This passage best describes pathos because there is an emotional appeal and it appeals to deeply held values and beliefs. The author is using pathos by sharing the experience he or she had while interacting with these many poor families and it also gave them understanding about their lifestyles and what situations those poor families might have to
1. Pathos is a term which appeals to emotion. It convinces an audience by creating feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is presented in the opening of “ A New Perspective” written by Janice E. Fein when the narrator talks about going to kindergarten. She mentions how her mother “is walking me to kindergarten” which appeals to the audience since it brings up memories of how their mother or father must have walked them to kindergarten too. Pathos is used by creating an emotion connecting with the piece and audience.
Throughout the story, she is confronted by men who act like she is the “Hot Tamale” (Cofer 105) hispanic woman, which she describes as “a one-dimensional view that the media have found easy to promote” (Cofer, 105), and according to Looking in the Popular Culture Mirror’s “Sexy, Sassy, Spicy: The Portrayal of Latina Women in American Television” by April Hernandez, it has been a trope going back to the 1920s. She describes how latina women in early films were stereotyped as “sexual bombshells” and it persisted into the 21st Century media. The stereotype profoundly affected Cofer by making non-hispanic men a little too eager to talk to her: the man on the British bus sang to her without being asked. Her date to her first formal dance kisses her extremely hard and says “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early.” (Cofer, 106) The stereotype did not make her think she had to act sexy, but made men come on to her in ways they “would not have been likely to regale a white woman with a dirty song in public.” (Cofer, 107) She was forced to endure public humiliations women of other ethnicities would not have endured, because the stereotype of the sexual Latina woman forced the men in her story to think she was a sexual object instead of a
In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author. Therefore, the readers discern sympathy and sorrow because of her cultural barriers to other cultures, this including to develop efficient dress style. Proceeding, “The line I first heard… like other girls” (Cofer 8). This quote uses interesting, yet effective diction to inflict disgust or realization of the
Everyday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between
The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María is an essay by Judith Ortiz Cofer that addresses the impact of stereotyping on Latino women. Throughout the essay, Cofer relates her personal experiences with stereotypes to discuss how they have negatively affected her life and the lives of other Latinas. She also explains how these stereotypes originated and calls on her audience, the majority-white non-Latino population, to stop propagating the stereotypical portrayals of Latino women. In The Myth of the Latin Woman, Cofer speaks out about how stereotyping hinders the process of assimilating to a new culture by appealing to ethos through her personal experiences, using similes that show how stereotypes create isolation, and adopting
“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan depict the endeavors people take on in an attempt to integrate into society. Cofer demonstrates how stereotypes of Latina women have led others to misjudge her and explains the difficulty she had disassociating herself from those stereotypes. Tan demonstrates that the “broken” English her mother speaks has led others to think less of her and disregard her. One’s appearance instantaneously causes others to judge them. For some it is easier to blend in and be accepted by their community, but what is it that keeps some people from assimilating, and what effect does their otherness have on them?
The statement she quoted from her mother shows a deeper meaning than just that of “sounding like a Mexican”, this actually shows the internalised oppression her mother holds. This implies that the same forces which act upon our author have also acted upon her mother, forcing her to conform to their standards otherwise she would be rejected by society. The internalised part comes from racism seen by Latin Americans through the early 1900’s (before the 1900’s, and even today as well), her mother was most likely forced by authority figures (teachers, general adults, her own parents). Her mother was taught that the world she knew as her heritage was “wrong” so her self-image was skewed as a result which forced her to project this self hatred onto her daughter (which in-turn, would cause a domino-effect until their entire future bloodline would be culturally ignorant as their heritage was erased by
The Myth of the Latin Woman explains the negative impact of stereotypes on Latin people from the point of view of the representative of this social group. While Cofer does not provide statistical or scientific information, her personal experience is enough to understand the severity of the situation and the influence of both sides on it. The author tries to reach out population through emotions, which can be explained with her poetic
The story is built upon multiple stereotypes again different races of women. The different stereotypes range all the way from social class, to ethnicity and where she comes from. These stereotypes influence him on how to treat each girl even though they all should be treated with dignity and respect, not just being used for sex. Some stereotypes include that White girls always come from wealthy families which is most definitely not the case. This is when Diaz suggests that White girls are always dropped off by either their mother or father. He also states that they are always dropped off in high-end vehicles such as Escalades or Jeeps. Diaz also implies that White girls give into sex on the first
Because of this, she also believes there is a lack of respect for Hispanic culture. It is also unfair that Spanish is taught with little respect, yet English is usually a “pretentious” subject. She majored in English in college to show her teachers that she was capable of learning about the language, but still has her Hispanic identity. On top of being Hispanic alone, there are even more stereotypes about Hispanic women that both authors talk about.
In "The Myth of the Latin Woman", Ortiz Cofer utilizes logos to speak to her audiences presence of mind, particularly by referring to cases from her life. In the story, she demonstrates to us readers that as a result of a Latina 's decision to wear "tight skirts and jingling wrist trinkets… " (Ortiz Cofer), and in addition red instead of pale pink, they are characteristically thought of as searing sex images. Ortiz Cofer gives another case of the stereotyping she encountered when she states, "I recollect the kid who took me to my first formal move hanging over to plant a messy, over-excited kiss agonizingly on my mouth; when I didn 't react with an adequate energy, he commented angrily 'I thought you Latin young ladies should develop early" ' (Ortiz Cofer). This illustration demonstrates that basically in light of the fact that she was a Latina, the kid stereotyped her and expected it is adequate to give her
It is arguable that cultural lens is more relative in the book than that of the feminist lens. This perspective makes sense because in the book the dominican culture is very significant. The story of Oscar, the character whom the novel is about, is told through the voice of Yunior, the narrator. Since Oscar was young he seemed to be battling with the idea of being a “ True Dominican man”, constantly trying to mold himself into something he simply was not. This idea was something in which haunted him through the entirety of his brief life. Many people in his life pressured him, trying to make him this true
While she realizes that she is not white, she was born in America. She and other “minorities” don’t deserve the racial prejudice that is constantly thrown at them. Judith tells a few stories in the essay of when she was treated unfairly simply because of the color of her skin. From men saying obnoxious things at her to being assumed as a waitress, Judith has been through quite a bit of stereotyping. I believe she wants us to think about how it is grossly unfair to all ethnic groups, not just Latinas, to just assume and stereotype them because of how they look. Unfortunately, though, that’s the way it seems to be in America right now. I think Judith is trying to change
Pathos is the literary device that authors use which is meant to appeal to the readers emotions. Considering Lopezs overall theme of writing is guilt, he has to appeal to his readers emotion. For example, “As much sorrow as the man 's hand conveyed in Nebraska, it meant gratitude too for burying the dead,”(About This Life Lopez 116). By implementing simile and pathos into this paragraph, Lopez appeals to the readers emotions as well as their experiences in which they have had with nature. In this paragraph, he discusses how people experiences: hitting animals would affect their emotions: the man 's hand-if they really knew the basis of nature. This leaves the audience feeling guilty of their actions because they feel as if their everyday actions, such as driving are negatively affecting these animals everyday lives. Pathos and simile are two literary devices which have the capability of making readers connect Lopezs point of view on nature to their own. By doing this, Lopez leaves the audience feeling guilty because they haven 't been considerate enough to the animals that they