Week 4 Analysis: Close Reading

Analysis 

Week4

Close Reading 

On pg. 424 there began a story "From The Journey to the West", and it was very intriguing given that most of the characters were animals. Also the stone monkey who was the main character came to life in a very unique way. Or in other words a very confusing way because he was basically born from a stone egg but the way the stone egg was even created had me mind boggled. I understand that this is fictional and this story has a way deeper meaning. In my opinion I believe that this story is history just told in a more creative way with animal characters and the confusing ways of how things come to life in the story has an actual meaning given the context of the history. I notice that the author uses imagery the most given the highest  detailed information on the smallest of information and uses this to probably turn this story which may be history into a fun story anyone no matter the age would understand. Looking deeper into the reading helps me realize that this is not just any story but history told from the early modern Chinese vernacular. Also the animals are not just used as characters but metaphorically used to describe an actual figure in history. For example the stone monkey could actually be a person in history who was brought to this earth in a special way as an infant but later saved his people by doing a heroic act just as the stone monkey did in this piece of text. The most interesting thing about this text has to be the fact that history is hidden in a fiction story and given the time period where the public was looking for more everyday vernacular instead of scholarly literature. Given this fact to input the supply where the public's demand was located instead of telling straight history the scholarly way instead put it into a fictional story with different characters to appeal to everyone no matter their class or education level.