"The Paper Menagerie" Effect Padlet by Rachel Hunter

DIRECTIONS

rachelmhunter505 — 2025-08-08 12:22:25 UTC

Below, post a quote from "The Paper Menagerie" that contains the author's choice above-- (if you know how to cite the evidence, please do!)
Write a short excerpt explaining WHY you think the author chose to use this effect, or what that effect has on the story/ the audience.

DIRECTIONS

rachelmhunter505 — 2025-08-08 12:22:30 UTC

Below, post a quote from "The Paper Menagerie" that contains the author's choice above-- (if you know how to cite the evidence, please do!)
Write a short excerpt explaining WHY you think the author chose to use this effect, or what that effect has on the story/ the audience.

DIRECTIONS

rachelmhunter505 — 2025-08-08 12:22:34 UTC

Below, post a quote from "The Paper Menagerie" that contains the author's choice above-- (if you know how to cite the evidence, please do!)
Write a short excerpt explaining WHY you think the author chose to use this effect, or what that effect has on the story/ the audience.

DIRECTIONS

rachelmhunter505 — 2025-08-08 12:23:23 UTC

Below, post a quote from "The Paper Menagerie" that contains the author's choice above-- (if you know how to cite the evidence, please do!)
Write a short excerpt explaining WHY you think the author chose to use this effect, or what that effect has on the story/ the audience.

DIRECTIONS

rachelmhunter505 — 2025-08-08 12:23:27 UTC

Below, post a quote from "The Paper Menagerie" that contains the author's choice above-- (if you know how to cite the evidence, please do!)
Write a short excerpt explaining WHY you think the author chose to use this effect, or what that effect has on the story/ the audience.

Shaun

2025-08-08 13:21:06 UTC

On page 30 they said, "Hello there! What's your name? Jack, I said. That doesn't sound very Chinesey." I feel like their introduction set a mood as if their not really feeling eachother. Which could've led to Jack and Mark problems.

Milo Nichols

2025-08-08 13:21:14 UTC

"He was no longer as nimble and sure-footed as before. I sat him down on the coffee table. I could hear the skittering steps of the other animals behind in the hallway, timidly peeking into the living room. " Top of page 31, I think this defines the mood in that scene or is at least leading up to it because its describing how Laohu was damaged and very frail, and also the way it used words like skittering and timidly makes the reader feel like something bad is about to happen (this is the scene right before Mark says Laohu is trash and breaks him)

Drew Dixon

2025-08-08 13:22:15 UTC

"I reached out to Mom’s creation. Its tail twitched, and it pounced playfully at my finger. “Rawrr-sa,” it growled, the sound somewhere between a cat and rustling newspapers. I laughed, startled, and stroked its back with my index finger. The paper tiger vibrated under my finger, purring." (Liu 26)

This quote shows an origami piece coming to life and playing with Jack. I believe the author chose to use personification to make the animals come to life and that connects his mom with magic. Throughout the story mom loses her magic and becomes distant from Jack as others tell Jack its trash. This is also a figure of childhood imagination.

elnathan

2025-08-08 13:22:27 UTC

"Mom hunched down in her seat, looking like the water buffalo when Laohu used to pounce on him and squeeze the air of life out of him" (Liu 33). He chose this so that he can provide a better mental image for the audience on how Mom looks.

Izzie Tubbs

2025-08-08 13:22:41 UTC

"Mom hunched down in her seat, looking like the water buffalo when Laohu used to pounce on him and squeeze the air of life out of him." (Liu 33)

When the author uses the simile to describe the way mom is feeling, it shows that mom is in a very awkward position, as Jack and dad are against her.

Heather Oakes

2025-08-08 13:22:46 UTC

"I reached out to touch her hand, because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I was relieved. I was already thinking about the flight back, and the bright California sunshine." The author included this quote to create a feeling of anger within the audience, because Jacks mother is dying and he is not supporting her because he wants to, it is because he feels like he has too.

Brayden Greathouse

2025-08-08 13:23:51 UTC

"They would run around the living room while Laohu chased after them, growling" (Liu 28). This quote is a representation of personification. The author uses this, to display that when Jack was younger he really enjoyed the paper origami and appreciated what his mom did for him. It can give us another side on how different Jack got when he grew up.

Goodness

2025-08-08 13:23:53 UTC

"she pleated, packed, tucked, rolled, and then twisted until the paper..." the author's use of these detailed and descriptive words shows and careful and caring she is, it shows the depth of the love she has for her son.

Talia Herron

2025-08-08 13:24:07 UTC

"Later a new paper animal would appear on my nightstand and try to cuddle up to me. I caught them, squeezed them until the air went out of them, and then stuffed them away in the box in the attic." I think this quote shows the figurative language of personification because he physically can't squeeze the air out of paper, So he is implying that he doesn't want them anymore and that they don't exist to him anymore.

Kenzee

2025-08-08 13:24:12 UTC

The use of tone in Jack's quote on page 34, " I wasn't interested in what she had to say in whatever language she used." His opinion changes about his mom from not caring about the paper menageries she made, to not caring about her. This tone carries on until the next page where Jack's tone seems unfocused on his mom's death.

Eli

2025-08-08 13:24:18 UTC

When Jack says, "Dad came back, and I said that I needed to get to the airport early because I didn't want to miss my flight," ( Liu 36). Because the author spends so little time on this part of the story, I think it continues to show how little Jack cares about the situation with his mom.

Rylan Bruna

2025-08-08 13:24:35 UTC

"I reached out to my Mom's creation. It's tail twitched, and it pounced playfully at my finger." This quote is an example of personification as the origami tiger is committing human actions like pouncing and how its tail twitched. I think the author used this example of personification to show and not tell how since the child is still young and he still has his whole little world of imagination, this has the effect of fore shadowing the kids future relationship with the tiger.

Y'ariel Robins

2025-08-08 13:24:46 UTC

"I schemed about how to lie to the corporate recruiters most effectively so that they'd offer to buy me. I understood intellectually that it was terrible to think about this while your mother lay dying." (Paragraph 3 sent. 3-4).

The author uses time manipulation to reveal the amount of time spent on this particular sections can change the mood on how the readers/narrator feels. This section of the story highlights the quick change in mood and tone that the other conveys.

Alexis Edwards

2025-08-08 13:24:49 UTC

"She breathed into her paper animals so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life. This was her magic." (Liu 27) The paper animals that Jack's mom makes for him not only represents his childhood & innocence, but also the love that his mother feels for him. This creates a nurturing and sentimental mood for readers, and adds more emotional meaning within the story.

Kendall Taylor

2025-08-08 13:24:52 UTC

In the scene where Mark makes Jack realize that his origami toys were really just pieces of paper, the tone is moved from playful to serious and aware through word choice. The author described Jack's inner thoughts by saying, "I had never thought of Laohu as trash. But looking at him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper" (Liu 31). As a kid, realizing your toys are really just trash is devastating and the word choice does a good job of showing that. By the awareness being brought so harshly too, the tone of the section drops very suddenly and drastically. Overall, Mark's words and later actions shift the tone from friendly and proud down to mature and disappointed by making Jack realize what his toys really were.

Wesley Grant

2025-08-08 13:24:52 UTC

"I reached out to Mom's creation. Its tail twitched and it pounced playfully at my finger" (Liu 26). This quote creates a mood of playful and happy and I think this makes the readers feel like Mom and Jack have a really good relationship and it causes the readers to feel even worse when Jack ends up separating himself from her.

Jayden Vazquez

2025-08-08 13:25:17 UTC

Mom said, "If I say 'love', I feel here.' She pointed to her lips. 'If I say 'ai', I feel here'. She put her hand over her heart." I think that the author used a heart-warming mood so that the reader could better understand how Mom feels.

Shaun

2025-08-08 13:25:40 UTC

On page 32 it says, "My fight with Mark didn't end there. Mark was popular at school. I never want to think again about the two weeks that followed." I feel this goes with structure because since it didn't tell us what went on in them 2 weeks it left us wondering throughout the story.

Milo Nichols

2025-08-08 13:25:41 UTC

"Sometimes, when I came home and saw her tiny body busily moving about in the kitchen, singing a song in Chinese to herself, it was hard for me to believe that she gave birth to me. We had nothing in common. She might as well before the moon. I would hurry on to my room, where I could continue my all-American pursuit of happiness." Page 34 at the bottom, I think that this quote creates a tone of the narrarators adamancy towards his mother on how much he really does dislike her, because he just wants absolutely nothing to do with what she does.

Logan

2025-08-08 13:25:54 UTC

"The paper tiger vibrated under my finger, purring".(Liu 26) I think the author chose this to show that the tiger and all of the other paper Mache stuff play a big part in the narrators life.

Alaina Stainbrook

2025-08-08 13:26:43 UTC

"Dad came back, and I said that I needed to get to the airport early because I didn't want to miss my flight. She died when my plane was somewhere over Nevada." (Liu, 36)

The author uses a darker tone, which reflects how Jack feels about his mom. Jack was so distant from his mom that even when she was dying, he left because he had larger priorities.

Izzie Tubbs

2025-08-08 13:27:42 UTC

On page 32 when Jack walks into the bathroom, "I looked into the mirror. I look nothing like her." (Liu 32) I think this is when Jack comes into full realization that he's like his mom after what Mark had to say to him about the way his face looked.

Wesley Grant

2025-08-08 13:27:48 UTC

"I wrote the characters again and again on the paper intertwining my pen strokes with her words" (Liu 43). I think this figurative language puts emphasis on how Jack feels regret and misses his mother. It also puts emphasis that he feels guilt for how he treated her.

Cassidy O'Neal

2025-08-08 13:27:56 UTC

"The paper menagerie, hidden in the non-insulated darkness of the attic for so long, had become brittle, and the bright wrapping paper patterns had faded."(Liu 37). The mood of this quote is isolation, neglect, and lost. The origami is a reflection of Moms and Jacks relationship. The isolation between Mom and Jack. The fading patterns is a representation of memories going away. Due to Jacks childhood memories being all linked to the origami. This shows the impact of the distance.

Adrianna Hartman

2025-08-08 13:28:11 UTC

"The language I had tried to forget for years came back, and I felt the words sinking into me, through my skin, through my bones, until they squeezed tight around my heart." (Liu 38) The narrator specifically chose these words instead of just saying something simple like 'the words affected me' to show that even though Jack tried to deny his Chinese culture and the language, it still stuck with him, even after all these years. And hearing it in a letter from his late mom affected him harder than if they were just written in English.

Ella Gurney

2025-08-08 13:28:25 UTC

"I didn't know this at the time, but Mom's breath was special" (Liu 27).

After jacks mom first made origami for him, to make him feel better he stated that she was special which foreshadows the ending. The story shifts when Jack encounters a bully and wished that he could just have a "normal" family. He shuts out his mom and later on in the story regrets it. This quote foreshadowed the ending when he learned about the way his mom loved him and cared deeply for him. We can infer based on his actions that he did love his mom at the end for how special she was to him.

Jackson Ly

2025-08-08 13:29:11 UTC

When Mark and Jack first meet, Mark says, "Something about mixing never seems right."(Liu 30). This sets the mood for Mark's character to be unfriendly. This characterizes Mark as a racist kid who would've never accepted Jack. Even if Jack had toys like Mark.

Brayden Greathouse

2025-08-08 13:29:19 UTC

"Mom dropped her hands to her sides. She sat, looking from Dad to me, and back to Dad again. She tried to speak, stopped, and tried again, and stopped again" (Liu 32).

This quote makes me feel upset and disappointed towards the Son and Dad. It reveals the sadness that the Mother feels. It also shows how much Jack has affected his mom and has caused her to quiet down and not stand up for herself.

Jayden Vazquez

2025-08-08 13:29:24 UTC

Mom's letter wrote, "But can you understand how much joy your very existence brought to me? And can you understand how it felt when you stopped talking to me and won't let me talk to you in Chinese? I felt I was losing everything all over again." The author chose to include this because they want to portray Mom's character as sad. Mom feels like her old life was become into her current life.

Eli

2025-08-08 13:29:38 UTC

When they are all sitting at the dinner table one night and Jack's mom is talking to him he keeps telling her to speak english and then his dad sides with him and tells the mom to speak english to Jack it creates the mood of sadness because we feel bad that the mom can't speak english to them, and she gives up.

Kendall

2025-08-08 13:29:49 UTC

"It was hard for me to believe that she gave birth to me. We had nothing in common. She might as well be from the Moon" (Liu 34). This figurative language is used to describe how different Jack thought he and his mom were. This was when she was learning English but he didn't care what she said no matter how she said it.

Goodness

2025-08-08 13:29:53 UTC

"The high school me thought I knew so much about everything. Contempt felt good , like wine" there is use of simile in this sentence, wine is often described as something that vis good and desirable, so by comparing his contempt to wine, that means he felt like his thoughts was so good and accurate

Y'ariel Robins

2025-08-08 13:29:59 UTC

"I didn't know this at the time, but Mom's breath was special. She breathed into her paper animals so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life." (Paragraph 1, page 27).

The author use of the very detailed and descriptive words, highlights her careful and kind manner, it also shows how much love she has for her son Jack.

Maggie Sears

2025-08-08 13:30:26 UTC

"I had never thought of Laohu as trash. But looking at him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper." (Liu 31)

I think the author put this in here to show the start of the change of his view on his culture as Mark bullying the narrator brings the mood of doubt and/or hesitation to the narrator and his opinions about his culture.

Rylan Bruna

2025-08-08 13:30:28 UTC

""Just open-" she began to cough again."-"Haizi, mama ai ni-" This quote is similar to many others throughout the story as the mom gets interrupted constantly sometimes its by herself as in this instance as her illness is shutting her down, but many of the other times its normally by another person. I think the author chose to include the in the story because it shows how in this new country people don't tend to respect outsiders like jacks mom, so they treat her unfairly.

Heather Oakes

2025-08-08 13:30:46 UTC

"I refolded the paper back into Laohu. I cradled him in the crook of my arm, and as he purred, we began the walk home."(Liu 43)

This is the scene directly following him reading the letter and I think that it is being used to show his regret in the way he treated his mom during his entire childhood and young adult life.

Jackson Ly

2025-08-08 13:31:35 UTC

When Mark rips Laohu, Jack describes it as, "Laohu was only made out of paper, after all"(Liu 31). This show show Mark affected Jack, before this moment Jack would describe the animals as alive, but after this moment, he sees them as just piece of paper.

Vanessa Martinez

2025-08-08 13:31:50 UTC

"I brushed her hand away. 'I'm fine. Speak English!' I was shouting. 'Speak English to him,' Dad said to Mom. 'You knew this was going to happen someday. What did you expect?' Mom dropped her hands to her sides." (33) I think that this gives off a tense mood because of Jack being embarrassed and his mom feeling ashamed of speaking in her native language. It also makes things awkward afterwards especially with the dad siding with Jack and against his own wife.

Talia Herron

2025-08-08 13:32:08 UTC

" I reached out to touch her hand, because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I was relieved. I was already thinking about the flight back, and the bright California Sunshine (Lui 35)." The mood in this quote raidiating from the narrator almost seems forgetful and unsympathetic. It's like he doesn't care his mom is dying. And he won't care till it's too late.

kenzee

2025-08-08 13:32:13 UTC

At the beginning of page 27, the figurative language used sets the stage for what the paper menagerie means later in the story. Mom, " breathed into her paper animals that they shared her breath,[...]This was her magic" Obviously she didn't actually breathe into these animals, but later on Jack says that the animals lost their magic after she died.

Alexis Edwards

2025-08-08 13:32:36 UTC

"And I want some real toys." -Jack (Liu 33) Jack expresses his desire for 'normal toys' after an argument about his mother avoiding the use of English. The use of this juxtaposition contrasting his Chinese origami figures, and the 'American toys' that Mark plays with, foreshadows the beginning of the divide between Jack and his mom, along with their Chinese culture.

Ella Gurney

2025-08-08 13:33:24 UTC

"I caught them, squeezed them until the air went out of them, and then stuffed them away in the box in the attic" (Liu 34).

When Jacks mother kept putting origami on his nightstand, he did not like it. He no longer wanted anything to do with it so he destroyed them. This shows the sorrowful mood of the story because this quote makes the audience feel bad for the mom.

Vanessa Martinez

2025-08-11 00:46:07 UTC

"Its tail twitched, and it pounced playfully at my finger. 'Rawrr-sa,' it growled, the sound somewhere between a cat and rustling newspapers." (7) This shows great imagery of the origami and it emphasizes the magical realist aspect of the story. This vivid image allows readers to visualize the fantastical elements and understand their significance to the story.