In Ken Liu’s short story, “The Paper Menagerie,” paper animals are used to represent the mother’s love. When the main character, Jack, was a young child, these animals were made by his Chinese mother to soothe him crying, becoming his best friends for the following several years. What is astonishing is that the animals could move around by themselves: “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 (Liu 3)”. This quote shows the uniqueness of the Chinese mother’s love. Although cheaper and plainer than the Obi–wan Kenobi action figure, these animals were created with her delicate touch and the heart for her son, thus bringing them to life. It is the liveliness of animals that made them special among all the factory-made toys, and that helped him have a happy childhood. In other words, the uniqueness of his mother’s way of loving and caring, despite being different from all the other American mothers, is what made him a good memory of the past. Later in the story, when Jack begins to hate Chinese culture and tries to crush all of his mother’s beliefs, the paper animals stop moving. However, when he recalls his mother after her death, Laohu, his most loved paper animal among all the others, immediately springs back to life. This incident indicates that the love his mother tried to give, along with the memories created by that effort, still connects him with his mother. Although love seems fragile like a tiger made of paper, it persists to finally become a medium to get to her son’s heart. 

In Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie”, the main character’s understanding of his identity changes and develops through the author’s use of characterization, symbol, and point of view.