Immigrant family dynamics is a significant topic in both novels, “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu and “ Call it Sleep” by Philip Roth. Both texts give insight and focus on two immigrant families and the main protagonist of each story trying to find their identity based on their home situations and influence from the outside. In Call it Sleep, David is a young Jewish boy who tries to find his place in the world and his society. He doesn’t really establish himself using his traditional Jewish values but what he learns from the outside. In the text “ The Paper Menagerie”, Jack is a biracial son of a white Father and Chinese mother and he at first accepts his Chinese culture. His mother made him origami instead of him having actual toys where they were magical and come to life, having him playing and being busy for hours. At a young age, he had a close relationship with his mother which gave him a sense of who he was and the culture he adopted. His mother also happened to be an immigrant who spoke little to no English but that didn’t stop him from loving her.

The finding of self identity caused by family dynamics comes into play for both characters when they both experience traumatic events. For David in “Call it Sleep”, because he was part of an immigrant family and being one himself, he was able to speak clear English which made him wonder if he would ever find a way to fit in his society. In the text, there was a moment where David ran away and got lost and started crying.while asking for directions. A lady asked him where he lived and mispronounced his street name because of his Yiddish accent. She told him she would take him home but she lied and would take him to a police station and she walked away laughing. This made David feel as though he would never find his way in this world because of how he was so different from others. David’s indifferences made him feel secluded and his identity as an outsider pains him. He was trying to forge an identity that will work for him and not hurt him. This connects to “The Paper Menagerie” where Jack would go through something similar. The moment his dad invited neighbors to his house, he overhears racist gossip between the female neighbors and also suffers racism from his other neighbor Mark.

This causes him to kind of disown his Chinese side of his identity and he even goes as far as to box up all his origami toys that his mother made. Because of what Jack deals with at home with his mom and her lack of English, it causes him to lose himself to the outside noise which in this case would be the comment made by the neighbors. He was also bullied in school because of his immigrant mother and the fact she spoke no English which affected him. It got to the point where she didn’t speak English to him, he stopped talking to her completely. He didn’t respond to his mother when she spoke Chinese to him and they became estranged. He struggled with finding his identity once more because it seemed as though he didn’t want to be outcast by what and who his mother was and their Chinese Culture.

Family dynamics is a significant topic in both texts where the protagonist struggles to find their own identities based on immigrant households. As seen by both David and Jack, they were part of immigrant families where it made them feel secluded from everyone else. They felt as though they were different from others so they wouldn’t find themselves. David had a language barrier which made it hard to socialize while Jack didn’t have real toys and had a mom who couldn’t speak English. But between both protagonists, By the end of their own stories, Jack was able to make peace with who he was because his girlfriend helped him embrace his mother and her love for her origami. He had cleaned his mothers house after she passed and took the origami that was once his and soon found his mother’s letter to him. That is what made him realize the importance of those origami and bring that love he once had for them back.