In Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie”, the main character, Jack, develops his understanding of identity through the author’s use of symbolism. The paper animals, which are also known as the paper menagerie from the title, are symbols to represent his mother’s love. This starts off near the beginning of the story, where Jack’s mother is folding an origami tiger for him: “I didn’t know this at the time, but Mom’s kind was special. She breathed into them so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life. This was her magic.” From this sentence, it is clear that Jack sees the origami his mother creates as one of a kind. Using symbolism, the author is trying to express that his mother’s love is also unique, and she had put so much love into making the origami for him, that the paper menagerie had come to life. Furthermore, it can be interpreted that Jack’s mother’s love for him is magical, as it brought animation to her origami animals. Throughout the story, Jack grows older, and the cultural differences between America and China influence him along the way. After one look at Jack’s origami tiger, his American friend Mark calls it trash. Despite Jack’s enjoyable memories with his paper menagerie, his thoughts about his mother’s meaningful gift change instantly: “I had never thought of Laohu as trash. But looking at him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper.” Mark influenced Jack’s thoughts about an important figure in his life: His origami tiger, but essentially, his mother. He now sees his mother’s love for him as less important/relevant to him, and so he pushes her away. Evidence of Jack rejecting his mother can be found later in the story, where Jack packed away all the paper menagerie, and even “squeezed them until the air went out of them”. Finally, at the end of the story, Jack revisits the feeling of being loved by his mother, when he reads his mother’s letter to him. This is the most obvious form of symbolism because the letter is written inside the folded origami tiger, which was also his first piece of the paper menagerie. His mother’s love is literally given to him through its symbol but in words. At that point, the origami tiger was torn and fragile, and the letter inside of it was about how Jack’s mother felt when being pushed away. This can be interpreted as another symbol, as his mother could have felt fragile and broken after Jack rejected her. The paper menagerie is an important and symbolic figure, which is constantly brought up throughout the story. His thoughts about the origami animals change over the course of the storyline, as well as his understanding of his identity. In the end, he finally can accept his culture, which was deeply influenced by his mother’s love.