Plot
The reason the narrator wanted his mother to learn English.
What is being ashamed?/wanting to fit in?
The stories lesson concerning culture.
The narrator's name.
Who is Jack?
The point of view from which the story is written.
What is first person/the boy's?
The toys that the narrator's neighbor brought to his house.
What is Star Wars toys?
An event in the narrator's childhood that made him realize he was different.
What is being made fun of?/having different toys?
The stories lesson concerning family.
What is to be appreciative, patient, or tolerant?
The narrator's mother's home country.
What is China?
The way in which his mother is characterized by the author.
What is hardworking/selfless?
Who is Laohu?
The narrator's discovery at the end of "The Paper Menagerie" and what it contains
What is a note from his mother that tells him her story?
An example of a literary analysis statement relating to the plot and lesson of the story.
The style of writing in "The Paper Menagerie" evokes powerful emotions due to the narrator’s evolution when he comes to appreciate his culture, the childlike magic of his familial traditions, and what his mother provided for him. The mother’s well-wishes for the son, even while on her deathbed, emphasized the unconditional love a mother can have. (Answers Vary)
The relative of the narrator who lived a tragic life.
Who is his mother?
The tone shift in mother and son's relationship.
What is from being close and loving to being critical and distant?
The way the narrator stored his collection of homemade gifts.
Where the narrator's mother ends up at the end of the story and the reason for it.
Where is the hospital due to cancer?
An example of how cultural stereotyping affected the narrator.
The neighbor's comment on how his toys were Chinese trash/his name being called "Not very Chinesey" (Answers Vary)
The person in the narrator's childhood that made him feel like an outcast
Who is his neighbor?
The way in which the author indicates that the narrators childlike nature is fading.
What is the animals losing their movement magic?
The initial reason the narrator's mother made the narrator a gift?
What is to comfort him/he was crying?
The holiday that "The Paper Menagerie" ends on.
What is Qingming?
What is becoming focused on others opinions/wanting to go to college?
The reason the narrator's mother left her home country.
What is being chosen/finding a better life?
How the narrator's perception of his mother changed as he matured.
What is realizing the difficulties she faced that he was too self conscious to see, and finding the importance her cultural traditions had both to her and to their relationship when he was a child?
The material and animal that the narrator's mother first uses create a gift for the narrator.
What is a tiger made of wrapping paper?