Contemporary,

Popular and
Emergent
Literature

A Modular Approach with

Compendium of Readings

Prof. Marco D. Meduranda

Navotas Polytechnic College
 Module 2:
Analyzing
Contemporary
Literature

At the end of the week, the pre- service teacher

(PST) should be able to:
1. identify strategies for reading a work of
literature;
2. use literary terms in analyzing literature;
3. examine a sample literary analysis;
4. compose a literary analysis

2
 General Instructions

This module is focused on developing your skills

in crafting literary analysis paper. Read the ”The
Guide to Writing Literary Analysis Essay.” Then,
study the sample essay analyzing the
contemporary novels, “The House on the
Mango Street” and “The Catcher in the Rye.”

The assessment tasks at the end will allow you

to demonstrate the essential understandings,
key competencies and desired learning
outcomes for each lessons.

Connect with your teacher via the learning

management system created for this particular
course. If you have clarifications and questions,
contact him via his email:
mdmed2410@gmail.com or through the
messenger chat of the class online learning
group.

Your success to this course lies in your hands.

Good luck!

MDM
 ANALYZING LITERATURE: A GUIDE FOR
STUDENTS

THINKING ABOUT THE GENRE

Literary analysis is a genre that in many ways resembles an argument: you

make a claim about the work and support your claim with evidence from
the text as well as reasoning and analysis. The purpose of a response to
literature is to persuade the readers that your analysis and interpretation of
the work are valid, reasonable, and logical.

When you write about literature, you participate actively in the

construction of knowledge about the text. That is to say, the text itself
creates only part of its message. The writer of the work has done his or
her part to convey its meaning by using symbols, language, setting, plot,
character, foreshadowing, and the like, to suggest the text’s message.
Unlike “hard sciences,” however, literature cannot be empirically tested in
the laboratory; its meaning comes from its readers. In fact, literature begs
for readers to read, react to, think about, and interpret the text. Having
engaged in those steps, the process continues with another step:
communicating to others the meaning you, as a reader, have constructed
from the text. Your interpretation and analysis, then, add to the body of
meaning about the text.

Most likely, you have been asked to write about literature before: perhaps
you’ve read a book and written a report or review of it for your junior high
English class; perhaps you’ve studied an author and researched his or her
life and work; perhaps you’ve read a piece of literature and answered
essay questions about it on an essay exam. Because literature is a focus of
many English classes, it is likely that you have had some experience with
reading and responding to literature in your past academic life; in the
university, you will also read and respond to literature—even if you’re not
planning to major in English. Since many colleges and universities
require their students to take a literature or humanities elective, you will
probably continue reading and responding to literature in college.
As a genre, literary analysis differs from other types of writing you may
have done about literature, such as an evaluation. For instance, as an
assignment for school, you may have watched a play or read a story and
had to write a review of it. A review calls upon the writer to make an
evaluation, to describe and analyze the work in question. The purpose of
writing a review is to persuade the readers that your evaluation, which is
based on criteria, is a sound assessment of the work. (“Don’t read this
book because it lacks a clear plot.”) For example, you can find reviews of
books and music printed at online bookstores such as Amazon.com. Here
people who have read the book (or listened to the CD) provide their
evaluation of the work to potential book or music buyers to help them
make informed decisions.

With literary analysis, however, the focus is not on offering your opinion
about the work; rather, the focus is to interpret and analyze the text.
Certainly, you offer your informed opinion of the text’s interpretation, but
you do not assess the merits of the text or tell readers whether or not you
liked the work. Literary analysis, then, tends to be more objective than a
review might be. For that reason, literary analyses are written using third
person pronouns. Other features of literary analysis include a clearly
stated thesis (often called a claim) that is supported by reasons and
evidence from the text. Writers use present tense verbs to discuss the
work rather than past tense.

Why do schools put emphasis on literature? First, literature is a way to

experience a way of life, a time period, a culture, an emotion, a deed, an
event that you are not otherwise able, willing (as, say, in the case of
murder), or capable of encountering in any other manner. Literature, then,
opens doors to new and different life experiences.

Second, the critical reading skills that you bring to reading short stories,
poems, novels, plays, as well as non-fiction, are the same types of critical
reading strategies that serve you well in any other type of reading that you
do—whether it be reading a computer manual, a biology text, a legal
document, or the like. In order to write well about literature, you must be
able to read the text closely, looking at its structure, the words the author
has chosen, the characters’ motivations, the patterns of language and
literary devices. Certainly, you don’t read a biology text looking for
literary devices and uses of language; rather, you read that text searching
for an understanding of the structure of the interaction within an organism,
how the organism relates to other organisms, the biochemical pathways
involved in those interactions. However, in either case—reading a piece
of literature or a technical document—you read closely and carefully,
looking at not only what the writer is saying, but also looking at why it’s
being said and how it’s being said. Furthermore, the critical reading
strategies that you employ in reading literature heighten your sense of
observation and draw upon your life skills. For instance, as you read a
literary text and notice the characters, you have to think about and respond
to each character’s motivation. (Why did she do that? What makes her
“tick”?) Reading literature, then, enhances your critical reading skills.

Likewise, being able to write about literature demonstrates your ability to

read critically and engage in the higher level thinking skills of analysis and
interpretation. However, it is unlikely that you will write a literary
analysis paper outside of a classroom. Literary analyses tend to be only a
“school” assignment for most people (unless you work for The New
Yorker or other literary type magazines). On the other hand, the skills that
you bring both to analyzing literature and writing about it are applicable to
situations outside the classroom and to other writing assignments within
the classroom. Being able to construct a reasonable claim, supported by
evidence and logic, is essential to many other types of expository writing
tasks (as you can see from the types of writing in this text). Regardless of
the writing task or audience, it is essential to be able to communicate your
ideas clearly and effectively, whether you’re writing a feasibility report for
your boss or a literary analysis paper for your teacher.

Often, students are intimidated when it comes to writing about literature

because they feel that they do not know enough about literature to write
about it or that the author is surely hiding some meaning in the text that
they just can’t find. It is important, though, to keep in mind that readers
are integral to making meaning with literary texts. Readers complete the
writer’s work, bringing their own life experiences and ideas to it to make
meaning. Sometimes students feel as if the whole purpose of writing
about literature is to be critical of the work—and that’s difficult to do if
you happen to really like the work. Responding to literature, however,
does not have to be intimidating if you read carefully and critically,
keeping your mind set on thinking about and analyzing the text, and if you
write about an aspect of the work that sparks your interest, whether
positively or negatively.

STRATEGIES FOR READING A WORK OF LITERATURE

Like other types of reading assignments, reading literature in an effort to

respond to it requires more than just a quick read-through. In other words,
reading literature for a course or for the purpose of responding to it is
much different than reading the latest John Grisham novel while on
vacation at the beach. Reading with the intent of writing about the work
requires multiple readings of the text. When reading the Grisham novel at
the beach, we usually read the text only once and often quickly. The
following strategies offer suggestions for reading a story, poem, play, or
novel for coursework:

1. When reading through the work for the first time, read as you would at
the beach: get the “gist” of the plot (yes, poems often have a plot, too),
the characters, and a general idea of the meaning of the piece. Enjoy
the work and don’t be stressed out about any upcoming writing
assignment!
2. During the second read, pay particular attention to words that you do
not know and look up those words in the dictionary. If a word has
multiple meanings listed, consider each of the meanings. Often writers
will use antiquated or secondary meanings of words. You may find it
helpful to write the meanings of the words in the margin of the text or
on a separate note card, so that you can easily refer to them when
reading, writing, and thinking about the work. Paying attention to
word choice is especially important when reading poetry. Because
poems are often short, every word counts, which means that poets
select their words very carefully. Often in poetry, words may have
dual meanings, each of which makes sense within the poem but offers
differing interpretations.
3. Think about the setting of the work and its culture. Is the work set in
the 20th century or another time? Is it set in the U.S. or another
country? In what region of the U.S. or world? What are customs,
traditions, and lifestyles like in that particular region? What is the
socioeconomic status of the characters—are they rich, middle class,
 poor? What is the ethnicity of the characters? Considering these
issues gives valuable insight into the work’s meaning and perspective.
4. During subsequent readings, methodically begin to pay attention to
how characters interact with one another, how the writer uses words to
convey meaning, how the characters speak, who is telling (or
narrating) the story, the kinds of images the writer uses, or any other
aspect of the text that seems important to you. Ask yourself along the
way what you think about each aspect and why you think that way.
Many students find it helpful to keep a reading journal, as well, when
they read through a text. In a reading journal, you can record your
thinking about the work. As you continue analyzing the text, add to
your notes.
5. Annotating the text (by underlining or circling passages and writing in
the margins) is helpful because your annotations can refer you to
particular sections of the work later. Since you will need to draw the
evidence for your interpretation from the work itself, having already
marked sections of the work will aid you in garnering your evidence
when writing the paper later.

Terms for Analyzing Literature

Literary critics and scholars use discipline-specific terms to talk about a
work of literature. These terms make it easier for writers of literary
analyses to communicate with each other. By using the same “jargon” or
language, literary critics do not have to define common ideas constantly.
The following are terms (the definitions of which have been simplified)
that may help you as you read and write about literature:

• Character: A character is a “person” in a literary work. Characters

have moral and psychological features that make them human in some
way or another. We often think of characters as being either flat or
round. Flat characters are one-dimensional; they act stereotypically
or expectedly. Round characters, on the other hand, are more complex
in their make-up; they may act in contradictory or unexpected ways.
• Drama: This term actually has several meanings; however, in this
unit, drama refers to plays, works of literature that can be read and
performed on stage.
• Fiction: Work that comes from a writer’s imagination is considered
fiction. Types of fiction include short stories, novels, fairy tales,
folklore, and fables.
• Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing uses either action or mood to
prepare the reader for something that will happen later in the work of
fiction or drama. It is often helpful to think of foreshadowing as clues
that a detective might follow when solving a mystery. The writer
leaves hints along the way to set the stage for what is to come later.
• Narrator: The narrator of a literary work is the person who tells the
story. Sometimes the person who tells the story is a character within
the work; we call this person a first person narrator. Other times, the
story is told by someone who is not part of the action; this type of
narrator is called a third person narrator. A third person narrator can
know everything about the characters—their history, their minds, their
emotions—in which case, the narrator is considered an omniscient
narrator (“all-knowing”). An omniscient narrator can also move back
and forth through time and space. A third person narrator who has
only limited knowledge of the events and characters, or who only
knows the minds of some characters and not others, is a limited
omniscient narrator.
• Personification: Giving animals or inanimate objects human
characteristics is personification.
• Plot: The term plot refers to the action or “story line” of the literary
work. Drama and fiction have plots, but sometimes poems do also.
Plot usually involves conflict between two or more characters or
between a character and himself or herself. Traditionally, the plot of
drama or fiction follows a particular pattern, which includes the
exposition (where the conflict or action begins), the rising action (the
events that promote the conflict), the climax (the point of greatest
emotional tension in the work), and the resolution or denoument
(where the loose ends are wrapped up). However, literary works do
not have to follow this pattern.
• Setting: Setting is where the action takes place and includes both the
physical location as well as the time period.
• Symbolism: Writers use symbolism so that a person, object, or event
can create a range of emotional and intellectual responses in the
readers. For example, using a flag as a symbol might conjure patriotic
feelings in one person, anti-patriotic feelings in another, or perhaps,
 like a warning flag, a sense of danger. By using symbols, the writer
can evoke a wide body of feelings.

FOR PRACTICE

Read the following short story by Mary Robison and practice the reading
strategies offered in this section.

Mary Robison
“Yours” c. 1983

Allison struggled away from her white Renault, limping with the weight of
the last of the pumpkins. She found Clark in the twilight on the twig-and-
leaf-littered porch behind the house.

He wore a wool shawl. He was moving up and back in a padded glider,

pushed by the ball of his slippered foot.

Allison lowered a big pumpkin, let it rest on the wide floorboards.

Clark was much older—seventy-eight to Allison’s thirty-five. They were

married. They were both quite tall and looked something alike in their
facial features. Allison wore a natural-hair wig. It was a thick blonde
hood around her face. She was dressed in bright-dyed denims today. she
wore durable clothes, usually, for she volunteered afternoons at a
children’s daycare center.

She put one of the smaller pumpkins on Clark’s long lap. “Now, nothing
surreal,” she told him. “Carve just a regular face. These are for the kids.”

In the foyer, on the Hipplewhite desk, Allison found the maid’s chore list
with its cross-offs, which included Clark’s supper. Allison went quickly
through the daily mail: a garish coupon packet, a bill from Jamestown
Liquors, November’s pay-TV program guide, and the worst thing, the
funniest, an already opened, extremely unkind letter from Clark’s relations
up North. “You’re an old fool,” Allison read, and, “You’re being cruelly
deceived.” There was a gift check for Clark enclosed, but it was
uncashable, signed as it was, “Jesus H. Christ.”
Late, late into this night, Allison and Clark gutted and carved the
pumpkins together, at an old table set on the back porch, over newspaper
after soggy newspaper, with paring knives and with spoons and with a
Swiss Army knife Clark used for exact shaping of tooth and eye and
nostril. Clark had been a doctor, an internist, but also a Sunday
watercolorist. His four pumpkins were expressive and artful. Their
carved features were suited to the sizes and shapes of the pumpkins. Two
looked ferocious and jagged. One registered surprise. The last was serene
and beaming.

Allison’s four faces were less deftly drawn, with slits and areas of
distortion. She had cut triangles for noses and eyes. The mouths she had
made were just wedges—two turned up and two turned down.

By one in the morning they were finished. Clark, who had bent his long
torso forward to work, moved back over to the glider and looked out
sleepily at nothing. All the lights were out across the ravine.

Clark stayed. For the season and time, the Virginia night was warm.
Most leaves had been blown away already, and the trees stood unbothered.
The moon was round above them.

Allison cleaned up the mess.

“Your jack-o-lanterns are much, much better than mine,” Clark said to her.

“Like hell,” Allison said.

“Look at me,” Clark said. Allison did.

She was holding a squishy bundle of newspapers. The papers reeked

sweetly with the smell of pumpkin guts.

“Yours are far better ,” he said.

“You’re wrong. You’ll see when they’re lit,” Allison said.

She went inside and came back with yellow vigil candles. It took her a
while to get each candle settled, and then to line up the results in a row on
the porch railing. She went along and lit each candle and fixed the
pumpkin lids over the little flames.

“See?” she said.

They sat together a moment and looked at the orange faces.

“We’re exhausted. It’s good night time,” Allison said. “Don’t blow out
the candles. I’ll put new in tomorrow.”

That night, in their bedroom, a few weeks earlier than had been predicted,
Allison began to die. “Don’t look at me if my wig comes off,” she told
Clark. “Please.”

Her pulse cords were fluttering under his fingers. She raised her knees
and kicked away the comforter. She said something to Clark about the
garage being locked.

At the telephone, Clark had a clear view out back and down to the porch.
He wanted to get drunk with his wife once more. He wanted to tell her,
from the greater perspective he had, that to own only a little talent, like
his, was an awful, plaguing thing; that being only a little special meant
you expected too much, most of the time, and liked yourself too little. He
wanted to assure her that she had missed nothing.

He was speaking into the phone now. He watched the jack-o-lanterns.

The jack-o-lanterns watched him.

FOR CRITICAL INQUIRY

Although this story shows only one day in the life of this couple, what
does the story reveal about their lives? What specific details in the story
lead you to this interpretation?
1. Allison and Clark are of different ages. When you first read of their
age difference, what did you expect to happen in the story? Why did
you think they were together? How does our culture feel about
couples with such an age difference? By the end of the story, how do
their ages work differently than you perhaps expected?
2. Why does the story begin and end with pumpkins? How are the
pumpkins transformed from the beginning of the story to the end?
What ideas or feelings do you usually associate with pumpkins? How
might your associations work with the theme of the story? What
specific details of the story can you use to justify your thinking?
3. Why is the title of the story “Yours”? In what way does the title give
clues to the meaning of the story? What evidence from the story backs
up your analysis?
4. Why does a narrator and not one of the characters tell the story? How
would the story be different if told from the point of view of Clark?
Of Allison?

WORKING TOGETHER

Working with two or three classmates, discuss your answers to the

questions about “Yours.” Compare and contrast your thinking about the
story with that of your classmates. Did your group members have
different answers to the questions? Are their answers and yours
reasonable and valid? Why or why not?

After discussing and thinking about your different interpretations of the

story, think about why three people could read the same story and come up
with different, albeit reasonable, answers to the same questions. Together,
write a paragraph explaining your thinking.

LOOKING AT THE GENRE

Krista Williams’s essay compares and contrasts the attitudes toward

sexual relationships of the main characters of two novels, The House on
Mango Street and The Catcher in the Rye. She wrote this essay in an
Honors English course which focused on American culture. In her essay,
Williams compares and contrasts Esperanza’s and Holden’s views of sex
and relates those views to each characters’ upbringing and cultural
background.
Krista Williams

December 8, 1997

Sharon McGee

Essay #5, Final Draft

To Have Sex or Not to Have Sex:

That is the Issue

“A boy once held me so hard, I swear, I felt the grip and weight of

his arms, but it was a dream” (Cisneros 73). Esperanza, from The House

on Mango Street, dreams about having intimate relationships with men,

but she cannot make these relationships real because of legitimate fears

about the consequences of sexual relationships. Holden Caufield of The

Catcher in the Rye also has this problem of wanting to have sex while

fearing the implications of having meaningless sexual relationships. He

can’t even hire a prostitute without feeling bad about having sex: “It

made me feel sort of sad when I hung [her dress] up” (Salinger 96). Later,

he lies to the prostitute and tells her that he can’t sleep with her because of

a supposed injury to his “clavichord.” Esperanza and Holden share a

similar confusion about whether or not they want to engage in sexual

relationships and this confusion is brought about by exposure to different

environments and by unique perceptions of these environments.

Esperanza is a young Hispanic-American girl growing up in a very

poor area of Chicago. Most of the women she encounters on Mango

Street play very domestic, repressed roles in which their only power

comes in the form of sexual appeal. Esperanza is unsure about what she

wants her life to be like, because she wants to have the sexual appeal that

she sees displayed all around her, but she doesn’t want to have to deal

with the consequences of a sexual life. She wants to have intimate

relationships with men, but she doesn’t want to lose her independence and

self-respect. For instance, in one part of the novel, Esperanza tells the

reader about a boy named Sire who had exchanged deep, “hard” stares

with her. She says, “It made your blood freeze to have somebody look at

you like that” (73). From this statement, the reader can infer that

Esperanza’s experience with Sire was frightening. However, this

experience also causes her to say, “I want to sit out back at night, a boy

around my neck and the wind under my skirt. Not this way, every evening

talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I can’t see”

(73). However, Esperanza knows that if she gives in to her desires, she
will become a sex-object and a possession. Thus, she wants to have a

sexually-oriented relationship, but she can’t allow herself to do this

because she doesn’t want to become dependent upon men like most of the

women she has observed.

Esperanza wants to wield her sexual power without losing her

strength and independence. She wants to emulate the image of the

“beautiful and cruel” woman portrayed in the media who “drives the men

crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not give

it away” (89). Unfortunately, Esperanza is not able to do this because she

isn’t confident about her physical appearance, and because men are

extremely frightening to her in sexual situations.

Experanza’s beliefs stem directly from her experiences on Mango

Street. She is aware of a domestic trap which exists for the women of

Mango Street in which women get married to escape from the homes of

their parents but are dependent upon their husbands for the rest of their

lives. Esperanza recognizes that sexual relationships lead to marriage, and

that marriage leads to a long, domestic, dependent life. Because she wants

to avoid such a life, Esperanza avoids sexual relationships. She tries to

help her friends avoid this trap as well, but she is unsuccessful because her
friends don’t recognize the consequences of sexual relationships. At one

point in the novel, Esperanza’s friend, Sally, agreed to kiss some boys so

that they would give her keys back to her. Esperanza was angry at the

boys and wanted to defend her friend, so she “ran back down the three

flights to the garden where Sally needed to be saved. [She] took three big

sticks and a brick and figured this was enough” (Cisneros 97). However,

Esperanza was very confused when she arrived to find out that Sally didn’t

want to be saved. Sally was entering the trap of domesticity and there was

nothing Esperanza could do to stop her. Later, Sally married an abusive

marshmallow salesman who never let her out of the house and was trapped

for life. This example shows the reader what life might have been like for

Esperanza if she had not avoided sexual relationships.

Esperanza was lucky enough not to end up like her friend.

Unfortunately, there were some instances when she was unable to avoid

sexual encounters, and these experiences were very violent and frightening

for her. The first man who ever kissed her passionately was an old

Oriental man who befriended her at work and then grabbed her when she

agreed to give him a birthday kiss. Later, Esperanza was raped by an

older boy when she went to a carnival with Sally. Because of the violence
and violation involved in these first sexual encounters, it is reasonable to

assume that Esperanza doesn’t want to be a part of similar experiences.

Thus, it is very difficult for Esperanza to come to terms with the kinds of

sexual relationships which she wants and the kinds of relationships which

she has experienced. She wants to have an intimate relationship, but

doesn’t want to be vulnerable.

Holden Caufield’s confusion with sex in The Catcher in the Rye is

very similar to that of Esperanza, but his confusion stems from a very

different problem. Holden likes women and wants to have sex with them,

but he feels bad about his desires because he feels that it’s wrong to sleep

with women that he doesn’t care about. At one point, Holden tells the

reader, “I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around

with her at all” (62). However, most of the women he has sexual relations

with give him a “pain in the ass” (Salinger 63). Thus, he’s caught in the

confusion of wanting to be sexually active but not wanting to do anything

“crumby.” For example, to demonstrate how much he doesn’t understand

sex, he states the following: “I keep making these sex rules for myself,

and then breaking them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was

going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in
the ass. I broke it, though” (63). Holden really wants sex to be part of an

intimate, emotional relationship, but he usually just ends up in

relationships with girls that he doesn’t really care about. This confuses

and depresses him.

Holden is so caught up in the romantic ideals of sex that he is

repulsed by its realities. He wants to exist in a fantasy world with the girls

he’s romantically tied to, so he makes up ridiculous plans about running

away with his former girlfriend, Sally (who he doesn’t even like), living in

the mountains together, and chopping firewood for her. This is also why

he thinks about his old friend, Jane, so much. Jane is the only girl who he

has ever respected and felt emotionally attached to, so throughout the

book, he’s preoccupied with thoughts of her. More specifically, Holden

repeatedly mentions the fact that Jane “keeps all her kings in the back

row” when playing checkers (Salinger 42). This detail is included to

illustrate how much Holden cares about her, since the reader knows that

he appreciates her personality quirks and her innocence instead of only

appreciating her body.

Holden thinks it’s “crumby” to sleep with a girl that he’s not

particularly attached to because of the social mythology that sex is a part

of romantic, caring relationships. Unfortunately, the only girl he actually

cares about (Jane) supposedly has sex with Stradlater, Holden’s roommate

from Pencey Prep. This makes Holden very angry. He feels like his

meaningful relationship with Jane has been violated by Stradlater, so he

picks a fight with him. Later, Holden looks for sexual relationships with

other women, but is unable to follow through with them because he sees

himself as violating the principles in which be believes.

Holden’s ideas about sex come indirectly from exposure to an

environment very different from Esperanza’s world on Mango Street.

While Esperanza lives in a very poor, low-class neighborhood, Holden

Caufield comes from an affluent part of New York City and has attended

several expensive boarding schools on the East Coast. Holden’s upper-

class environment has severely depressed him because he perceives

himself to be surrounded by “phony” people and inconsistent social

conventions. Throughout the novel, he searches for something real that he

can admire and emulate. It is this quest for reality which makes Holden

unhappy and confused about most areas of his life, including the area of

sexual relationships. Holden’s society has projected an image of sex as

part of a relationship between people who love each other deeply, and
marriage is usually involved in this. However, most of the sexual

relationships which he observes are very superficial. This double standard

of society depresses Holden just as much as all the other double standards

he observes, so he can’t have sexual relations with a girl without

becoming unhappy and confused.

Perhaps this common confusion of Holden and Esperanza stems

from similar struggles that both characters participate in. Holden and

Esperanza want to give in to their sexual desires, but neither character

wants to become a part of his or her adult world. Because Esperanza is

trying to avoid the traditional life and duties of a grown woman, her

struggle with her sexual desires can be seen as a fight to retain the

innocence of childhood. Similarly, Holden doesn’t want to become a part

of the conventional adult life which is filled with double-standards,

responsibilities, and uncertainties. Through his frequent admiration of

children and their activities, Holden indicates that he wants to remain

childlike and innocent. He always seems to be looking for sex, but the

reader knows that he remains a virgin throughout the novel. Because

virginity is often associated with innocence, perhaps Holden’s sexual

confusion is a continuation of his struggle to maintain his childlike

innocence in a “phony” adult world. Thus Holden and Esperanza want to

keep their innocence and avoid living lives similar to those of the adults

around them.

Both Holden and Esperanza are looking for meaningful sexual

relationship in their lives, but neither knows how to find one. Esperanza is

afraid of becoming a sexual possession and Holden is afraid of becoming a

part of the phony world which disgusts him. However, both characters’

ideas about sex have been derived from observations about their respective

environments and from the decisions which they have made to

differentiate themselves from those environments. Neither character

wants to be like the people who they observe in their everyday lives, so

they avoid having sex, even though they both have strong sexual desires.

Perhaps when Holden comes to terms with his phony world, he will be

able to have a meaningful relationship with a woman without feeling

guilty about the implications of sex. Similarly, when Esperanza finally

escapes Mango Street, she won’t have to view sex and marriage as

domestic traps, and will be able to find fulfillment in her life.

 Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage

Books, 1984.

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and

Company, 1951.
ANALYSIS

Krista Williams’s essay begins by setting up the contrast between

Esperanza and Holden, then proceeds to discuss each character’s view of
sex separately. She writes her essay in third person, without using “I,” and
she uses present tense verbs when talking about the text, which are
common features of literary analyses. Although she does not cite from
outside sources, Williams uses plenty of evidence from the texts to support
her argument about each character’s sexual issues, and she connects those
views to the characters’ cultural perspective. Especially important to note
is the fact that Williams does not rely on plot summary to tell us about the
complete story of Esperanza and Holden; rather she brings in appropriate
background detail only to support the point she is making. She assumes,
then, that the essay’s readers will have some familiarity with the texts.

FOR CRITICAL INQUIRY

1. Literary analyses make an argument about a text (or texts, as in this

case) and support that claim with evidence. In your own words,
summarize Williams’s argument in this essay. Now consider the
evidence that she uses to support her claim. How many times does
Williams quote directly from each text? How often does she
paraphrase or summarize information from the texts? Why does she
choose to quote particular passages and paraphrase or summarize
others? How do quotations support her claim differently than
summaries?
2. Develop a detailed outline of Williams’s essay. How does each
paragraph function in the essay? In other words, how do the
paragraphs work together to create an argument?
3. You may have noticed how Williams integrates quoted material into
her paragraphs. For instance, in paragraph 2 she writes: “However,
this experience also causes her to say, ‘I want to sit out bad at night, a
boy around my neck and the wind under my skirt. Not this way, every
evening talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I
can’t see.’ (73).” Why does Williams connect the quoted material to
the paragraph in such ways? How does this integration of quoted
material help the overall flow of the essay?
CALL TO WRITE: RESPONDING TO LITERATURE

Writing Assignment
For this assignment, write about a piece of literature you’ve been assigned
to read for your course. Your essay should be an argument that provides
your interpretation/analysis of the work and supports that claim with
appropriate and sufficient details (evidence) from the work. Unless your
instructor specifies otherwise, your interpretation should come from your
own reading and thinking about the work—not from critical or literary
analyses you have read about it.

INVENTION

Exploring Your Topic

To get ready to write your analysis, it may help you to examine what you
already think about the text after your initial reading.

Exercise
In your reading journal or notebook, write about your initial reaction to the
text you’ve selected. Doing so will give you a place to begin further
analysis of the work. When you write, don’t worry if your answers seem
incomplete or insufficient; however, try to respond to these questions with
as much detail as you can at this point. As you review your writing,
though, and re-read the text, keep in mind the gaps in this crash-through
writing. Those gaps will provide clues to particular points in the text that
you will want to analyze further. Consider the following questions as
points of departure for your crash-through journal writing:
• What is my “gut reaction” to this text? Do I like the work? What,
specifically, do I like or dislike about it?
• Do I like the characters? Why? Are there any characters that I
dislike? Why?
• How are the experiences of this character (or these characters) like or
unlike my own experiences? Does the difference in our experience
make the work more difficult to understand? Does the similarity in
our experience make me connect with the character(s) more closely?
• What is the setting of the work? What do I know about this setting?
How is it like or unlike my own experience?
• What recurring images or objects did I notice in the work? What
might they mean? Do those objects have any cultural significance?
• What is the title of the work and why did the author choose that title?
What alternative titles might the author have chosen and why?
• Who is “telling” the story? Why did the author select this character to
tell the story? How would the story be different if told from someone
else’s point of view?
• Why might the author have written this work?

Exercise
After your initial reading, follow the reading strategies outlined previously
as you read through the work several more times to prepare for your
writing assignment

Cultural and Historical Perspectives

One way to analyze literature is to think about the cultural and historical
perspectives of the piece. When literary work that was either written
several years, decades, or even centuries ago, it is often easy for us to
forget to place that particular piece of literature in a specific historical
framework. It is easy to forget that the world was not as advanced as it is
today. It’s easy to overlook the fact that cultural and societal mores have
changed. For example, if we’re reading Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a
Mockingbird, we might be appalled at the way the townspeople treated
African-Americans in their community. We might wonder why the jury
consisted of all white men, no women or African-Americans. To
understand the novel, though, it is important to investigate the cultural and
historical moments of the text. In other words, we might need to research
civil rights in the South during the 1950s to begin to understand why this
particular text was so important in its time and why that impact is still felt
today. For another example, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a novel about
horrible working and sanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry in
Chicago early in this century, may seem bizarre to us when we currently
have strict government regulations regarding the handling and processing
of food products as well as “labor laws” to protect the worker. However,
at the time Sinclair wrote the novel, those regulations were not in place.
Workers were not guaranteed any safety or health controls in the
workplace. No government regulations existed concerning the processing
of food products. However, as a result of the book, many of these issues
came into the forefront of American thinking and changes resulted.

Other Perspectives for Analyzing Literature

Other than exploring the historical and cultural perspectives of the work,
there are other ways to analyze literature, including psychological,
Marxist, biographical, and feminist. These methods are often employed
by literary critics who want to revisit texts with new frameworks or lens to
understand the text in new and different ways. It is beyond the scope of
this guide to give you background into these varied ways of reading a text.
However, one of the more traditional ways to analyze a text is by using a
formalist perspective.

In the formalist perspective, the text is viewed to be a complete unit that

stands on its own without consideration to external issues such as history,
economics, biography, and the like. When using a formalist perspective,
you will focus on the text itself and its use of literary devices, tone, and
language. Formalist critics examine how the text works as a whole unit:
how, for instance, do language and characterization create a unified text.
The formalist perspective is often called a “close reading” because, with
this method of analysis, you pay close attention to what’s in the
work—not what’s outside it.

Exercise
Choose one element (such as characters, tone, or symbols) of one literary
work you’ve been assigned to read for your course. Think critically about
this element. Why might the writer have opted for this particular
character, tone, or symbol? How many possible reasons can you come up
with? How would the work be different if he or she had chosen a different
character, tone, or symbol? How does the element make the text “work”?

GOING ON-LINE

The Internet can be a resource for discussing your literary text with others.
Perhaps your instructor has arranged a class listserv in which you and your
peers can share ideas about your texts. You may also be able to find
forums at other universities in which you can discuss your thoughts about
the work. For example, using an Internet search on The Catcher in the
Rye, you might come across a website based at Palo Alto College in which
Palo Alto students as well as other “surfers” can participate in a forum on
the novel. The web site, which is currently under construction at the time
of this publication, also has links to other resources about the novel; in
addition, the site plans to post student papers about the novel so that you
can see what other students have to say about The Catcher in the Rye.
You can browse this website at http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/salinger.html.

PLANNING

Developing a Claim
A strong literary analysis requires a central, controlling claim—the main
argument you plan to support in your essay. Literary critics, academics in
the field of literary studies, may or may not state their claim early in the
essay; nevertheless, they have a claim in mind when writing. Without a
clear claim, the essay goes nowhere—it rambles, making points that seem
unrelated.

Exercise
Review the notes that you have taken while reading the text you’ve
chosen. As you reflect on these notes, what strikes you as an interesting
issue about the text? What idea do you keep thinking about or coming
back to in your notes? Most likely, what interests you will interest your
audience as well. Write your claim as a complete sentence, keeping in
mind that you should state it in third person.

Arranging Your Material

To build your argument you need to garner effective and appropriate
evidence from the text to support your claim. Linking that evidence
together as a chain is also important. A chain of evidence often relies
upon “mini-claims,” or smaller ideas that build upon one another to create
a solid wall of argument. Notice how Williams builds her mini-claims in
the first part of her essay:

• Paragraph 2: Esperanza sees women in her neighborhood playing

subservient roles to men; she sees them as powerless. They use sex as
a weapon.
• Paragraph 3: Esperanza wants power, strength, and independence.
• Paragraph 4: Esperanza fears sex because she sees sex as a way
women become entrapped in dependent relationships with men.
• Paragraph 5: Esperanza encounters sexual relationships with men that
leave her vulnerable. These experiences reinforce her views of sex
and power.

Each paragraph takes one aspect of the total argument, supports it with
details/evidence from the text, and offers the writer’s analysis of the point.
Together, the paragraphs create a unified argument: each point builds on
the previous one.

Exercise
Above you see the first part of an outline for Williams’s paper. Continue
developing an outline for the remaining part of the paper, particularly on
her discussion of Holden. Write the mini-claims she uses to build her
case.

Writers of literary analyses often use one of the following types of

arrangement:

• Chronological.
• Comparison and contrast.
• Least important to most important or most important to least
important.

Exercise
To begin, write the mini-claims you will need to make in each paragraph
in order to build your argument. Then, consider the evidence from the text
that you can use to support each mini-claim. Do you have any gaps
without evidence? If so, review your notes and search the text for
anecdotes that bolster your claim.

WORKING DRAFT

Using the working outline you have developed, write a draft of your
literary analysis. While you are writing, you may want to consider the
issues raised in Paragraph Development and Citing from Literary Texts.
Paragraph Development: Sandwiching Information
One technique for developing paragraphs in a literary analysis paper is to
link your mini-claim to solid textual evidence. Since a strong literary
analysis relies on evidence from the text itself, this is a helpful strategy to
follow. In addition, though, you must be sure to connect your evidence in
your own words to the point that you are making. You cannot assume that
your reader will see the connection between the evidence you cite and the
claim you are making. Notice in Krista Williams’s essay how she states
her mini-claim, explains it, supports it with information that is either
quoted directly or paraphrased from the text, explains the paraphrase or
quote, then brings in more evidence. This explanation of material is
sometimes called a “sandwich effect”: You tell the reader what the quote
or paraphrase means to the overall argument. The sandwich effect does
not imply that your readers are stupid. However, since we all read
material different ways and since you are taking the paraphrase or quote
out of the entire context of the work, your explanation helps the reader
understand how you are interpreting the citation. Think of the sandwich
effect as the mortar between bricks in a wall: it fills in any gaps that the
reader may have and makes for a solid argument.

Along with paraphrases and quotes, you may want to summarize sections
of the text for the readers; however, you want to avoid a plot summary in
which you summarize the entire plot for the reader. When you use a
summary in a literary analysis, you will want to summarize only a section
of the text, picking out the main idea and relating it to your purpose or
claim. Another way to use a summary in a literary analysis is to
summarize events leading up to a particular quote that you want to use. In
this case, your summary will be very brief, perhaps one or two sentences,
and simply will set the stage for the quote. Review “Paragraph
Development: Using Summaries” in Chapter 8 of the main text for help
with how and when to summarize.

Citing from Literary Texts

When quoting from literature, it is important to keep in mind MLA
conventions. (Most literary analyses use the MLA documentation system
instead of APA.) Refer to Chapter 17 for a detailed discussion of MLA
format. The following sections address particular concerns for citing from
literary works.
 Assessment Tasks

• Read the short story, “Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu and compose a literary
analysis essay.
• Follow the guide given and refer to the sample literary analysis essay.
• Use the checklist below to quality assure your essay.

4
 THE PAPER MENAGERIE

The Paper Menagerie 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. This was
Ken Liu
her magic.

Dad had picked Mom out of a catalogue.

One of my earliest memories starts with me sobbing. I One time, when I was in high school, I asked Dad about
refused to be soothed no matter what Mom and Dad tried. the details. He was trying to get me to speak to Mom again.
Dad gave up and left the bedroom, but Mom took me He had signed up for the introduction service back in
into the kitchen and sat me down at the breakfast table. the spring of 1973. Flipping through the pages steadily, he
“Kan, kan.” Look, look, she said, as she pulled a sheet of had spent no more than a few seconds on each page until he
wrapping paper from on top of the fridge. For years, Mom saw the picture of Mom.
carefully sliced open the wrappings around Christmas gifts I’ve never seen this picture. Dad described it: Mom was
and saved them on top of the fridge in a thick stack. sitting in a chair, her side to the camera, wearing a tight
She set the paper down, plain side facing up, and began green silk cheongsam. Her head was turned to the camera
to fold it. I stopped crying and watched her, curious. so that her long black hair was draped artfully over her
She turned the paper over and folded it again. She pleated, chest and shoulder. She looked out at him with the eyes of
packed, tucked, rolled, and twisted until the paper disappeared a calm child.
between her cupped hands. Then she lifted the folded-up “That was the last page of the catalogue I saw,” he said.
paper packet to her mouth and blew into it, like a balloon. The catalogue said she was eighteen, loved to dance,
“Kan,” she said. “Laohu.” Look, a tiger. She put her hands and spoke good English because she was from Hong Kong.
down on the table and let go. A little paper tiger stood on the None of these facts turned out to be true.
table, the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger He wrote to her, and the company passed their messages
was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background back and forth. Finally, he flew to Hong Kong to meet her.
with red candy canes and green Christmas trees. “The people at the company had been writing her
I reached out to Mom’s creation. Its tail twitched, and it responses. She didn’t know any English other than ‘hello’
pounced playfully at my finger. “Rawrr-sa,” it growled, the and ‘good-bye’.”
sound somewhere between a cat and rustling newspapers. What kind of woman puts herself into a catalogue so that
I laughed, startled, and stroked its back with my index she can be bought? The high school me thought I knew so
finger. The paper tiger vibrated under my finger, purring. much about everything. Contempt felt good, like wine.
“Zhe jiao zhezhi,” Mom said. This is called origami. Instead of storming into the office to demand his money

26 27
 KEN LIU THE PAPER MENAGERIE

back, he paid a waitress at the hotel restaurant to translate with tape. He avoided birds after that.
for them. And then one day, I saw a TV documentary about
“She would look at me, her eyes halfway between scared sharks and asked Mom for one of my own. She made the
and hopeful, while I spoke. And when the girl began shark, but he flapped about on the table unhappily. I filled
translating what I said, she’d start to smile slowly.” He flew the sink with water, and put him in. He swam around and
back to Connecticut and began to apply for the papers for her around happily. However, after a while he became soggy
to come to him. I was born a year later, in the Year of the Tiger. and translucent, and slowly sank to the bottom, the folds
coming undone. I reached in to rescue him, and all I ended
*** up with was a wet piece of paper.
Laohu put his front paws together at the edge of the sink
At my request, Mom also made a goat, a deer, and and rested his head on them. Ears drooping, he made a low
a water buffalo out of wrapping paper. They would run growl in his throat that made me feel guilty.
around the living room while Laohu chased after them, Mom made a new shark for me, this time out of tinfoil.
growling. When he caught them he would press down until The shark lived happily in a large goldfish bowl. Laohu
the air went out of them and they became just flat, folded- and I liked to sit next to the bowl to watch the tinfoil shark
up pieces of paper. I would then have to blow into them to chasing the goldfish, Laohu sticking his face up against the
re-inflate them so they could run around some more. bowl on the other side so that I saw his eyes, magnified to
Sometimes, the animals got into trouble. Once, the the size of coffee cups, staring at me from across the bowl.
water buffalo jumped into a dish of soy sauce on the table
at dinner. (He wanted to wallow, like a real water buffalo.) I When I was ten, we moved to a new house across town.
picked him out quickly but the capillary action had already Two of the women neighbours came by to welcome us.
pulled the dark liquid high up into his legs. The sauce- Dad served them drinks and then apologized for having to
softened legs would not hold him up, and he collapsed onto run off to the utility company to straighten out the prior
the table. I dried him out in the sun, but his legs became owner’s bills. “Make yourselves at home. My wife doesn’t
crooked after that, and he ran around with a limp. Mom speak much English, so don’t think she’s being rude for not
eventually wrapped his legs in saran wrap so that he could talking to you.”
wallow to his heart’s content (just not in soy sauce). While I read in the dining room, Mom unpacked in the
Also, Laohu liked to pounce at sparrows when he and I kitchen. The neighbours conversed in the living room, not
played in the backyard. But one time, a cornered bird struck trying to be particularly quiet.
back in desperation and tore his ear. He whimpered and “He seems like a normal enough man. Why did he do
winced as I held him and Mom patched his ear together that?”

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 KEN LIU THE PAPER MENAGERIE

“Something about the mixing never seems right. The child longer as nimble and sure-footed as before. I sat him down
looks unfinished. Slanty eyes, white face. A little monster.” on the coffee table. I could hear the skittering steps of the
“Do you think he can speak English?” other animals behind in the hallway, timidly peeking into
The women hushed. After a while they came into the the living room.
dining room. “Xiao laohu,” I said, and stopped. I switched to English.
“Hello there! What’s your name?” “This is Tiger.” Cautiously, Laohu strode up and purred at
“Jack,” I said. Mark, sniffing his hands.
“That doesn’t sound very Chinesey.” Mark examined the Christmas-wrap pattern of Laohu’s
Mom came into the dining room then. She smiled at skin. “That doesn’t look like a tiger at all. Your Mom makes
the women. The three of them stood in a triangle around toys for you from trash?”
me, smiling and nodding at each other, with nothing to say, I had never thought of Laohu as trash. But looking at
until Dad came back. him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper.
Mark pushed Obi-Wan’s head again. The lightsaber
*** flashed; he moved his arms up and down. “Use the Force!”
Laohu turned and pounced, knocking the plastic figure
Mark, one of the neighbourhood boys, came over with off the table. It hit the floor and broke and Obi-Wan’s head
his Star Wars action figures. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s light sabre rolled under the couch.
lit up and he could swing his arms and say, in a tinny voice, “Rawwww,” Laohu laughed. I joined him.
“Use the Force!” I didn’t think the figure looked much like Mark punched me, hard. “This was very expensive! You
the real Obi-Wan at all. can’t even find it in the stores now. It probably cost more
Together, we watched him repeat this performance five than what your Dad paid for your Mom!”
times on the coffee table. “Can he do anything else?” I asked. I stumbled and fell to the floor. Laohu growled and leapt
Mark was annoyed by my question. “Look at all the at Mark’s face.
details,” he said. Mark screamed, more out of fear and surprise than pain.
I looked at the details. I wasn’t sure what I was Laohu was only made of paper, after all.
supposed to say. Mark grabbed Laohu and his snarl was choked off as
Mark was disappointed by my response. “Show me your toys.” Mark crumpled him in his hand and tore him in half. He
I didn’t have any toys except my paper menagerie. I balled up the two pieces of paper and threw them at me.
brought Laohu out from my bedroom. By then he was very “Here’s your stupid cheap Chinese garbage.”
worn, patched all over with tape and glue, evidence of the After Mark left, I spent a long time trying, without
years of repairs Mom and I had done on him. He was no success, to tape together the pieces, smooth out the paper,

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 KEN LIU THE PAPER MENAGERIE

and follow the creases to refold Laohu. Slowly, the other Mom reached out to touch my forehead, feeling for my
animals came into the living room and gathered around us, temperature.
me and the torn wrapping paper that used to be Laohu. “Fashao la?” Do you have a fever?
I brushed her hand away. “I’m fine. Speak English!” I
My fight with Mark didn’t end there. Mark was popular was shouting.
at school. I never want to think again about the two weeks “Speak English to him,” Dad said to Mom. “You knew
that followed. this was going to happen someday. What did you expect?”
I came home that Friday at the end of the two weeks. Mom dropped her hands to her sides. She sat, looking
“Xuexiao hao ma?” Mom asked. How was school? I said from Dad to me, and back to Dad again. She tried to speak,
nothing and went to the bathroom. I looked into the mirror. stopped, and tried again, and stopped again.
I look nothing like her, nothing. “You have to,” Dad said. “I’ve been too easy on you. Jack
At dinner I asked Dad, “Do I have a chink face?” needs to fit in.”
Dad put down his chopsticks. Even though I had Mom looked at him. “If I say ‘love,’ I feel here.” She
never told him what happened in school, he seemed to pointed to her lips. “If I say ‘ai,’ I feel here.” She put her
understand. He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his hand over her heart.
nose. “No. You don’t.” Dad shook his head. “You are in America.”
Mom looked at Dad, not understanding. She looked Mom hunched down in her seat, looking like the water
back at me. “Sha jiao chink?” What does chink mean? buffalo when Laohu used to pounce on him and squeeze
“English,” I said. “Speak English.” the air of life out of him.
She tried. “What happen?” “And I want some real toys.”
I pushed the chopsticks and the bowl before me away:
stir-fried green peppers with five-spice beef. “We should eat Dad bought me a full set of Star Wars action figures. I
American food.” gave the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mark.
Dad tried to reason. “A lot of families cook Chinese I packed the paper menagerie in a large shoebox and put
sometimes.” it under the bed.
“We are not other families.” I looked at him. Other The next morning, the animals had escaped and taken over
families don’t have Moms who don’t belong. their old favourite spots in my room. I caught them all and put
He looked away. And then he put a hand on Mom’s shoulder. them back into the shoebox, taping the lid shut. But the animals
“I’ll get you a cookbook.” made so much noise in the box that I finally shoved it into the
Mom turned to me. “Bu haochi?” The food doesn’t taste good? corner of the attic as far away from my room as possible.
“English,” I said, raising my voice. “Speak English.” If Mom spoke to me in Chinese, I refused to answer her.

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 KEN LIU THE PAPER MENAGERIE

After a while, she tried to use more English. But her accent Dad and I stood, one on each side of Mom, lying on
and broken sentences embarrassed me. I tried to correct her. the hospital bed. She was not yet even forty, but she looked
Eventually, she stopped speaking altogether if I was around. much older.
Mom began to mime things if she needed to let me know For years she had refused to go to the doctor for the
something. She tried to hug me the way she saw American pain inside her that she said was no big deal. By the time an
mothers do on TV. I thought her movements exaggerated, ambulance finally carried her in, the cancer had spread far
uncertain, ridiculous, graceless. She saw that I was annoyed, beyond the limits of surgery.
and stopped. My mind was not in the room. It was the middle of
“You shouldn’t treat your mother that way,” Dad said. the on-campus recruiting season, and I was focused on
But he couldn’t look me in the eyes as he said it. Deep in his resumes, transcripts, and strategically constructed interview
heart, he must have realised that it was a mistake to have schedules. I schemed about how to lie to the corporate
tried to take a Chinese peasant girl and expect her to fit in recruiters most effectively so that they’d offer to buy me. I
the suburbs of Connecticut. understood intellectually that it was terrible to think about
Mom learned to cook American style. I played video this while your mother lay dying. But that understanding
games and studied French. didn’t mean I could change how I felt.
Every once in a while, I would see her at the kitchen She was conscious. Dad held her left hand with both of
table studying the plain side of a sheet of wrapping paper. his own. He leaned down to kiss her forehead. He seemed
Later a new paper animal would appear on my nightstand weak and old in a way that startled me. I realized that I
and try to cuddle up to me. I caught them, squeezed them knew almost as little about Dad as I did about Mom.
until the air went out of them, and then stuffed them away Mom smiled at him. “I’m fine.”
in the box in the attic. She turned to me, still smiling. “I know you have to go back
Mom finally stopped making the animals when I was to school.” Her voice was very weak and it was difficult to hear
in high school. By then her English was much better, but her over the hum of the machines hooked up to her. “Go. Don’t
I was already at that age when I wasn’t interested in what worry about me. This is not a big deal. Just do well in school.”
she had to say whatever language she used. I reached out to touch her hand, because I thought that was
Sometimes, when I came home and saw her tiny body what I was supposed to do. I was relieved. I was already thinking
busily moving about in the kitchen, singing a song in about the flight back, and the bright California sunshine.
Chinese to herself, it was hard for me to believe that she gave She whispered something to Dad. He nodded and left
birth to me. We had nothing in common. She might as well the room.
be from the Moon. I would hurry on to my room, where I “Jack, if — ” she was caught up in a fit of coughing, and
could continue my all-American pursuit of happiness. could not speak for some time. “If I…don’t make it, don’t be

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 KEN LIU THE PAPER MENAGERIE

too sad and hurt your health. Focus on your life. Just keep for him and had to be sold. My girlfriend Susan and I went
that box you have in the attic with you, and every year, at to help him pack and clean the place.
Qingming, just take it out and think about me. I’ll be with Susan found the shoebox in the attic. The paper
you always.” menagerie, hidden in the non-insulated darkness of the attic
Qingming was the Chinese Festival for the Dead. When for so long, had become brittle, and the bright wrapping
I was very young, Mom used to write a letter on Qingming paper patterns had faded.
to her dead parents back in China, telling them the good “I’ve never seen origami like this,” Susan said. “Your
news about the past year of her life in America. She would mum was an amazing artist.”
read the letter out loud to me, and if I made a comment The paper animals did not move. Perhaps whatever
about something, she would write it down in the letter too. magic had animated them stopped when Mom died. Or
Then she would fold the letter into a paper crane, and perhaps I had only imagined that these paper constructions
release it, facing west. We would then watch, as the crane were once alive. The memory of children could not be
flapped its crisp wings on its long journey west, toward the trusted.
Pacific, toward China, toward the graves of Mom’s family.
It had been many years since I last did that with her. It was the first weekend in April, two years after Mom’s
“I don’t know anything about the Chinese calendar,” I death. Susan was out of town on one of her endless trips as
said. “Just rest, Mom.” a Management Consultant and I was home, lazily flipping
“Just keep the box with you and open it once in a while. through the TV channels.
Just open — ” She began to cough again. I paused at a documentary about sharks. Suddenly I
“It’s okay, Mom.” I stroked her arm awkwardly. saw, in my mind, Mom’s hands as they folded and refolded
“Haizi, mama ai ni — ” Her cough took over again. Son, tinfoil to make a shark for me, while Laohu and I watched.
Mom loves you. An image from years ago flashed into my A rustle. I looked up and saw that a ball of wrapping
memory: Mom saying ai and then putting her hand over paper and torn tape was on the floor next to the bookshelf.
her heart. I walked over to pick it up for the trash.
“All right, Mom. Stop talking.” The ball of paper shifted, unfurled itself, and I saw that it
Dad came back, and I said that I needed to get to the was Laohu, who I hadn’t thought about in a very long time.
airport early because I didn’t want to miss my flight. “Rawrr-sa.” Mom must have put him back together after I
She died when my plane was somewhere over Nevada. had given up.
He was smaller than I remembered. Or maybe it was just
*** that back then my fists were smaller.
Dad aged rapidly after Mom died. The house was too big Susan had put the paper animals around our apartment

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as decoration. She probably left Laohu in a hidden corner Son,

because he looked so shabby.
I sat down on the floor, and reached out a finger. Laohu’s We haven’t talked in a long time. You are so angry
tail twitched, and he pounced playfully. I laughed, stroking when I try to touch you that I’m afraid. And I think maybe
his back. Laohu purred under my hand. this pain I feel all the time now is something serious.
“How’ve you been, old buddy?” So I decided to write to you. I’m going to write in the
Laohu stopped playing. He got up, jumped with feline paper animals I made for you that you used to like so
grace into my lap, and proceeded to unfold himself. much.
In my lap was a square of creased wrapping paper, the The animals will stop moving when I stop breathing.
plain side up. It was filled with dense Chinese characters. I But if I write to you with all my heart, I’ll leave a little of
had never learned to read Chinese, but I knew the characters myself behind on this paper, in these words. Then, if you
for son, and they were at the top, where you’d expect them think of me on Qingming, when the spirits of the departed
in a letter addressed to you, written in Mom’s awkward, are allowed to visit their families, you’ll make the parts
childish handwriting. of myself I leave behind come alive too. The creatures I
I went to the computer to check the Internet. Today was made for you will again leap and run and pounce, and
Qingming. maybe you’ll get to see these words then.
Because I have to write with all my heart, I need to
I took the letter with me downtown, where I knew write to you in Chinese.
the Chinese tour buses stopped. I stopped every tourist, All this time I still haven’t told you the story of my
asking, “Nin hui du zhongwen ma?” Can you read Chinese? life. When you were little, I always thought I’d tell you the
I hadn’t spoken Chinese in so long that I wasn’t sure if they story when you were older, so you could understand. But
understood. somehow that chance never came up.
A young woman agreed to help. We sat down on a bench I was born in 1957, in Sigulu Village, Hebei Province.
together, and she read the letter to me aloud. The language Your grandparents were both from very poor peasant
that I had tried to forget for years came back, and I felt families with few relatives. Only a few years after I was
the words sinking into me, through my skin, through my born, the Great Famines struck China, during which thirty
bones, until they squeezed tight around my heart. million people died. The first memory I have was waking
up to see my mother eating dirt so that she could fill her
belly and leave the last bit of flour for me.
Things got better after that. Sigulu is famous for its
zhezhi papercraft, and my mother taught me how to make

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paper animals and give them life. This was practical the warehouse a fee and came by to look us over and select
magic in the life of the village. We made paper birds one of us to “adopt.”
to chase grasshoppers away from the fields, and paper The Chin family picked me to take care of their two
tigers to keep away the mice. For Chinese New Year my boys. I got up every morning at four to prepare breakfast.
friends and I made red paper dragons. I’ll never forget I fed and bathed the boys. I shopped for food. I did the
the sight of all those little dragons zooming across the sky laundry and swept the floors. I followed the boys around
overhead, holding up strings of exploding firecrackers to and did their bidding. At night I was locked into a cupboard
scare away all the bad memories of the past year. You in the kitchen to sleep. If I was slow or did anything wrong I
would have loved it. was beaten. If the boys did anything wrong I was beaten. If
Then came the Cultural Revolution in 1966. I was caught trying to learn English I was beaten.
Neighbour turned on neighbour, and brother against “Why do you want to learn English?” Mr. Chin asked.
brother. Someone remembered that my mother’s “You want to go to the police? We’ll tell the police that you
brother, my uncle, had left for Hong Kong back in are a mainlander illegally in Hong Kong. They’d love to
1946, and became a merchant there. Having a relative have you in their prison.”
in Hong Kong meant we were spies and enemies of the Six years I lived like this. One day, an old woman who
people, and we had to be struggled against in every sold fish to me in the morning market pulled me aside.
way. Your poor grandmother — she couldn’t take the “I know girls like you. How old are you now, sixteen?
abuse and threw herself down a well. Then some boys One day, the man who owns you will get drunk, and he’ll
with hunting muskets dragged your grandfather away look at you and pull you to him and you can’t stop him.
one day into the woods, and he never came back. The wife will find out, and then you will think you really
There I was, a ten-year-old orphan. The only relative I have gone to hell. You have to get out of this life. I know
had in the world was my uncle in Hong Kong. I snuck away someone who can help.”
one night and climbed onto a freight train going south. She told me about American men who wanted Asian
Down in Guangdong Province a few days later, some wives. If I can cook, clean, and take care of my American
men caught me stealing food from a field. When they heard husband, he’ll give me a good life. It was the only hope I
that I was trying to get to Hong Kong, they laughed. “It’s had. And that was how I got into the catalogue with all
your lucky day. Our trade is to bring girls to Hong Kong.” those lies and met your father. It is not a very romantic
They hid me in the bottom of a truck along with other story, but it is my story. In the suburbs of Connecticut, I
girls, and smuggled us across the border. was lonely. Your father was kind and gentle with me, and
We were taken to a basement and told to stand up and I was very grateful to him. But no one understood me,
look healthy and intelligent for the buyers. Families paid and I understood nothing.

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But then you were born! I was so happy when I looked The young woman handed the paper back to me. I could
into your face and saw shades of my mother, my father, not bear to look into her face.
and myself. I had lost my entire family, all of Sigulu, Without looking up, I asked for her help in tracing out
everything I ever knew and loved. But there you were, the character for ai on the paper below Mom’s letter. I wrote
and your face was proof that they were real. I hadn’t the character again and again on the paper, intertwining my
made them up. pen strokes with her words.
Now I had someone to talk to. I would teach you my The young woman reached out and put a hand on my
language, and we could together remake a small piece of shoulder. Then she got up and left, leaving me alone with
everything that I loved and lost. When you said your first my mother.
words to me, in Chinese that had the same accent as my Following the creases, I refolded the paper back into
mother and me, I cried for hours. When I made the first Laohu. I cradled him in the crook of my arm, and as he
zhezhi animals for you, and you laughed, I felt there were purred, we began the walk home.
no worries in the world.
You grew up a little, and now you could even help your
father and me talk to each other. I was really at home now.
I finally found a good life. I wished my parents could be
here, so that I could cook for them, and give them a good
life too. But my parents were no longer around. You know
what the Chinese think is the saddest feeling in the world?
It’s for a child to finally grow the desire to take care of his
parents, only to realize that they were long gone.
Son, I know that you do not like your Chinese eyes,
which are my eyes. I know that you do not like your
Chinese hair, which is my hair. 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.
Why won’t you talk to me, son? The pain makes it
hard to write.

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