A Heart, a Brain, and a Body OH MY!!

Ever thought that the four characters on the yellow brick road equal to a single person?

While sitting in my World Literature class, my classmates and I were discussing our book titled “The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of Journey to the West,” translated and edited by Anthony C. Yu. Which follows a group of five individuals on their journey to bring Buddhist scriptures back east. The characters include a monkey, a monk, a pig man, and a dragon who turned into a horse. There is a fifth character but he does not get much description in the book. Throughout the story, you learn about the three major Asian religions: Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

My professor was explaining to us that the monkey represented the mind, the monk represented the heart/soul, the horse represented will, and the pig man represented the body. He then asked us for other examples of this “mind, body, and heart” trio in other literature. One of my classmates said The Wizard of Oz. At first, I had to think about it until I realized, she was right. While all characters, more or less, lack what they are a representation of, they all show signs of them throughout the story.

We first meet the scarecrow who desires nothing but to have a brain. This is him representing the mind. The mind can sometimes be hard to control, which you see in the scarecrows opening song, he has trouble staying on his own two feet and can’t seem to get a hold of himself.

We then meet the tin man, who while he is lacking a physical heart, he can be seen as one of the most gentle and kind characters Dorothy meets on her journey. In the real world, a person’s heart can be very delicate and it takes a while for a person to love another. Sometimes it takes a little oil.

Lastly, we meet the lion. While what he is in search of is courage, the lion starts off a bit lazy and has no desire to be this king of the jungle everyone expects him to be.

We also have Dorothy who represents will. While all of these characters were physically stuck in the positions they were in, she also convinced them to join her on her quest. If it wasn’t for Dorothy, these characters would have never gone to get what they desired. All of these characters work together to reach their goal. This is how a human works. When reaching a desired outcome or goal, you must put 100% of yourself into it. You must have the drive, passion, endurance, and intelligence to achieve what you want.