wakes up a very stereotypical, teenage American boy. Jin has become the transformer from his childhood. Only he gave up his “soul” in order to do so. I believe that his soul is representative of his history. The fact that both of his parents were from China, he seemed to have grown up with much contact to the Chinese culture. Jin, however, wants to reject it. He wants to rid himself of the ancestry that keeps him from being the “normal American boy”. Jin want to forget where he came from, the traditions in which he was raised, the native tongue of his parents. Jin wants it to disappear. But what Jin does not understand is that if those parts disappear than so does he. In this way, Yang is saying your past is reflective of you. If you forget that or decide to throw it away than you have “transformed” or lost yourself to the world.

American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese, is three stories in one. A story about a monkey king trying to be taken seriously. He wants to reject his monkey identity as he thinks it shameful. The second is about a teenage American of Chinese descent who starts a new school and is an outcast for his ancestry. Jin Wang is introduced to a new kid from Korea, Wei-Chen Sun, who he is reluctant to start a friendship with. The third story is about another American teenager who has a cousin from Asia who comes to visit. Danny, is embarrassed by his cousin’s flamboyant and non-typical behavior. In each of the stories the characters are trying to overcome something they are ashamed about. They want to reject a part of their lives that does not fit in with the social greats of their societies.

I have never read a comic before. Or I guess this would be called a graphic novel. It is interesting, to say the least, but I do not think that I am a fan. I find the pictures to be more a distraction than anything, really. To flip from words to pictures, from words to pictures is something that comes difficult. Switching my train of thought into focusing on another depiction of the story I find as an interruption. I also found it hard to use the “mind’s eye”, so to speak. The thing that I love most about reading is the ability to create my own characters, how I see them, how I think they should look like and act. I thought the comic took away from that, giving less room for the imagination of the reader. On the other to be able to create and write a comic, must take loads of creativity dumped right onto the page. It is an art, no doubt. But one that I particularly enjoy is another story.