Counter Arguments, SN Entry 11, 4/6/22 (Revised)

A. My thesis: Although Mora is a strong supporter of cultural identity, her poem, “Two

Worlds” suggests that forming a society against diversity creates a dehumanizing

experience for a bicultural person.

B. 1 reason supporting my thesis: “able to sit in a paneled office/ drafting memos in

smooth English” (39). If it was assumed that the speaker would have a difficult time

writing memos, the speaker would be looked down upon, but since the speaker writes

in “smooth English” they are praised for their English speaking abilities. Both

situations can be humiliating to encounter and both situations stem from class

hierarchy and racism.

C. 1 counterargument to this reason: As Patrick D. Murphy states in his article,

“Conserving Natural and Cultural Diversity: The Prose and Poetry of Pat Mora,

“When one culture claims universality and dominates the lands and lives of another

culture, translation breaks down” (60-61).

D. 1 way I'll address this counterargument: While I believe it is important that Murphy

acknowledges that the United States claims to be a diverse nation (a Melting Pot), but

continually dominates the lives of others, especially the lives of bicultural people, I

also believe it needs to be stated that other cultures are not completely innocent in

this regard. Mora addresses that the speaker is, “viewed by Mexicans as alien” (39),

and to make matters more exceptional, Mora finishes that sentence with “(their eyes

say, ‘you may speak/ Spanish but you’re not like me’)” (39). This indicates that the

feelings of Mexicans and Americans are interchangeable.

 E. My conversation with my peers was good. One peer believed I was speaking too

harshly so I updated my language so as not to be seen as degrading to one culture

over another.

SLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6