The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola.
Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and American slang” (Vargas 1) and says that he won his 8th grade sp
...elling bee by spelling words that he couldn’t even pronounce properly. The first time Vargas realized he wasn’t a true American was when he was denied his driver’s license because of his fake documentation. After this happened he knew he wanted to prove to himself and everyone else that he was a true American.
Vargas believed and stated that if he worked hard enough and was successful in what he did, that would prove he was a true American. The article states all of the things that Vargas accomplished: graduating from high school and college, a successful career as a journalist and living the American dream (Vargas 2). Even though Vargas accomplished all of these things he says that he still feels guilty every day for being an illegal immigrant and the things he doe
that are illegal because of it.
Vargas brings up an event that occurred that encouraged him to speak out about immigration which was when the four students walked from Miami to Washington to lobby for the Dream Act… that would provide a path to legal permanent residency for young people who have been educated in this country (2). Vargas goes on to talk about the struggles he had as an immigrant in the United States and the things he did in order to not be caught. Vargas says his first struggle was with the English language. The problem for him wasn’t that he didn’t know it but it was his accent and the slang he had problems with.
Vargas says that his high school English teacher introduced him to journalism and he convinced himself that having his name in print and interviewing Americans would confirm his presence there (Vargas 3). Vargas says that the disputes over illegal immigrants made him feel more nervous especially because in 1994 Gov. Pete Wilson was reelected and Vargas knew that Wilson supported Proposition 187. Once Vargas heard more and more about people’s views on illegal immigration he felt he needed to do something more to add to this country.
Vargas also adds that he found out that the “uncle” who brought him over to the United States was actually a smuggler who his grandpa had paid for. Not only did his grandpa get him across to the United States but he also got him his fraudulent social security, green card and student visa. Without this Vargas wouldn’t have been able to work. The article says that
Vargas worked at subway, the Y. M. C. A, a tennis club and then he finally got an internship at his hometown newspaper called The Mountain View. One of the first people that Vargas confessed his secret to was his high school choir director.
Later that year he also admits that he is gay which caused his grandparents to become very upset. The main reason that his grandpa was upset was that in order to become a legal immigrant he needed to marry an American woman. Vargas talks about his college experience at San Francisco State University. When he was a freshman he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and he also got an internship that summer at The Philadelphia Daily News where his articles that he wrote got him an internship at The Seattle Times that following summer.
Unfortunately, Vargas was worried about the paperwork needed and so he didn’t take the internship. He then met with an immigration lawyer but that was no help. He then got an internship at The Post. Even though Vargas knew what he was doing was wrong, he convinced himself that if he lived up to the qualities of a citizen he would be o. k. (Vargas 7). Vargas talks about when he returned to Washington he told one of the higher ups, Peter, about his secret. Peter told him to keep doing what he’s doing and once he has accomplished enough they will tell the chairman.
Vargas eventually leaves the paper and moves to New York to join The Huffington Post. Vargas talks about his successes of working for The Huffington Post but ended
up leaving because he couldn’t take the guilt and the lies he was telling himself and friends about his problem of being illegal. Vargas ends his article by explaining why he finally admitted to being an illegal immigrant and how he feels now after he has admitted to it. After reading this article I feel that the audience he is appealing to is people who are against illegal immigration or people who are on the edge about it.
I feel that his purpose is to show that not all illegal immigrants are bad people and many of them turn out to be successful human beings. He uses many examples of how he contributed to this country and he wants to convince people to allow him to stay and support his staying along with other illegal immigrants who have put their time and effort into making this country a better place. The Kairos for this article is that the election just ended and there are still many debates about illegal immigration so I feel that he is trying to persuade people to support immigration.
The Exigence for him writing this article is he could not handle the stress and the guilt anymore of trying to hide that he is an illegal immigrant. I feel that the way Vargas tried to persuade his audience was successful. Vargas used many rhetorical strategies to persuade his audience to understand how he feels about him being an illegal immigrant. I feel the most obvious form of rhetorical appearance that Vargas used in this article was his ethos. It is already to his advantage that he is an illegal
immigrant so to write about illegal immigration, he already has the experience firsthand.
Another form of ethos that Vargas uses is he mentions in the article all the things he has accomplished and all the jobs and internships he has had. In the article he states that “over the past 14 years, I’ve graduated from high school and college and built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country. ” (Vargas 2). This is part of his situated ethos. I believe that Vargas’ invented ethos is how he writes this article. It makes him seem very intelligent and intellectual.
Even though this may not be true, when you read this article he does a very good job at making it seem like he is. The pathos that Vargas uses is when he talks about his mother and how she couldn’t come to America with him and he mentions that he hasn’t seen her in a very long time. This makes you feel sorry for Vargas and helps you understand where he is coming from. He also uses pathos by writing about how hard he has worked and all of the things he has done in order to prove himself as a citizen which is persuading us to like Vargas.
Another example of pathos is in the article he talks about how his life is as an illegal immigrant. In the article he says that “And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me,
with who I really am… It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. ” (Vargas 2) this is a form of pathos because the word choice that he decides to use makes you feel emotionally sorry for Vargas and want to support him.
Another form of rhetorical appeal that Vargas uses is logos. He uses many stats throughout his article for instance when he is talking about the four students that walked across the country to support the Dream Act, this was a great form of logos. He also mentions in the article that “the Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years” (Vargas 2) which is another example of logos. Another example of logos is when he says in the article “there are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
We’re not always who you think we are. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one if its own. ” (Vargas 2) Not only is this a form of logos it is also another form of pathos. He is trying to make you feel like you’re the reason why he is feeling lost and upset about him being an illegal immigrant. Vargas also tries to identify with the audience by using humor. One example of this is when he writes about the time when he was in middle school and a kid asked him what’s up and Vargas replied “the sky.”
He also tried to identify with his audience
by telling us about what films he watched in order to lose his accent. These films are very recognizable and would help him relate to his audience. Another example of identification is his final paragraph in his article when he says, “My mother told me I was excited about meeting a stewardess, about getting on a plane. She also reminded me of the one piece of advice she gave me for blending in: If anyone asked why I was coming to America, I should say I was going to Disneyland. ” When he says this in his article he is telling us that he was just like any of us when we were little.
He was unsure of what was going on and was just an innocent kid thinking he was going somewhere fun. Vargas does have some constraints though. These constraints include his article is published in a newspaper so only people that read it will get his message that he is trying to get across. Another constraint Vargas has is he was arrested for driving with an illegal Washington license and nothing was done about him being illegal. This may make people upset that no one did anything about him being an illegal immigrant. I believe Vargas’ overall effectiveness of how he wrote the paper was great.
He used many forms of rhetorical appeal that helped him get his message across in an effective way. Even though he did have some constraints I feel that he did a great job with working around them. He used many ethos pathos and logos throughout his entire article to help get his message across
in a powerful way. I definitely feel different about illegal immigrants now that I have read his article and I do have some more sympathy for illegal immigrants and why they are here. In Act 1 scene 2 we find out that Macbeth is a brave and great soldier "noble Macbeth", who is ready to die for Duncan.
Nevertheless, the prophecies of the witches have an influential effect on him - which shows that he is easily persuaded and believes all the good things about his future that he is told whether or not it is true, especially when he learns the first prophecy had in fact actually come true, when he becomes the Thane of Cawdor. After Macbeth became the Thane of Cawdor he beings to think more and more about being king and how wonderful that would be, and he is quite easily persuaded by Lady Macbeth to murder Duncan and to frame the guards.
However, he often comes across as weak minded – as if he is pressured into doing everything and that he can’t think for himself - he cannot even make a decision by himself and never really seems sure of himself and that he thinks that he’s incapable of doing anything for himself. For instance, Lady Macbeth told him to kill Duncan because he was so ambitious to be king and Lady Macbeth didn’t want him to miss the chance when they had it as after that it would be hard for them to kill Duncan - it was now or never – and because of that lady Macbeth took away all his doubt.
Lady Macbeth
on the other hand is almost completely different to Macbeth – I guess opposites attract – but they have a couple of similarities for example she talks about the future just like Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is as not as gentle and caring as your stereotypical Jacobean woman but instead she looks like “the innocent flower” when in reality she is “The serpent under it” who is ready to attack.
Lady Macbeth is more collected than Macbeth, she remains in control under pressure and she does not panic and she knows what she’s talking about she doesn’t seem to have any morality she has a way with her words, she is extremely persuasive so she uses that to her advantage and makes Macbeth do everything she says to do. Shakespeare also presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to have a very strong relationship and Shakespeare shows us several interactions between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in act 1 which gives us an idea of their relationship. We first see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together for the first time so far in Act 1 scene 4.
The first interaction between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the play is at the start of scene two. Lady Macbeth reads aloud the letter that Macbeth had written to her about meeting the witches: “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor and shalt be, What thou art promised”. Lady Macbeth acknowledges Macbeth’s predicament; she knows that his desire is to become king. But Lady Macbeth sees Macbeth as a coward who is too afraid to grasp what he wants when the opportunity is presented to him. Therefore, Lady Macbeth feels she must encourage
Macbeth to seize the crown.
She says “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness”. Which I interpret to mean that in her opinion Macbeth ‘too full of human kindness’. All the way through Act 1, Lady Macbeth appears to be the more dominant person in the relationship. Especially when she says “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the top, top-full of direst cruelty”. When she calls for the spirits I believe that she is asking them to help her commit this crime and help her make a plan to get away with it.
Fill her head to toe with deadly cruelty so she’ll fell no remorse. This really reveals what Lady Macbeth is a psychopath anyone that calls on spirits can’t be sane. Here is another example of Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth what to do, she is taking control of the situation and acting as if she knows what she’s doing when truly she doesn’t know what she’s doing or getting herself into, she’s improvising so Macbeth would stop being so doubtful. Later on in the play at Macbeth’s castle both husband and wife start talking again about murdering Duncan.
Macbeth resists his wife’s persuasion by adding: “we will proceed no further in this business”. At this point lady Macbeth is becoming restless with him and she had to ensure him that everything will be okay and she explains her plan to Macbeth. Overall I think Macbeth being brave and noble is just a facade he portrays when in reality he
is a fumble, weak coward who cannot speak for himself and relies purely on his wife who isn’t sane, yes she has his desire at her heart, as her reason for doing all of this but they should just wait for Duncan to die naturally instead of killing him which would be the more moral thing to do.
