Rhetorical Analysis Of Jose Antonio Vargas Is An American Hero '

Jose Antonio Vargas became part of the large illegal immigration system as a result of his mother illegally flying Vargas into the United States at the age of twelve. As a teenager, Vargas grew up with knowledge of his illegal status and managed to evade authorities while living a decent life. But, as Vargas started his path to a high profile career in journalism, his illegal status began to follow him and therefore Vargas’ situation was getting complicated. Eventually, Vargas in an emotional piece declared his illegal immigrant status and naturally, people chose to either defend Vargas or censure Vargas. Rory O’Connor is an example of someone who chose to defend Vargas after the declaration. O’Connor’s attempt at defending Jose Antonio

O’Connor writes “Jose Antonio Vargas is incredibly brave to risk everything he has accomplished in this country in order to tell the truth”. O’Connor attempts to defend his title “Jose Antonio Vargas Is an American Hero” by introducing this argument. But, Vargas in his essay wrote a defense for himself rather than a defense for the eleven million other illegal immigrants in the United States and displayed no type of heroism. Vargas wrote “I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship.” Vargas thought that working hard would earn him citizenship and he tried to convey his hard work in his essay but did not represent other illegal immigrants. Vargas’ essay lacked specific examples and perhaps included weak generalizations. Claiming Vargas to be a hero is contradictory to the idea of heroism because a hero is someone people look up to and praise for his or her action(s) that benefit the society and not themselves. But, Vargas coming out with the harsh truth is not be a heroic deed because Vargas’ defense was only for himself not the general population. Therefore, O’Connor loses his stance on the only defense he tried to make for