57 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer Richard JacobsonPaper Things
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Paper Things
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of homelessness, stigma, and discrimination against people without a home, including violence and verbal abuse. It also contains content related to childhood bullying and bereavement.
Ari’s paper things are the foremost symbol of the novel, especially since they are referenced by the title. They are a multilayered symbol of The Power of Hope, as well as The Necessity of Community. Ari started creating paper doll worlds out of catalog cutouts when her mother got sick. What began as a replication of her own family became an entire community of families and places. Ari loves the idea of a big family, something she never had, because there are so many people looking out for one another. Ari used to share her love of paper things with Sasha, but Sasha has outgrown them. When Ari plays with her paper things, she spreads them out as far as she can and becomes immersed in the imaginary universe: “Before long, I’m lost in my world of Paper Things” (40). Because Ari doesn’t have a permanent home for most of the story, inventing one is the next best thing. Ari starts to share her passion for the paper things with the children at Head Start, spending time each day cutting out people and furniture from catalogs. In this way, they represent connection and shared experience.
When Ari’s paper things are damaged or invaded, she feels violated and hurt but has a hard time verbalizing this, although her inner monologue recognizes her feelings. This occurs the first time when someone at Chloe’s party calls them “freaky” and again when Briggs accidentally rips one of Ari’s favorite people. They are the closest thing she has to a toy or entertainment, and they are precious to her. Ari usually hates when people are around while she plays with them, preferring to be alone with them, noting, “My paper world is my private world; it doesn’t work if there are people watching me” (227). When the girls at the shelter draw all over Ari’s paper dolls, she feels that it is the end of that phase for her and doesn’t go back to them again: “Four years of collecting and imagining and caring. Gone. Just like that” (276). For a while, she has started to feel like she may have grown beyond the need for her paper dolls and is coming to accept her life as it is. This may be expressive of Ari’s sense of shame and inner conflict during this time. At the book’s conclusion, Gage gives her new pictures for her paper things, and Ari’s pleasure at receiving these indicates that she will be able to accommodate this escapist part of her life again.
Coins
The coins Ari picks up have been discarded by others and lie in the street unseen by most people, especially the more fortunate in society. They are symbolic of the community of unhoused people who are unseen by much of society and whose value is disregarded. The coins physically signify Ari's emotional acts of hoping and saving, particularly the book’s portrayal of how important small things can be and how they can add up to big changes, something Ari increasingly perceives. In this way, the coins are a physical symbol of the small causes and effects that can lead to homelessness. The smallness of the coins’ value also allows Paper Things to show how hard it is for Ari to access resources she relies on, such as a replacement library card, which only costs 50 cents. Although many would consider this an accessible price, it is beyond Ari’s reach.
The coins also represent Ari’s close observance, initiative, and adaptability, as she is collecting and saving them as soon as she finds herself without a home. They show her sense of responsibility and her unwillingness to ask others to pay for things, whether out of shame or because, like with Gage, she doesn’t want to be a burden. Although she has so little and saves carefully, Ari is also generous with her coins, such as when she gives them to Reggie to buy dog food.
Traditions
Traditions are a key motif in Paper Things, as they represent The Necessity of Community and how traditions are an important source of connection to the past and to the wider community of the present. Ari only has one living family member, so the traditions of her family are particularly important to her. She wants to keep the memory of her parents alive and walk the same path that they walked. This is expressed by Ari’s desire to attend Carter Middle School because everyone else in her family has. The thought of not being accepted plagues Ari’s thoughts and causes her a great deal of stress as she struggles to keep up with school on little sleep and food.
School traditions at Ari’s elementary school are also important for Ari because they allow her to connect to her school community. During this time of social isolation in Ari’s life, it is particularly necessary for her to have a way to connect and have “common experiences” with her peers (333). Bringing back the school traditions gives Ari several opportunities, including getting to know Daniel, finding her self-confidence, giving back to the community, and doing something bold enough to be noticed by Carter. Ari describes the value she sees in traditions when she says,
If I had to explain why I wanted to reinstate the traditions at Eastland Elementary, what would I say? Maybe something about how traditions give us a sense of belonging, that doing the same activities each year, the very same activities that our older siblings or even our parents did, makes us feel like we’re all one big family (211).
As such, these traditions represent connections through time and space and are a way for Ari to feel close to the family she has lost.
