Analytical paragraph- Paper Menagerie

In Ken Liu’s short story “Paper Menagerie”, dialogue shows how the main character Jack struggles with his self-understanding of his own identity as a half-Chinese. Dialogues are used quite often in this story. Most of the dialogues express the idea of how Jack refuses to accept his Chinese identity. The protagonist, Jack, experienced how it felt like racial discrimination, especially towards Asians who live in the states. However, he blamed his mother, a girl with no family who later got chosen for marriage and got sent to America. The dialogue ” Speak English” showed up more than 3 times in this story. While the mother was trying to communicate how she cares and worries about Jack, Jack refused to continue the conversation with his mother. This dialogue: “We should eat American food,” was used to express Jack’s true thoughts in how he felt he was different from other families who live in America. The repentance of  “Speak English” was also more vital than what Jack wanted. Jack wanted to fit in the western society because being the “Chink” and the “Different one” made him feel embarrassed. Dialogues played a key role in this story, as we can see, how Jack, Mom, and Dad are shifting between the two languages of the two cultures; it emphasizes the main issue that has been bothering this family through words and lines. Jack’s lack of appreciation for his mom and his lack of embrace of his background were both well expressed through dialogues. Overall, dialogues allowed us to get a better understanding of what was going on in Jack’s family when the characters speak different languages, dialogues were able to maintain all readers’ sense of how each character is saying.