The main character in Ken Liu’s short story entitled “the Paper Menagerie” initially believes that to live in America, you have to be American through and through, for example, speech english, and do American stuff. And when his mother doesn’t, it make him uncomfortable and he starts ignoring his mom. But later he understands that his mom only cares for him, and he realized that he was the bad guy all along. His changing understanding is revealed through the use of symbolism.