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Merican By Sandra Cisneros Sparknotes

520 Words3 Pages

Within the two short stories by Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros, they develop a common theme of American identity by using multitudes of different literary devices. Okita's "Response to Executive Order 9066" is a story referencing the law enacted during WW2, which required all citizens of Japanese decent to be put in internment camps. As a result of this law Okita finds herself being viewed as a Japanese "enemy" instead of an American, which she personally identifies as. "Mericans" is story expressing the thoughts and feelings of Sandra Cisneros as young girl who is torn between the "old way" and the "new ways" of Mexican and American culture. While these two stories are extremely alike and express the same idea, they do it in different ways. "Response to Executive Order 9066" and "Mericans" are different because, they express their ideas using different literary techniques.

"Response to Executive Order 9066" expresses Okita's feeling on the matter and shows that she is just an average american girl that is being ostracized simply because of her parents culture. As a result it develops her sense of American identity because it expresses that she is american at heart and isn't familiar with her parent's culture. "Response to Executive Order 9066" does this by presenting Okita's personality and …show more content…

Cisneros felt a split between her Mexican culture or the "old ways" and the American culture or "new ways". Cisneros describes this division by detailing her thoughts and actions when she was younger. Within the story she tells of her experience with the "old ways" and about the customs that her grandmother followed religiously. Cisneros also explains that she wasn't allowed in the church with her grandmother and wasn't allowed to walk the town, which accurately describes how she felt shunned from both sides of her ethnicity and her rejection from both

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