The Monkey King (Wu Kong)

Hero or Monster? The being, The Monkey King, is revered as a hero in the eyes of little kids who are familiar with him. In ancient China, Wu Kong or The Monkey King, is depicted in different roles in different stories, but in a specific one, I recalled him as an individual that rebelled against the gods which leads to conflict amongst them. As I recall from memories of him as a kid, I always looked up to him as a figure of heroic standards simply because of the light that the stories portrayed him in, but is he really a hero? Through Carroll’s lens, The Monkey King would be biasedly labeled as a monster simply through the judgment of his appearance. The Monkey King physical appearance is comparable to a human but with a monkey infusion to his human-like looks. Most people that are familiar with the Monkey King would disagree with Carroll’s understanding of monsters simply because they would dispute the idea that the Monkey King is a monster.

To a certain extent, the Monkey King was a role model that I tried to imitate maybe because of the pure awesomeness that I associated him with. It is understandable that some might see him as a monster the same way that some see King Kong as a monster. The misunderstanding that exist between these individual and society, itself, can be attributed to society’s definition and understanding of the norms. Despite the question that has been brought up that questions the heroicness or monstrosity of the Monkey King, I still hold firm to my belief that he is far from what the word “monster” describe, simply because he is part of my childhood memories and an individual that I admire and love to a certain extent.

Is the Yeti real or is it a legend? Could it be a playful prank that gone wrong and evolved into a feared monster? There are people that claim that they encountered the Yeti or that they have seen a mysterious figure running through the woods that resembles the physical appearance of a Yeti, but does the Yeti really exist or is it just a figment of our imagination? What causes us humans to fear the Yeti so much? Is it just the very idea that the Yeti is not one of our own that makes us feel so threatened and fearful of this creature? Or is it maybe this creature’s monstrous strength and its ability to tear down mountains like as if it were ripping paper (Not really mountains, but maybe trees)?

This ape-like creature that is believed to live in the Himalayas is feared because of its monstrous strength as well as the very idea that it devours humans. Some other characteristics of this beast that makes it so feared can be attributed to its enormous size. It can also be said that the reason we fear it is because of one simple fact and that is because it is not human. We humans tend to fear things that we don’t understand or things that don’t follow or concept of “normal,” and that anything that is unfamiliar is evil or harmful.

If we try to classify the Yeti using Carroll’s method of classification, I would say that the Yeti would fall under the category of a monster created through magnification. The Yeti, to me, seems like an ape or a monkey that had its strength and physical characteristics strengthened ten times beyond its norm. In short, the Yeti resembles the ape from the movie “Planet of Apes” or you could make a comparison between the Yeti and an ape on steroids.