The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu is a moving story about a boy of mixed race called Jack and his relationship with his mother. The main themes of this story are mother-son relationship, cultural differences, racism, identity and heritage.

The Paper Menagerie | Summary

The Paper Menagerie begins by the narrator recalling one of his earliest memories- he was sobbing, unable to be soothed. While his father left him in his bedroom to calm down, his mother attempted to make origami animals to cheer him up. The narrator says that though he wasn’t aware at that time, his mother’s breath was special, as she breathed life into all her origami animals. He then proceeds to explain how his parents met- his father picked his mother out of a catalogue, on the very last page. The narrator heard the story when he was in high school, a time when his father was trying to convince him to speak to his mother again. In the catalogue, she said she was good at English, loved to dance and was eighteen. However, when the narrator’s father flew to Hong Kong to meet her, this information turned out to be false. The narrator was contemptuous that his mother had put herself up in a catalogue- in high school, he thought he knew all. Despite this, the father was not angry. He hired a waitress to translate between them, and as sparks flew, he signed papers for her to join him in Connecticut. The narrator was born the next year, in the Year of the Tiger.

His mother would make all different types of animals with paper- anything the narrator asked. Jack’s paper tiger, Laohu, would chase after them, and while watching shows about sharks, the narrator’s mother would make shark origami, too. When the narrator- we now learn his name is Jack- was ten, his family moved to a new neighbourhood where they were visited by two women- their new neighbours. For the first time, Jack hears them speak ill of their mixed family when they think he’s not listening. They condemn his American father for marrying a Chinese woman, and even call Jack “unfinished” looking. Not long after, one of the neighbourhood boys, Mark, came over to play with Star Wars action figures. Mark was annoyed that Jack didn’t show much interest, and when asked to bring out his toys, Jack had nothing but Laohu. Laohu pounced on Mark and as a result, the light saber fell and broke. Mark pushed Jack in anger, furiously shouting that “It probably cost more than how much your dad paid for your mom!” before crushing and tearing Laohu and going home. No matter how much he tried, Jack could not repair Laohu.

The next two weeks at school were terrible for Jack. After all, Mark was popular. Eventually, as they sat at the dinner table one night, Jack revealed the racist slur he had been called at school. He refused to answer his mother when she spoke in her native language. He kept prompting her to speak in English and cook American food. His father told his mother almost helplessly that he would buy her a cookbook, and that she should have expected this day to come eventually- they are in America. He asks her to learn English so that Jack can fit in. She replies in broken English that if she says “love” she feels it on her lips. But if she says ai– the Chinese word for love- she feels it in her heart. Jack simply asks his father for some “real toys”.

Gradually, Jack stops speaking to his mother. His father buys him a star wars set, from which he returns to Mark the object he broke. He puts all his origami animals into a shoebox under his bed and felt embarrassed whenever she tried to mime things for him to understand. His father told him not to treat his mother like that, but he couldn’t look Jack in the eye. His mother still made paper animals for him which tried to cuddle up to him in his sleep, but he would crush the air out of them. When he came to high school, his mother stopped making the animals. Her English had improved, but Jack was too old to talk much to her anyway. He continued his steady pursuit of the American Dream.

The story then moves to the father and Jack at the hospital, standing on either side of the mother’s bed. She is barely 40, but weak and frail with cancer in her body  Jack feels awkward, not knowing what to do. His mind constantly wanders to his California college campus where he should be for the recruitment session. He knows he should not think of that when his mother is bedridden, but he can’t help it. She tells him not to worry about her, to just do well in school. She then requests one thing- if she does not make it, she asks him to take out his shoebox of paper animals once a year, on Qingming, or Chinese Death Day, and think of her. He tells her that he knows nothing of the  Chinese calendar. She then tries to tell him in her mother tongue that she loves him, her voice hoarse. Jack understands her words and awkwardly tells her not to talk. He soon leaves, as he does not want to be late for his flight. His mother passes away sometime when he is flying above Nevada.

After his mother died, Jack’s father aged rapidly. The house had to be sold, and while Jack and his girlfriend Susan were clearing out the house, she found the shoebox of origami, exclaiming in amazement at its intricacy. Jack notes that the paper animals don’t move anymore, and wonders whether they stopped breathing when his mother did. He then thinks that the animals’ movement must have just been a figment of his childish imagination. It was only two years after the death that Jack felt a tinge of emotion- Susan was on a business trip and he was watching TV when he saw a channel about sharks. Suddenly, the image of his mother making an origami shark appeared in his mind. As soon as that happens, Laohu leaps out of the shadows. His mother must have put it back together herself after Jack gave up. Abd Susan, who had kept the origami pieces around the house, must have kept this one in the corner because of how worn it was.

Jack stroked Laohu, who leapt around playfully. He felt happy to see him after a long time. Then, Laohu stopped jumping and unfolded himself to reveal dense, Chinese characters- Jack’s mother’s handwriting. On checking online, he realises it is Qingming. He cannot read Chinese, so he asks around until he finds a stranger who is willing to read the contents out to him. In the letter, his mother talks about her feelings, wonders why he doesn’t speak to her anymore, and most importantly: tells him her life story. She was born in a very poor province during the Great Famines of China. After things got a little better, her own mother taught her to make red paper dragons and breathe life into them, something she believed Jack would have loved. Then, there was a cultural revolution. Because they had a relative in Hong Kong, they were considered spies. Jack’s grandparents both died, while his mother tried to run away to Hong Kong. She was found by a man whose business was to take girls to Hong Kong and sell them as house servants. For years, Jack’s mother worked as a maid, and was beaten if anything was done wrong. At sixteen, she received advice to leave the house before she became too old and things could get messy. That is how she ended up in the catalogue where Jack’s father found her.

She was grateful, though she understood nothing. She then talked about the joy she felt on seeing Jack, his features similar to her own, his ability to speak her language- she saw her family in him and loved him incredibly. She says she knows he doesn’t like his Chinese looks and heritage, but when he stopped talking to her, she felt like she was losing everything all over again. The letter ends when she asks beseechingly why he won’t talk to her, and says the pain makes it hard to write. When the letter ends, Jack cannot look at the woman who read it. He asks her to find the Chinese characters which spell ai– the image of his mother at the dining table with her hand over her heart flashes in his mind. He writes the word again and again. The woman leaves Jack alone with his mother. After some time, he folds the creases to form the purring tiger again, and he and Laohu begin their walk home.

The Paper Menagerie | Analysis

A majority of this story is written in past tense, as the narrator describes the incidents that led him to his current set of thoughts and feelings. Further, we do not know his name immediately- we find out that the narrator is called Jack when another character addresses him. This creates the feeling that we, too, are slowly discovering more about his past with his walk down memory lane. The Paper Menagerie covers very deep themes, but since it’s done in the form of a collection of anecdotes and recollections, the readers are able to understand it in situational context. This way, rather than simply feeling angry or upset at Jack for his treatment towards his mother, we get the opportunity to take in his social context and link that to his behaviour. Further, we are able to understand the depth of these themes as they are in real life scenarios. Liu mainly employs dialogue and description. Most importantly, his depiction of Jack’s thoughts as he grows, and his vivid narration of the paper animals that had life in them, created a picture for the readers to clearly imagine. There is also abundant use of literary devices like personification and symbolism. The main themes of this story are mother-son relationship, cultural differences, racism, identity and heritage.

In the beginning, we can see instances in the narrator’s youth where he accepted his heritage- or, more accurately, was too young to understand its implications in the society. We see the impact that one’s environment as well as others’ actions can have on an innocent outlook. At the same time, there is italic emphasis and translation of everything the narrator’s mother says, as she does not speak English. This subtly sets the scene and acts as a sort of foreshadowing of what is to come. We also see the origami animals, a main point of this story- they have played a role in the narrator’s life since his very childhood. It also displays the intense love the mother has for Jack, highlighting the theme of the mother-son relationship.

The origami animals spoke a language which they could not. It is interesting to note the way the paper tiger, Laohu, was especially given animalistic characteristics. Whether it be Jack’s imagination or the bit of the mother in it, Jack describes it to purr and leap and pounce just like a real tiger. Jack was born in the year of the Tiger himself- hence this paper animal represents him. It is roaring and playful and free in the beginning, just like Jack. But when Mark comes over, Jack experiences an insult towards his family for the first time- and to him, this is a moment that strikes a chord: he realises that he is “different.” Of course, the moment is built up by the incident where the neighborhood ladies make crude comments, but hearing it directly from someone his own age is where it peaks. When Mark rips Laohu in half, it symbolises the destruction of Jack’s pride in his Chinese identity- it’s like a piece of him ceases to function after that incident. He no longer wants anything to do with his Chinese heritage, or his mother.

When Jack starts ignoring his mother, Liu structures a heartbreaking back-and-forth dialogue between the three family members. In this, he encapsulates themes of identity, discrimination and cultural differences. Jack represents discrimination- he faces bullying and racial slurs from his peers because of his mixed race and Chinese heritage. This makes him want to forget everything about that side of him and become completely American like everyone else. His father represents cultural differences. An American man himself, he is well aware that Jack needs to fit in and the Chinese side of his identity will make it difficult for him. He requests the mother to learn English because she “knew this would happen one day.”  And finally, the mother represents identity. She has strong love for her son and gratitude to the father, and she knows that she needs to adapt to the American setting, hence she complies to their request. But before doing so, she delivers a single, powerful dialogue which captures the emotion behind identity: she tells them that when she says “love” in English, she feels it on her lips. But when she says “ai” in Chinese, she feels it in her heart. The fact that she says this in broken English further highlights the importance of one’s native language and the value it holds to a person’s identity.

When Jack seals his origami into a shoebox, it is like he is sealing away a part of himself- those paper animals had life breathed into them by his mother, and Jack is blocking away that aspect of his life. It is truly heartbreaking to read about the lengths he goes to avoid her, even looking down on her and refusing to speak to her, thinking of her with contempt. Readers may feel that he is cruel and unjust, and while his actions are painful, it speaks volumes about how facing racism can affect one’s mindset. Racism and discriminatory bullying is very, very harmful and it completely altered the way Jack looked at his family and even himself. His main aim in life is to live the typical “American dream”, no doubt stemming from the need to become like everyone else around him. It is almost as though he wants to prove to himself that there is nothing different about him at all, and the best way to do so is to live a model American lifestyle.

This thought process pushes him so far from his mother that he does not even mourn at her death. As she lies on her deathbed, Jack’s mind is elsewhere- on his college campus. We see that even in her final moments, his mother tells him with improved English not to worry about her and to just focus on his studies. The awkward way in which he tries to reply, not sure how to comfort her, emphasises the years they have spent apart despite living in the same house. He had been contemptuous of even the Chinese songs she used to hum in the kitchen- it had drawn a wall between them completely. Despite this, his mother has unrelenting love for her son. Her last words to him are in Chinese- “Son, mother loves you”. The notable word here is “ ai” which means “love”- she says it in Chinese, because only then does it come from the heart. When Jack and Susan clean up the house and she notices the origami, Jack mentions that they don’t seem to breathe anymore- this shows that in the back of his mind, he still associates his mother with that sense of magic.

Two years later, a shark documentary reminds him of his mother. It is as though the old memories are pushing their way forth from the back of his mind. The moment acts as a rebirth of his identity, represented by Laohu pouncing back to life and Jack welcoming him. The importance of this moment is strengthened with the discovery of the letter written inside Laohu. This is extremely significant- Laohu represents Jack. Hence, the mothers letter being written inside Laohu represents the fact that she and her culture and identity will always be inside him, a part of him, no matter what- and so will her love for him. Reading the letter on Qingming, Jack comes to understand the struggles faced by his mother and the joy his birth brought her. He is hit by several emotions at once as he processes everything- guilt, sadness, pain, and most prominently: love for his mother, as can be seen in the way he writes “ai” as many times as he can.

At the end, he quietly folds Laohu up into its tiger form. Laohu purrs, and they walk home together. This gentle, heart wrenching conclusion implies a new beginning in terms of identity and cultural pride. After years, Laohu is by Jack’s side again and Jack has finally had a chance to “talk” to his mother and truly understand her. Finally, he can be the complete version of himself, embracing all the parts of his identity.