Scribd
Upload
103 views3 pages

Critical Analysis Essay

Uploaded by

Yinan Liu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
103 views3 pages

Critical Analysis Essay

Uploaded by

Yinan Liu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

1

Fen.6th

ALS 162

Critical Analysis Essay

Yinan Liu

The article, “The long struggle over what to call undocumented immigrants or, as Trump

said in his order, illegal aliens” was written by Derek Hawkins and published in The

Washington Post in February 9, 2017. Firstly, the author points out the saying of “illegal

immigrant” should not be used to characterize a person, but an action. However, President

Trump has been using it to provoke his opponents, which has heated a controversial debate.

Then, Hawkins cites a historical event which describes the Mexican illegal immigrants had

been encountering with racism in terms of being called “wetback”. Finally, the author reports

a social situation toward the preference of describing the immigrants who are not supposed to

remain present in a country. This is to say, the society appears to accept a general consensus

that it is not a crime for the aliens to stay in the United States. And the Supreme Court still

need to be careful about the word’s choice. In general, the article is effective because the

author begins building pathos via Donald Trump’s experience; also, he uses historical event

in 1970 as logos; what’s more, the quotation from the Supreme Court and the opinion of the

Justice improve the ethos of the article.

First of all, the article is effective in the aspect of building credibility to the audience

because the background of it is reliable. The article is aim to the entire educated American

citizens since it was published in the Washington Post which is a primary daily newspaper
2

focusing on national politics. The purpose of this article is to show the readers the dichotomy

in the opinion of “how to look at the word ‘illegal immigrant’” He demonstrated different

points of view in terms of different judges and legal scholars or authorized dictionary. “Illegal

alien is not an opprobrious epithet: it describes one present in a country in violation of the

immigration laws” (Hawkins, para 15). This comment derives from a passage in the

Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. It has described the situation of illegal aliens in an

relatively objective way. The reason why some people was in favor of using “illegal

immigrant” has been changed, now people see this kind of people without racial bias rather

than before. Because of these reasons, the ethos is effective to the readers.

Secondly, the author evokes the audiences’ emotion efficiently through using realistic

examples and metaphor. The article begins with the cases of Donald Trump’s experience. His

overuse of the term “illegal” has made the immigrant advocates recoil from their favor.

Furthermore, “Trump deployed the term again on Wednesday, telling a conference of police

chiefs to turn “illegal immigrant gang members” over to federal authorities” (Hawkins, para

3). We can find that this is a hot news which just happened around them. By using this news,

readers are able to empathize with each other. It is easier to stimulate the readers’ consensus

in the attitude of President Trump’s statement. Besides, in the last paragraph, “The president,

meanwhile, has made his preference clear” (Hawkins para 19). The author uses metaphor to

explain the position of the President’s is somewhat different from that of Supreme Court. For

these reasons, the pathos of the article can be considered as effective.

On top of that, the article cites a typical historical event to improve its logos. The readers

might have difficulties in understanding the significance in terms of the overused term ‘illegal
3

immigrant’ by Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, there was a similar issue occurring in 20th

century when the immigrated Mexicans was pervasively called “wetback”. Hawkins explains

“In 1954, the U.S. government even titled a mass deportation effort ‘Operation Wetback.’ By

the 1960s, it was increasingly regarded as an ethnic slur, but major publications were still

using it in stories and headlines” (para 8). This sentence is helpful to make sense that there is

no surprise why the language of illegality could be so disputable in terms of the racism topic.

Moreover, the narrative of “wetback” event can be a reasonable comparison with the

contemporary standing of “neutrality” in terms of the use of “illegal immigrant”. Due to these

reasons, the logos of the article has been shown well.

In my final stage of analysis, the article is effective due to the fact that the rhetorical

devices are used adequately and appropriately. The source of this article is authorized and

renowned. In addition, the article is well-organized because the author states his main points

clearly and logically with proper examples and quotations. Moreover, the author uses

metaphor in the last paragraph in order to tell the audience there still is a dichotomy between

the court and President Trump, and the result will be revealing in the future.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy