Read the excerpts from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” and “Speaking Arabic.” My friend had concluded that if he took hi
s language and culture out of his poetry, he stood a better chance of receiving a fellowship. He took out his native language, the poetic patois of our reality, the rich mixture of Spanish, English, pachuco and street talk which we know so well. In other words, he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry. At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, “I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one.” And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head. Which best states how the structures of the excerpts differ? A. Anaya structures his excerpt as an anecdote, while Nye structures her excerpt as a rhetorical appeal.B. Anaya structures his excerpt as an analysis, while Nye structures her excerpt as an observation.C. Anaya structures his excerpt as an observation, while Nye structures her excerpt as an analysis.D. Anaya structures his excerpt as a rhetorical appeal, while Nye structures her excerpt as an anecdote.
B. Anaya structures his excerpt as an analysis, while Nye structures her excerpt as an observation.
Explanation:
The two excerpts shows the approaches of the two writers respectively. While Rudolfo Anaya's "<em>Take The Tortillas Out of Your Poetry</em>" structures the text as a form of an explanation or an analysis, Naomi Shihab Nye's "<em>Speaking Arabic</em>" is more of an impression or an observation, her own observation. But both writers share the same opinion of writers writing about their own identity and heritage is the key to having a great work done and not to conform to the ways of the other writers just to be praised or be acceptable.
