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Rosa Pantoja Period 1 10/9/12 Ms.

Hampton American literature

Legal Alien Essay The beliefs of the contemporary time period is that the voices of all cultures, ethnic groups, gender, and nationalities should be heard and poetry is universal and speaks to all people regardless of their background. In the poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, the literary devices that Pat Mora uses are metaphor and personification. These literary devices help reveal the authors message to the audience which are the Mexican-Americans. The metaphor show that being Mexican-American has its advantages and the personification shows the disadvantages of how people view Mexican-American. Pat Mora uses metaphor to reveal the message that being Mexican-Americans has an advantage to the audience. In line 16a handy token sliding back and forth between the fringes of both worlds this is a metaphor because she is comparing herself to a token. She compares herself to a token because tokens usually have two sides to it, and she is implying that she also has two sides because she is Mexican and American. Pat Mora uses handy token because she says that it is an advantage because she can go between the borders of being Mexican and being American. Pat uses the word fringes instead of using the word border because the fringe is bringing both sides of the world together and a border separates the two worlds of Americans and Mexicans, and by her being Mexican- American she is bringing both of those worlds together.

Rosa Pantoja Period 1 10/9/12 Ms. Hampton American literature

Pat Mora uses personification to reveal the message that being Mexican-Americans has its disadvantages. In line 11 Pat Mora states viewed by the Mexicans as alien, (their eyes say, You may speak Spanish but youre not like me) it is a personification because Pat is saying that the eyes are talking when in reality eyes cant talk. It shows a disadvantage because, it shows us that Mexican-Americans are not fully accepted and that they are discriminated. The Mexicans view the Mexican-Americans as aliens because they are different from them because they werent born in Mexico. The Mexican-Americans are different from the Mexicans because they dont follow all the Mexican traditions the way they are suppose to be. Another disadvantage the Mexican-Americans have is that Americans also view the Mexican-Americans different. In the quote in line 9viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, perhaps inferior, definitely different it shows us that the Americans dont fully accept the Mexican-Americans because they come from Mexican families. Also because the MexicanAmericans arent fully Americans, the Americans dont see the Mexican-Americans as superior as the Americans. The Americans see the Mexican-Americans as exotic because they are not like them. The authors message reflects the topics of her time period which is cultural issues. It is cultural issues because Pat Mora shows the advantages and disadvantages of being a MexicanAmerican. Pat Mora uses the literary devices personification and metaphor to show the disadvantages and advantages of being Mexican-Americans. For example one advantage is that

Rosa Pantoja Period 1 10/9/12 Ms. Hampton American literature

she can do Mexican and American things because she is Mexican-American. And one disadvantage is that she isnt fully accepted by the American and Mexican society because of her ethnicity. Being two ethnicities at the same time can cause problems when it comes to choosing sides.

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