In Ken Liu’s Story, “Paper Menagerie,” the origami tiger symbolizes the mother’s love for Jack and his connection with his own culture. At the beginning of the text, the mother created a piece of origami tiger for Jack to kindly console him. Later into the story, Mark, the neighbor’s son, visited Jack’s house and attempted to criticize his paper origamis, making Jack realize: “I have never thought of laohu as trash. But looking at him now, he is really just a piece of wrapping paper.” Subsequently, before Mark’s visit, the tiger origami is an object that holds profound value in Jack’s heart just as he embraces his mother’s love and culture. Because the tiger origami symbolizes the mother’s love and culture, the destruction of laohu by Mark will therefore herald the gradual shriveling of Jack’s love towards his mother as well as the withering of his connection with his own culture.

The main character in Evan Hunter’s short story entitled “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” initially believes in the importance of him making the decision of joining the Royals, but later understands that joining the Royals causes people to judge him for his identity as a Royal, not for who he actually is: Andy. His changing understanding is revealed through Andy’s thoughts, actions, and dialogues.

Strengths: Wide range and variety of vocabulary making it relatively easy for me to write an essay of high quality,

Weakness: Reading, it’s sometimes difficult for me to concentrate to assimilate information in a book.