Okita And Cisneros: A Comparative Essay

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Although Americans vary widely in ethnicity and race and minorities are far from sparse, racism has never been in short supply. This has led to many large scale issues from Irish immigrants not begin seen as Americans during the Irish famine, to Mexican-American citizens having their citizenship no longer recognized during the Mexican Cession, all the way to Japanese internment camps during World War II. Both Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros Both give accounts of the issue from the perspective of the victims of such prejudice. Rather than return the injustice, both Okita and Cisneros use it to strengthen their identity as an American, withstanding the opinion of others.
Okita utilizes dysphemism to dramatize the conversation between the main character and his friend. In contrast Cisneros utilizes euphemism to convey the same idea. however, both utilize these methods to show a drastic change in opinion. In Okita’s story the main character’s best friend’s attitude shifts drastically when she finds out Ozawa is Japanese, “We’re best friends. I saw Denise in Geography class. She was sitting on the other side of the room. …show more content…

Okita and Cisneros’ stories are written from very different standpoints, and from first glance do not even appear related, yet through all of this emerges the idea that you can create your own identity. This common theme would not be achievable if it were not for the eloquent use of literary devices such as tone, mood, and shifts by Okita and Cisneros. Not only do Okita and Cisneros’ works bring together a common theme they manage to bring to light the very real problem of racism in America, that has existed since it’s very foundation, in an attempt to bring about change. Although Both authors used a wide variety of literary techniques to write their works they show that commonalities can be found in the most different of

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