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.