Susan Character Analysis in The Paper Menagerie

Susan is Jack’s college girlfriend. After Jack’s mother dies, she comes home to help Jack and Jack’s father pack up the house. She finds the box of Jack’s childhood paper animals and declares Jack’s mother an “amazing artist.” Later, she decorates her and Jack’s shared apartment with the paper animals.

Susan Quotes in The Paper Menagerie

The The Paper Menagerie quotes below are all either spoken by Susan or refer to Susan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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Susan found the shoe box in the attic. The paper menagerie, hidden in the uninsulated darkness of the attic for so long, had become brittle, and the bright wrapping paper patterns had faded.

“I’ve never seen origami like this,” Susan said. “Your mom was an amazing artist.”

The paper animals did not move. Perhaps whatever magic had animated them stopped when Mom died. Or perhaps I had only imagined that these paper constructions were once alive. The memory of children could not be trusted.

Related Characters: Jack (speaker), Susan (speaker), Jack’s Mother, Jack’s Father

Related Symbols: Paper Animals

Page Number and Citation: 187

Explanation and Analysis: