Leon, Leila’s stepfather in Bone, by Fae md ng, is an inventor and a collector. He entered America through Angel Island in San Francisco and assumed the identity of Grandpa Leong’s son in order to enter the country. He had to assume another identity, and keeps heaps of paper records to keep track of his names. Paper sons illegally entered the country by claiming relation to a current American citizen. Leon was among the thousands to commit this crime in order to enter America, and in memoriam, he keeps a suitcase filled with affidavits, rejection letters, scraps of paper, anything to legitimize his citizenship. Leon, like many immigrants who come to American, hopes to find success and prosperity in this great country. Instead, he finds late nights, odd jobs, and months away from his family and America. No matter how hard he tries, starting a laundry company, inventing odd objects, or traveling on a ship around the world, his bad luck and failure follow him. Leon retains an American identity as an immigrant, the people that built America, but fails to reach the success of the “American Dream” which to him would grant legitimacy to his illegal citizenship. To Leon, an American identity means success, and because he has never achieved that, he fails to achieve legitimacy. His identity, as an …show more content…
He has not become a true “paper-son” because it is truly impossible. Leon has aspects of his personality that were not adopted from the papers he had to memorize. Leon tinkers with various inventions, he plays chess with his friends, he feels anger, hurt, and pain. These characteristics make up Leon and cannot be memorized in order to pass a customs test. Although Leon has lost his first name or does not know when his real birthday is, it does not mean he has become a paper son. A birthday and a name do not create a person. It is their personality, love, interests, and reactions that form their true identity. Leon is not a paper son, he is Leon