The Journey to
the West was an adventurous story with a lot of imagery within the text that
helped the reader paint pictures in his or her own head. The poems were very descriptive, for example
“Golden balls and pearly pellets, red ripeness and yellow plumpness. Golden
balls and pearly pellets are the cherries, their colors truly luscious”
(429). The description the author uses
not only helps create a visual of what I am reading but it also exaggerates the
features, like when he described the colors of the cherries being “truly
luscious”. Another example of imagery
can be seen on page 431, “the sun’s beams lightly enclose the azure mist; In
darkening rain, the mount’s color turns cool and green”. The author’s description of the area tells us
the current weather of the area as well as what the setting is.
The main theme of this novel is
survival. The story was written around a
monkey’s adventure to find immortality.
After a 10 year search and coming across many different people and
experiences he finally found what he was looking for, immortality. I believe this story relates to the fear of
death. The monkey was not going to
settle down until he found a way to avoid death and become immortal. I thought it was interesting however how the
author chose to use a stone monkey for the main character instead of
humans. We have read in other classes
stories that have a similar theme where the main character is searching for
immortality. I am not sure what the stone monkey represents or the significance
of the stone monkey. I also feel there
is some sort of hidden meaning or message behind the stone monkey’s
creation. The stone monkey was formed
from a large immortal stone that birthed a stone egg. What I enjoyed about this
first part of the story was how the poems were used to describe certain
scenarios or objects.
Cheng'en, Wu. “The Journey to the
West.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Peter
Simon, D, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012, pp. 421–436.
Hi Patrick!
ReplyDeleteI think the way you summed up your thoughts on the use of imagery in the tale was perfect. There truly was a lot of descriptive language. It was almost as if the author was painting in bright colors right in front of me. Like a Bob Ross of sorts if you will. It was very calming and enjoyable to behold. I also like how you thought the theme to be survival! I have not seen many people think this of the tale.
What if the stone monkey represents an irony? The author says that mountains are immortal, and the monkey was born from it, so what if he is already granted ever lasting life?
I wonder why else the author would mention that the monkey was already 500 years old or so by the time he reached his master? Could it be that the monkey was just not aware of a normal life span? But even so, would he not be seeing his monkey friends grow old and die?
Hello Patrick, I enjoyed reading your post and I think you did a good job explaining the aspects of the story. While I read the story I too was wondering why the author decided to use a monkey of all things. When I read the story I didn't think about the correlation between the monkey and the monkey statue, I might of skipped it somehow but it could possibly be a different form of immortality. Stones last forever hence why there was the monkey statue? Leading to the possible thought that it can symbolize either legends because they stay remembered or immortality itslef in a broad sense? I don't know just a thought. The story itself was very interesting and you did good explaining it so it makes sense and easy to follow. The use of quotations really added to making this a strong analysis and helped put it all into perspective. Good job man look forward to reading your future posts.
ReplyDeleteHello Patrick, thank you for your hard work!!I really enjoyed your detailed analysis and i think that it was also interesting. I also wondered why the author choose a monkey to be the main character too. i look forward to reading more of your posts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first statement you made in your post the imagery in this story does jump of the page and create many images in my mind of how this fictional kingdom could have looked. This use of imagery is the best in drawing your attention as a reader by making the words on the page seem more like a movie in your head as you read.
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