Rosa PantojaPeriod 110/9/12Ms. HamptonAmerican 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

author’s 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 16“a 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 PantojaPeriod 110/9/12Ms. HamptonAmerican 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 you’re not like me”)” it is a personification because Pat is saying

that the eyes are talking when in reality eyes can’t 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 weren’t born in Mexico. The Mexican-Americans are different from the Mexicans

because they don’t 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 9“viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,

perhaps inferior, definitely different…” it shows us that the Americans don’t fully accept the

Mexican-Americans because they come from Mexican families. Also because the Mexican-

Americans aren’t fully Americans, the Americans don’t see the Mexican-Americans as

“superior” as the Americans. The Americans see the Mexican-Americans as “exotic” because

they are not like them.

The author’s 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 Mexican-

American. 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 PantojaPeriod 110/9/12Ms. HamptonAmerican literature

she can do Mexican and American things because she is Mexican-American. And one

disadvantage is that she isn’t 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.