Mora’s poem ‘‘Elena’’ is concerned with the narrator’s native language of Spanish and the English language of her adoptive country, the United States. Name: Institution: Course: Date: Comparison Essay In the poem, Elena, the author conveys the main theme using the two main protagonists. This barrier of language has broken off a major form of communication between her children and her. From the fact that the children are sitting together in the kitchen, talking and laughing, one can assume that they are relatively happy. It doesn't interfere with the make up of the poem. Sara Constantakis (Editor), Poetry for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Poetry, Volume 33, published by Gale-Cengage Learning, 2010. Every single poem have a different story and characters, but with the same problem. All her children sang and engaged in sporting activities at their leisure time. Christine. For Elena, these two languages are symbolic of the conflict between the familiarity of her native land and … Elena feels excluded because she cannot participate in conversations with her children. If a person is being funny, they tend to have a smile on their face, but when a person is angry about a particular subject, the tone of their voice becomes extremely loud and overbearing. Yet the teenage children choose to make themselves unavailable to their mother by speaking in English instead. Top Answer. The fact that she now feels dumb is a completely different feeling from how she felt in Mexico where she, "understood every word they'd say" (Line 4). This poems are connected by the same problem, can be cultural or language problems that the majority of the immigrants suffer. Language is hard for others to learn and is a challenging to master. Mora skillfully underscores Elena’s distance from her children when they are listed along with the grocer and the mailman—familiar strangers—as individuals whose laughter makes her feel embarrassed. 0
Who are we?” (Overview, and love may be the only cure. In doing so, she isolates herself from them, simply by providing them with the opportunities for experiences she never had. The poet hints at transitions in Elena’s household, transitions that are not confined to the homes of Mexican immigrant families. 2009-06-22 18:49:02 2009-06-22 18:49:02 . The poem, “Elena”, by Pat Mora and the story, “No speak English”, by Sandra Cisneros show how immigrants that move to the United States suffer emotional problem. Much of the time, these roles can jumble together. Answer. Mora is proud to be a Hispanic writer and demonstrates how being culturally different in America is not easy. Tone 2: Elena - Pat Mora Interview of Patricia Mora : This poem really caught my attention. At the end of the poem, Elena’s isolation is demonstrated to be a source of intense anxiety for her, as she reveals her fears of not being able to help her children in times of trouble. Her sense of exclusion is heightened by her knowledge that in the past, her relationship with her children was one in which she felt connected to them. She explains this through her experiences and the experience other’s. Situation/Setting: The who, what, when, where, and why of a poem. This poems are connected by the same problem, can be cultural or language problems that the majority of the immigrants suffer. When did organ music become associated with baseball? While her desire to learn English to be able to communicate with them, to hear them in the language in which they choose to speak is an obvious component of her effort to remain a significant part of her children’s lives, Elena seeks on a larger scale to remain emotionally connected with her children. Ano ang Imahinasyong guhit na naghahati sa daigdig sa magkaibang araw? Elena pinpoints language as the source of this growing divide, faulting her Spanish as insufficient, and demonstrating the problems in understanding that the … If you are 13 years old when were you born? The first line in the poem brings a slight negative tone, “My Spanish isn’t enough. 30 0 obj
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Why don't libraries smell like bookstores? Her isolation intensifies when, as she tries to learn English, her husband frowns upon her efforts, and people, her children included, laugh at the way she mispronounces the English words she struggles so hard to learn. Constantakis talks about how the poem explicitly highlights the effect of how a language barrier could effect an individual. They do not present a united front in coping with the changes their children are undergoing. The tone is derived from several words and, The remainder of the poem's setting takes place in the United States, where the speaker and her family now reside. the community she lives in by trying to adapt to the English Before describing Elena’s current troubles, Mora depicts a past in which the relationship between Elena and her children is whole, characterized by mutual understanding. Elena does not reveal what has brought her family from Mexico to the United States. 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