American Born Chinese Monkey King

Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong is a character in a popular Chinese fairy tale/legend. He also appears in Indian folklore as a bodyguard for travelers to Tripitaka. As the Chinese legend begins, the Monkey King is born from the earth and known as the stone monkey. He joined the other monkeys who dared anyone to enter a cave said to lead to the heavens. The stone monkey was the only one to do so and they declared him King. From that point forward, he would be called the Monkey King. As time went on, he feared that he would soon die and began a quest. It was on this journey that he learned the secrets of Martial Arts and immortality. He returned home to teach his monkey friends these arts.

Over time, the Monkey King went through many phases of greed, always seeing things on the other side as being better. His constant seeking for attention and gregarious interest in food and wine leads him through many lands, both on earth, in the heavens, and in the Netherlands. He encounters many conflicts and angers many of the gods, who are all too weak to control the Monkey King. With him comes much war and chaos.

Eventually, these gods call upon Buddha to help them. Because the Monkey King is immortal, he cannot be killed. Instead, Buddha encases the monkey for five hundred years. At the end of this time is when Xuan Zang, a Buddhist Monk, makes his pilgrimage across China to the heartland of the Buddhist religion (today's India) in order to learn the sutras.

Buddha summons the Monkey King from his place beneath the mountains to serve as a guide for the Monk. In addition, they are joined by two companions: Pigsy, a frighten pig immortal (somewhat like Piglet but bigger) who must make this journey to repent for his crime of assaulting a fairy, and Sandy, a former sea monster.

Together the four companions make their journey to India. Along the way, the Monkey King is filled with antics of trickery, deceit, disobedience... and yet through it all, he still helps the monk and can be seen as overall having a good heart. It's just in his nature to play.

Summary

At the beginning of the story, the monkey king is arrogant and rash, but as the story progresses, he forges friendships with his fellow travelers on the way to tripitika. At the end of the story his friends have showed him to be kind and caring and the monkey king is much nicer than he was before.