"Immigrants"
By: Pat Mora
Pat Mora is a poet from the border
of the United States and Mexico. She spent most of her life living in poverty
and living the Mexican lifestyle. However, she has always known what the
American dream was to her. Not everyone sees the American dream as being the
same thing, but this poem was how she saw it through her eyes. In the poem she
explains how immigrants see America as and a little brief description on how
they will try to achieve the American dream. In this poem Mora is talking from
a bystanders perspective, she is most likely looking from a far just observing
the fact that these immigrants and trying to beat into their child’s head that
they are American. However what really makes this poem is not so much the
writing, but the elements in the writing that make us be able to feel like we
are actually there.
One of the major elements of the poem “Immigrants” by Pat Mora is imagery. Mora uses a variety of different ways to describe the American dream. Many people from all over the world come to the United States to live a life of freedom. Mora who grew up on the Mexico borders talks about how they see the American dream as. The way she says “wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie, name them Bill and Daisy”(Mora 1-3), shows how they see the American dream as. This is one of many ways that we can picture what she is saying in the poem.
If we read deeper on Mora and her life before this it all makes sense. We can see why she is writing this poem and the meaning it has to her. She wrote “Immigrants” to describe the life she always wanted. She lived in poverty most of her life making her look at the middle class American’s and want what they have. Through television and newspapers she caught that the American was “buy them blonde dolls that blink blue eyes or a football and tiny cleats” (Mora 4-5). All she ever wanted was to be like every other family, in her eyes, and live a life as we do.
Another element of literature in Mora’s poem “Immigrants” is the form of which it is in. This poem happens to be written as a sonnet, which in case you did not know is a fourteen line poem with some rhyme schemes, and most of them are ten syllables per line. In this case, “Immigrants” is a fourteen line poem written by Pat Mora that describes the life immigrants want to have. The reason why it is wrote this way is still a mystery to me; however I am sure there is a reason that Mora wrote it this way.
“Immigrants” has many elements of literature to look at including lineation. Mora chose to write “Immigrants” in enjambment, which means that the poem is in essence a huge run on sentence. Just by looking at a few lines we can see this, “Will they like our boy, our girl, our fine American boy, our fine American girl” (Mora 12-14). It creates almost a story into a few sentences and you are able to keep with the flow more easily. I think that it makes it emphasize the little things in a huge story. You are able to condense a long story into just a few sentences or a short poem.
The final element I want to talk about is stanza. Mora made her poem into two different stanzas the first talking about us Americans and the way that they see us living our lives. Saying we eat hot dogs and call our children Bill and Daisy. The second stanza is talking about how the immigrants get in their babies head to try to tell them that they are American. “Speak to them in English, hallo, babe, hallo, whisper in Spanish or Polish when the babies sleeps…” (Mora 7-9). In this case I think Mora was trying to break up the poem to explain both part interact with each other. The first part gets her emotions out about the subject and then the second part describes how to get them out. Now, that may not makes sense to you, however if you look at it from her eyes and try to put yourself in her shoes you may get a better understanding of what I am trying to say. In conclusion to Pat Mora’s poem “Immigrants”, I feel like Mora was trying to describe how the people she sees everyday looks at the American dream. To us it is not perfect and it never will be, but to them it is what everyone wants and what everyone looks forward to. It comes down to wanting the best for your children and not worrying about yourself. In my opinion that is Mora’s biggest point in the whole poem. In the end you cannot always worry about yourself, you have to make time for others and want what’s best for them. For my reflection on this poem I tried to do something a little different than everyone else. Instead of just reading the poem and analyzing it I decided to try to step out of my shoes and into Mora’s. This is how I realized exactly how she feels. She is not writing this poem to express others life, although she is, but she is writing it to describe her life.
One of the major elements of the poem “Immigrants” by Pat Mora is imagery. Mora uses a variety of different ways to describe the American dream. Many people from all over the world come to the United States to live a life of freedom. Mora who grew up on the Mexico borders talks about how they see the American dream as. The way she says “wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie, name them Bill and Daisy”(Mora 1-3), shows how they see the American dream as. This is one of many ways that we can picture what she is saying in the poem.
If we read deeper on Mora and her life before this it all makes sense. We can see why she is writing this poem and the meaning it has to her. She wrote “Immigrants” to describe the life she always wanted. She lived in poverty most of her life making her look at the middle class American’s and want what they have. Through television and newspapers she caught that the American was “buy them blonde dolls that blink blue eyes or a football and tiny cleats” (Mora 4-5). All she ever wanted was to be like every other family, in her eyes, and live a life as we do.
Another element of literature in Mora’s poem “Immigrants” is the form of which it is in. This poem happens to be written as a sonnet, which in case you did not know is a fourteen line poem with some rhyme schemes, and most of them are ten syllables per line. In this case, “Immigrants” is a fourteen line poem written by Pat Mora that describes the life immigrants want to have. The reason why it is wrote this way is still a mystery to me; however I am sure there is a reason that Mora wrote it this way.
“Immigrants” has many elements of literature to look at including lineation. Mora chose to write “Immigrants” in enjambment, which means that the poem is in essence a huge run on sentence. Just by looking at a few lines we can see this, “Will they like our boy, our girl, our fine American boy, our fine American girl” (Mora 12-14). It creates almost a story into a few sentences and you are able to keep with the flow more easily. I think that it makes it emphasize the little things in a huge story. You are able to condense a long story into just a few sentences or a short poem.
The final element I want to talk about is stanza. Mora made her poem into two different stanzas the first talking about us Americans and the way that they see us living our lives. Saying we eat hot dogs and call our children Bill and Daisy. The second stanza is talking about how the immigrants get in their babies head to try to tell them that they are American. “Speak to them in English, hallo, babe, hallo, whisper in Spanish or Polish when the babies sleeps…” (Mora 7-9). In this case I think Mora was trying to break up the poem to explain both part interact with each other. The first part gets her emotions out about the subject and then the second part describes how to get them out. Now, that may not makes sense to you, however if you look at it from her eyes and try to put yourself in her shoes you may get a better understanding of what I am trying to say. In conclusion to Pat Mora’s poem “Immigrants”, I feel like Mora was trying to describe how the people she sees everyday looks at the American dream. To us it is not perfect and it never will be, but to them it is what everyone wants and what everyone looks forward to. It comes down to wanting the best for your children and not worrying about yourself. In my opinion that is Mora’s biggest point in the whole poem. In the end you cannot always worry about yourself, you have to make time for others and want what’s best for them. For my reflection on this poem I tried to do something a little different than everyone else. Instead of just reading the poem and analyzing it I decided to try to step out of my shoes and into Mora’s. This is how I realized exactly how she feels. She is not writing this poem to express others life, although she is, but she is writing it to describe her life.