Legal Alien Poem Analysis

Perspective is how a person interprets others and the world in its entirety, it influences every aspect of a person's life. In the narrative Two Kinds by Amy Tan , the poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, and the memoir By Any Other Name by Santha Ram Rau the authors demonstrate with the use of rhetorical devices, how the main characters perspectives of the world are immensely influenced by their cultures.
The internal conflict embedded within a person's culture can effect their thoughts. The author Amy Tan shows this with her character Jing-Mei with the use of diction when she looked at herself in the mirror thinking how she is " Such a sad, ugly girl! " (Tan19 ). The diction shows how upset Jing-Mei is for not being the Chinese-American daughter her mother had intended her to be in being able to perform or have great intelligence. She is thinks less of herself from the constant discouragement of being her true self. Another example of diction used is when Jing-Mei feels " It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that

The author Pat Mora shows this within her character with the use of juxtaposition in her poem for example: "Paneled office drafting memos in smooth English able to order in fluent Spanish" (Mora line 4-5). The character sees themselves being able to oscillate between their different languages using it to their advantage in their social life or everyday work. Another example would be is the character being viewed as "an American to Mexicans a Mexican to Americans" (Mora line 14-15). The character is Mexican-American and chooses to identify with their bicultural life. Other people only see them as one or the other, which causes the character to not feel as if they can identify with either of their cultures. The identity someone chooses to live is not the only thing experienced within culture, but also problems occurring in a change of