The excerpt from the short story „The paper menagerie" by Ken Liu is about a mother and son relationship, in which the son wants his Mother to adapt herself to the American Life.

Jack feels unfamiliar in his own family (line 80). The reason for that is his Chinese mother, whom he would like to have adapted to the American everyday life for instance by speaking and cooking American. By accepting and trying to implement her son's demand, she indicates her respect towards him. Perhaps she is aware that her son is right and it is her fault that her son can't fit in society. By failing his expectations despite her endeavors her son shows off a disrespectful and rebellious behavior against his mother by shouting at her. This demeanor also reveals that he neither is proud of his mom's attempts nor accepts the fact that they do not have an American heritage. He is dissatisfied and feels embarrassed by his mother (line 50). This portrays an estranged attachment between mother and son. Through the fact that both -  father and son - want her to speak English, she feels marginalized and forced by them. In the course of the story, when Jack was already in high school and his mother's English was much better, he was no more interested in which language his mother was speaking, which again demonstrates the lack of appreciation towards his mother. To put it in a nutshell, Jack does not feel connected to his mother, and with that also to his Chinese heritage. He wants to fit the American Life and for that wants his mother to adapt herself to the American everyday life. Despite her attempts, he still does not feel familiar but continues finding his happiness in American Life.