I Ain T Sitting Beside Her

Millions of children are affected by prejudice and discrimination each day. In the short stories, “I Ain’t Sitting Beside Her” by Shyrose Jaffer and “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, both protagonists are affected by prejudice and discrimination. Each protagonist was discriminated against for their hobbies and looks or their culture. The narrator in “I Ain’t Sitting Beside Her” and Jack from “The Paper Menagerie” express their beliefs without having to shame them. In this regard, prejudice and discrimination make Jack and the narrator suppress their belief and change their lifestyle, and as a result, they come of age.

Discrimination changes Jack by suppressing his beliefs and lifestyle. Jack changed his beliefs because of the discrimination that he got from
Therefore he decided to hide his belief from himself, “I packed the paper menagerie in a large shoebox and put it under the bed [...] I finally shoved it into the corner of the attic as far away from my room as possible” (Liu 69,79). As a result, by enclosing his animal menageries that represent his Chinese heritage in a shoebox, he is suppressing his beliefs because the animals that he plays with are the only thing he believes in before he is bullied by Mark. The shoe box represents a cage to his beliefs and by distancing himself from the animals he closes his connection and ties to them. Moreover, Jack changed his lifestyle due to Mark's discrimination. This led him to change his diet and hobbies, “I pushed the chopsticks and the bowl before me away: stir-fried green peppers with five-spice beef.’ We should eat American food’ [...] Dad bought me a full set of Star Wars action figures” (Liu 69). Jack changed his