In Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie,” the protagonist Jack’s dialogue shows his rejection of his Chinese identity. Since he often repeats his words, it emphasizes and stands out to the readers. The repeated words “Speak English” reveal his hatred towards the entire Chinese culture, caused by bullying due to racial discrimination at school. As a result, he blamed his troubles on his mother for being Chinese, demanding that he have some “real toys” besides his mother’s paper menagerie. For this reason, his mother was hurt and heartbroken. Despite all this, Jack was actually just a kid who wanted to fit in. As a Chinese-American boy, Jack was torn between two identities mentally (man vs. man conflict). Furthermore, Jack decided to live completely “American” to fit in with other American kids. He had experienced bullying at school due to racial discrimination towards Chinese people simply because they were different. However, near the end of the story, when grown-up Andy discovers his old toy Laohu, he exclaimed with excitement: “How’ve you been, old buddy?” His dialogue uncovers the fact that he still remembers and cares about his old toys. After he found the letter his mother had written, he decided to find someone who knew Chinese, asking people in the street: “Ni hui zhongwen ma? (Can you read Chinese?).” His willingness to inquire strangers to translate his passed-away mother’s letter reveals he still holds love for her, wanting to know what she had wanted to say to him. In general, the dialogue of Jack in the story hints at his refusal to accept his Chinese identity living in America.

In Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie”, Jack’s (the main character) understanding of his identity changes and develops through the author’s use of dialogue, characterization, and symbolism.

The main character in Evan Hunter’s short story entitled “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” initially believes he is proud to be a Royal, but later realizes he wants to be himself, it is not worth dying for being a Royal, and he wants others to think of him as Andy. His changing in understanding is revealed through the use of symbolism, thoughts, and interactions with other characters (specific techniques).

Quotes:

• “He rolled away from the jacket and lay quite still, breathing heavily, listening to the sound of his breathing and the sounds of the rain and thinking: Rain is sweet, I’m Andy” (p7, Hunter).
• “He wondered why he’d never thought of them important to him before, wondered why the rumbles and the jumps and the purple jackets had always seemed so important to him before” (p6, Hunter).
• “Andy lifted his face from the sidewalk, and his eyes said: Please, please help me…” (p5, Hunter).

Skills that I learned or developed were measuring with detail, how to do flat design and rich design, and how to incorporate a specific topic into a design. The impact of this product will be that Ms. Patty’s door will be more attracting, and it’ll be a good decoration for the Chinese New Year.  Overall, I think this product was successful because our group made a design with a balanced amount of things in it so it isn’t overflowing with design. It fit on the door, which meant we did the measurements right. The teacher chose the design she liked most, and likes it on her door which is a success too. We worked together very well, and had lots of fun putting it up. One piece of advice I would give a future student doing this project is measure precisely, or else your paper might not fit on the door; have as many ideas for designs so you won’t know what to do for your sketches of door decoration ideas; and cooperate with your teammates which will help you end up with a good grade. The wreath that I found online included red packets, ancient coins, and cherry blossoms. Even though we didn’t use it, I think it was a really cool design. I really enjoyed this project

Skills that I learned and developed were how to use Adobe Illustrator and Maker Case. In Adobe Illustrator I learned how to make shape designs and other cool techniques. The impact of this product will be that I will have more space to put stuff in my locker, and I can just get my phone when I need it and other things that I put in my phone case because it’s very big. Overall, I think this project was successful because I made a satisfactory phone case that I like and is my own design. I think it’s really fun and cool to watch the laser cut our pieces out. At first, I wanted to have two boxes, but then when they were cut out I realized the measurements were wrong so I decided to use one of the boxes-the one with the design on it. That’s why my sketches don’t have my box’s drawing. Something I should work on is being more detailed in my annotations and checking before I decide to cut out my design. Even so, I like how it turned out.  Now I have experience so next time I will remember my mistake and do better. Advice I’d give to a future student doing this project is  check before you cut your  design out so  it  won’t turn  out wrong  like  mine. 

This is called the Spy Watch. It looks like a normal watch on the outside, but it’s actually for people addicted to their phones. After you put it on, you can’t take it off until your addiction for phones has evaporated. It has a hidden security camera so when it sees you playing on your phone for more than an hour, the watch pops up a message reminding you. If you still don’t do it, it reminds you again. Then, it shuts off your phone and electrocutes you. Then, it tells you that if you play with your family for a while, it’ll turn up your phone again. Also, if you take at least 5 pictures with your family playing, then it transfers cash to your phone as a reward. Of course, it has a limit amount of money. When it’s all used up, it’s probably time when you’ve stopped getting glued to your phone. It’s for $5, on sale now!

One concern that was shared with me was that maybe there should be a timer so the my prototype knows when to stop. That way, the marshmallows won’t get burned.
The impact of this product will be that people won’t need to roast their marshmallows by themselves, especially lazy people, and when you need to roast a lot for a bunch of people you don’t have that many hands.
Overall, I think this product was successful because people will be able to enjoy them without working, therefore not likely to waste food. Another success to food waste! It’ll be on sale soon!

“Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”, chapter 1 shows Percy is a boy that can’t control his feelings and had difficulties at school. When Nancy Bobofit was bullying his best friend Grover, he said, “ ‘I’m going to kill her.’ I started to get up, but Grover pulled me down.” This quote from page 3 shows that Percy gets angry easily and can’t stand bullying, not thinking about how he was already on probation, and he had already gotten into a lot of trouble. Bad things always happened to Percy at schools, so he could only get into Yancy Academy, which’s especially for “mental-case kids”. Another quote from when he’s worrying about disobeying his mother on page 9, the boy says: “She’d send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again.” This states that Percy had already been expelled from many other schools, and even he thinks that he can’t stand a chance at Yancy Academy. His mother pushing him to stay at the boarding school also reveals that he wouldn’t be accepted at other schools if he left the academy. Some of his brain problems, like dyslexia and ADHD, also bothered him. “The school…part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.” This shows that some mental issues was also why Percy is so impatient and can’t hold himself back (page 11). Therefore, Percy can’t control of his feelings, and has problems at school in chapter 1 of the book.