Question

Jimmy Santiago Baca has a shift in tone in his poem "Immigrants in Our Own Land." What is that shift?

Answer 1

Answer:

expectation to pessimism

Explanation:

The opening line "We were born with dreams in our hearts" shows us that the beginning is already negative, but it is not because of failure. In the second stanza Baca says "Our expectations are high: in the old world," which again points too expectations and dreams in the beginning.

The shift comes in the second half of the second stanza "But right away we are sent to work as dishwashers,

to work in fields for three cents an hour.

The administration says this is temporary

So we go about our business, blacks with blacks,

poor whites with poor whites,

chicanos and indians by themselves.

The administration says this is right,

no mixing of cultures, let them stay apart,

like in the old neighborhoods we came from."

The beginning was alll the expectations but when the immigrants came here, their dreams were shattered. All other options end with happiness and success except for expectation to pessimism.