ISC Prism Workbook Solutions Chapter 3 The Paper Menagerie
The Paper Menagerie Story Long Answer Questions
Question 1.
What is the main conflict in “The Paper Menagerie”?
Answer:
Ken Liu’s short story, “The Paper Menagerie” is the crux of what a famous author once said, ‘East is east, and west is west; the twain shall never meet.” In the story, Jack’s mother, a Chinese woman has embedded in her heart the sedate, slow moving life of Sigulu, a village in China, the peaceful days of peasantry, the magical origami, the Chinese New Year when she made red paper dragons-zooming across the sky, the beautiful landscape and so on.
But once settled in the USA, she felt a fish out of water. She was alienated from American English, their food, culture and their interaction with neighbors. The slow, simple life was gone forever. Jack, her only son, was happy and proud with his mother’s magical origami in which she could instill life into her inanimate paper crafts.
But, soon he discovered that his mother’s creations were inferior when compared with American toys. He failed to realize the loving motherly touch of his mother at every paper toy she created. A great, impulsive metamorphosis transformed his character and he started dreaming of an “all-American pursuit of happiness.”
The inevitable rift in relationship between the son and the mother grew wider. At Jack’s insistence, his father implored upon the mother to speak and cook American. She tried to comply at her best, but failed in most cases.
For Jack, his distaste for everything Chinese became so apparent that he even detested the looks of the pathetic stature of his mother. He had already suffered from an inferiority complex before his American neighbours for his mongoloid appearance. Now he wanted to be an American in mind and soul. His mother had completely paled into insignificance for him.
His mother was suffering from cancer, a terminal illness. For long, she had been refusing medical treatment and by then, she had shrunk herself into her little oriental world of thoughts, she was romancing with her past as she had failed to reconcile with her present.
As a son, Jack should have been sympathetic with his mother and understood her. But he was in “a rat race for success in America. America has shoved in him a passion for American life which is all but consumerism and pace. That irresistible pace did not allow him time to think of his ailing mother. He hardly found time for her.
Jack grew up to be a young man and had Susan, his girlfriend. His father then sold the house and moved elsewhere, thus alienating himself from his son. Perhaps, Jack had become a believer in a nuclear family of his own with none but himself and his girlfriend. Once Susan found the paper animals in the shoe box in the dark attic and commented, “your mum was an amazing artist”. Unfortunately, it never dawned to Jack that his mother could be such an amazing artist of origami who could instill life in paper creations.
After two years after his mother’s death, Jack discovered Laohu, the paper dog still alive, who jumped into Jack’s lap. Jack found something written on the plain side of the paper dog something written in Chinese script. Unable to decipher, he took it to a Chinese interpreter who read out the contents. It was his mother’s pitiful biography smeared with love for her son in every line. Immediately, the conflict between a career hungry son and his mother was gone with the wind. These are the conflicts that are present in the short story.
Question 2.
What do the paper animals and other creations symbolize?
Answer:
The origami with paper was almost magical. Jack’s mother instilled life into these objects. This origami was a speciality at Sigulu, her village in China from where she had mastered the art. This creation of paper animals and birds helped her remember the slow, peaceful, sedate life of the peasantry of her pastoral life at Sigulu. She along with her friends made paper birds to chase grasshoppers away from the fields, and paper tigers to keep away the mice.
For Chinese New year, she and her friends made red paper dragons and would wonder at the sight of all those little dragons Zooming across the sky overhead, holding up strings of exploding firecrackers to scare away all the bad memories of the past year.
The paper creations also symbolize the adage, “Be happy with a little, with more, you would crave for more and there’s no end to it.” This is an oriental philosophy much opposite to the western. Relocated in the U.S., she felt a fish out of water with no friendly neighbours to interact, no language to exchange mind and nowhere to go.
Jack then, a little boy, became her playmate in playing with her paper creations. She made LAOHU, a hyppo, cranes and so on to please herself and her son. She also made a goat and deer. Such creations gave her immense pleasure and satisfaction as the little girl within her had her soul roaming at the fields of Sigulu.
The paper creations also stood as the oriental representative against the western toys and their lure. When her son, lured by American toys and life, developed distaste for everything Chinese, she stopped making those. Finally, she wrote her rueful biography in Laohu, the paper tiger in expectation to convey her message to her son after her death. Thus in many ways her, origami is significant in the story.
Question 3.
What is the irony in The Paper Menagerie?
Answer:
A Mongoloid or a Negroid is indubitably an unwelcome entity in a Caucasian country. But has there been an opposite example ever? I doubt. In “The Paper Menagerie”, Jack, the little Chinese- American with slit eyes, flat nose, yellowish skin and with other Mongoloid features is subjected to taunt and ridicule among American classmates. He asks his father, “Do I have a chink face?”. His father tried to console him by replying in the negative. His mother was scared. Jack’s ire turned to his mother.
He developed a hatred and loathed everything about his mother. He detested her looks, her Chinese language, her Chinese cooking, her magical origami and all that were related to her. He never bothered to know about the genealogy of his ancestral lineage. An American’s dislike for a Mongoloid or a Negroid is understood. But when a Chinese son hates his Chinese mother, it is not to be understood.
Ironically, Jack held his mother responsible for his Mongoloid looks for which he was being taunted by his American classmates. He implored upon his mother to speak and cook American. His mother, an already shrunk woman in scare, learnt to cook American food but failed to speak American language. Jack, an ungrateful, selfish boy in the pursuit of American happiness, forgot that it was his mother who showed him the first sun, lulled him asleep, consoled him at his rueful hours, nursed him when he was sick and tried her best to be a good mother.
The rift between the mother and the son widened. Even when his mother was terminally ill at the hospital, Jack had hardly any time for her, as his head was crammed with the dreams of American good life. Ironically, while keeping the paper creations, in Menagerie, Jack was unaware that he became himself a captive in the Menagerie of American dreams.
Ironically again, Jack reconciled with his mother only after her death, when he came to know about the pitiful story of her life written in Chinese scripts on the paper tiger, Laohu. These are the ironies in the short story.
The Paper Menagerie Story Short Answer Questions
Question 1.
Comment upon Jack’s mother’s art of making paper managerie?
Answer:
Origami was a speciality at Sigulu, China from where Jack’s mother originated. She used to instill life into those paper objects. This creation of paper animals and birds helped her remember the slow, peaceful sedate life of the peasontry of her pastoral life at Sigulu. She made “LAOHU” a hyppo, cranes and so on to please herself and her son. Such creation gave her immense pleasure and satisfaction. The paper creations also stood as the oriental representatives against the Western toys and their lure.
Question 2.
What made Jack almost stop talking to his mother.
Answer:
Jack was the son of a Chinese mother and Americal father. His mother failed to utter English words. She faced racial and linguistic prejudices at home and in the society also. When Jack also faced the same racial discrimination and bullying, his attitude towards his mother changed. He almost stopped talking with her. His attitude didn’t even change on seeing his ailing mother in the hospital, before her death.
Question 3.
What problem did Jack face in America?
Answer:
Jack was a child of Chinese mother and American father. In America he was humiliated in unary ways. His mother could not speak English and so he felt ashamed. Moreover, Jack developed his choice for American toys and their ways of life.
The magical “origami” of his mother was a matter of distaste and so was the Chinese language. Both he and his father implored upon the mother to cook and speak American. She tried her level best but failed. Jack was disconcerted because by then, he had been caught in the Menagerie of American Dreams.
Question 4.
Why did the natives bully him?
Answer:
Jack was bullied by the natives because his mother, being a Chinese could not speak English fluently. Moreover his mother’s paper “origami” turned shabby towards American toys used by the native children of America.
Question 5.
Who was Susan?
Answer:
Susan was Jack’s only girlfriend. She play an important role in the story as she found the paper animals in the shoebox in the dark attic and realised and commented before Jack that his mother was “an amazing artist.” She involved again in Jack to thinks about his forgotten mother.
Question 6.
How was Jack affected by the letter written to him by his mother after her death?
Answer:
Jack was unable to decipher his mother’s letter as it was written in Chinese. The bi-racial man took it to a Chinese interpreter who read out the content before him. It was his mother’s pitiful biography smeared with love for her son in every line. The letter changed Jack’s attitude towards his death mother.
Question 7.
Comment in short the ending of the story?
Answer:
The ending of the story comes when Jack’s mother dies of cancer. Jack, after his mother’s death finds her letter addressed to him. This letter through flashback technique reveals the life journey of Jack’s mother. The letter after being decephered changed Jack’s attitude and views about his Chinese mother.
Question 8.
What could be considered as most unforgivable offence in Jack’s life?
Answer:
Jack’s discernment for his ailing mother is almost on unforgivable offence. In his run for career, he forgets his mother’s pathetic condition at the hospital. This is quite an example of a selfish, ungrateful young man forgetful about his responsibilities towards his family.
Question 9.
What is ‘Qingming’?
Answer:
‘Qingming’ was the Chinese festival for the dead. Jack’s mother used to write letter on Qingming to her dead parents in China, telling them the good news about the past year of her life in America.
Question 10.
Write few lines on ‘Jack’s mother’
Answer:
Jack mother was a Chinese lady who belonged to a poor family in 1950. Her parents taught her the art of making paper animals. When she grew up she became a victim of human trafficking and was sold as a domestic servant in Hong Kong. She signed up for the introduction service and ultimately met her husband- Jack’s father. At first she felt extremely lonely but Jack’s birth brought happiness into her life.
Question 11.
Which origami animal did Jack like the most?
Answer:
liked lauhu, the paper tiger the most as it could move and make sounds.
Question 12.
How did Jack’s parents meet?
Answer:
Jack’s mother, then 16 years old, was a captive with a girl trafficker in Hong-Kong. He put her name in a catalogue for the Chinese-American prospective husbands to buy from his stock against handsome payment. Jack’s father liked her by the photograph and bought her. Thus they mate.
Question 13.
How did Jack feel about his Chinese heritage?
Answer:
Jack detested his Chinese looks and heritage as his classmates mocked at him for his Mongoloid features.
Question 14.
What ethnicities is JACK?
Answer:
Jack is a Mongoloid.
Question 15.
What language did Jack’s mom write the letter in?
Answer:
Jack’s mom wrote the letter in Chinese scripts.
Question 16.
Where did Jack put the shoe box filled with origami?
Answer:
Jack put the shoebox of paper animals in the attic.
Question 17.
Who tells Jack the Lauhu is trash?
Answer:
Mark, one of the neighborhood boys called Lauhu trash.
Question 18.
What is the origami made out of?
Answer:
The origami was made of paper and Jack’s mother’s breath.
Question 19.
What Is Qinming?
Answer:
The Qing ming festival is known as tomb-sweeping day when due respect is shown to the dead by the Han Chinese of Mainland China.
Question 20.
What was Jack’s mother younger life like?
Answer:
Jack’s mother was like a free bird in her younger life. She was from Sigulu where from she mastered the art of origami and knew how to instill life into her paper creations. She made paper birds to chase grasshoppers away from the fields, and paper tiger to keep away the mice. For Chinese New year, she and her friends made red paper dragons which zoomed across the sky overhead, holding up strings of exploding firecrackers to scare away all the bad memories of the past year.
The Paper Menagerie Story Logic Based Questions
Complete the following sentences by providing a REASON for each:
Question 1.
Jack’s mother made the paper animals because
Answer:
She wanted to distract her son from sad mood with her efficient art of ‘origamy’. Those paper animals make Jack cheerful
Question 2.
Mom breathed into her paper animals because
Answer:
The paper animals turned real and moved and Jack’s mood would swing from sadness to cheerfulness. Jack used to play with those live moving paper creatures.
Question 3.
Sometimes the animals got into trouble because
Answer:
Because the animated paper water buffalo jumped into dish of soy sauce on the table at dinner. The sauce softened the legs and the paper animal collapsed on the table. After sun drying, the running figure walked around with a limp
Question 4.
Mom made a new shark for Jack, this time out of tinfoil because.
Answer:
Jack’s mom wanted the animal to swim in his sink filled with water and let her child enjoy the swimming shark. It took time to turn soggy and translucent.
Question 5.
Jack stopped talking to his mother because
Answer:
His Chinese mother could not speak English like his American father and his community people. At teenage he felt humiliated. He also faced racial discrimination and fullying which completely changed his attitude towards his mother.
Question 6.
Jack packed the paper menageries in shoe box because ……..
Answer:
If constant bullying from his friends regarding his mother and her art of origamy, he felt humiliated and kept all his childhood favourite animals shut in a shoebox, to escape himself for such discrimination.
Question 7.
Even in the hospital where his mother was dying Jack was thinking of his job because……
Answer:
constant bullying and cacial discrimination turned his attitude against his mother so much, that he hatred his mother. He felt oshamed of his mother and became self-centred boy.
Question 8.
Jack’s father aged rapidly after his mother’s death because ……
Answer:
He missed his beautiful, artistic Chinese wife who took lot of care of him silently. Even he felt her bonless inside the house after she paned away and ultimately he sold the house also.
Question 9.
Susan remarked that Jak’s mother was an amazing artist because
Answer:
she discovered Jack’s mother beautiful paperwork origin and she herself decorated the house with them remarking Jack’s mother “an amazing artist”.
Question 10.
Jack felt ashamed of himself when he heard about his mother’s life because
Answer:
He throughout his life failed to realise his mother and her unending love towoards him. He always posed negative attitude towards his mother.
The Paper Menagerie Story MCQs
Choose the correct alternative to complete the following sentences:
Question 1.
Which word best describes Jack attitude toward his mom in The Paper Menagerie?
a. Accepting
b. Fascinated
c. Resentful
d. Afraid
Answer:
c. Resentful
Question 2.
When Jack feels that he does not fit in he owns only origami animals instead of toys. His dad ………….
a. Buys him Star wars toys
b. Tells him to respect his mom’s culture
c. Rebukes him
d. Buys him a rugby bal
Answer:
a. Buys him Star wars toys
Question 3.
Jack was born in the year of the-
a. Goat
b. Deer
c. Tiger
d. Pig
Answer:
c. Tiger
Question 4.
What was the first origami made by Jack’s mother?
a. Turtle
b. Tiger
c. Crane
d. Monkey
Answer:
b. Tiger
Question 5.
Jack’s mother still loved him despite the hatred that she saw come from him as he got older.
a. True
b. False
Answer:
a. True
Question 6.
Origami in the story has in it a meaning that connotes ……….
a. A meaning for creation of life.
b. It is used in the story as a way for the mother to live on.
c. Because Origami is cool.
d. It is a past time for the mother.
Answer:
a. A meaning for creation of life.
Question 7.
What is a Menagerie?
a. A strange animal
b. A collection of animals
c. paper
d. Origami
Answer:
b. A collection of animals
Question 8.
The narrator of the story is …………
a. The father
b. The mother
c. The son
d. The author
Answer:
c. The son
Question 9.
The setting of the story is set in …………
a. China.
b. Connecticut.
c. Hong-Kong.
d. California.
Answer:
b. Connecticut.
Question 10.
The title takes its name from ……….
a. The wrapping paper the mother saved.
b. The box in the attic.
c. The origami his mother did.
d. The box of origami animals his mother made.
Answer:
d. The box of origami animals his mother made.
Question 11.
Jack’s father was married to his mother through ……….
a. Negations
b. Auction
c. Love marriage
Answer:
b. Auction
Question 12.
Jack asked his dad if he had a “Chink” face. Chink means ……….
a. Mongoloid face
b. Negroid face
c. Caucasian face.
Answer:
a. Mongoloid face
Question 13.
American pursuit of happiness indicates ……….
a. Search for gold.
b. Buying American toys,
c. Obtaining American jobs
Answer:
c. Obtaining American jobs
Question 14.
To be paper menagerie has a conflict between ……….
a. The son and the mother.
b. The son and the father.
c. Hong-Kong and China.
d. The orient and the west
Answer:
d. The orient and the west
Question 15.
Qing ming is a day for………………
a. Holding a party.
b. Final day of a football match.
c. Jack’s getting a job.
d. To pay homage to the dead.
Answer:
d. To pay homage to the dead.