Read the excerpt from Rudolfo Anaya’s essay “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry.” Tortillas and poetry. They go hand in hand.
Books nourish the spirit, bread nourishes our bodies. Our distinct cultures nourish each one of us, and as we know more and more about the art and literature of the different cultures, we become freer and freer. . . . I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to sample different ethnic foods, the breads of many many groups; just as many of us enjoy sampling books from different areas of the world. I travel to foreign countries, and I know more about myself as I learn more about my fellow human beings. Censorship imposes itself in my path of knowledge, and that activity can be justified by no one. Which phrase from the excerpt best uses persuasion? “about the art and literature of the different cultures” “I travel to foreign countries, and I know more about myself” “Our distinct cultures nourish each one of us” “just as many of us enjoy sampling books from different areas”
The phrase which best uses persuasion in the excerpt above is this: I TRAVEL TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND I KNOW MORE ABOUT MYSELF. Persuasion is the action or process of persuading someone to do or believe something. In the above passage, the writer is persuading his readers by his own experience to believe that we can know ourselves more by reading literature from other cultures.
