Analytical Essay Charlotte Kvist Ovesen

D.07.10.2019
Engelsk

Analytical Essay
The text “ ‘Dreamers’ Put Their Trust in DACA. What Now?” inquire into the topic of illegal
immigration in America. To be more explicit, the article focuses on children of illegal immigrants
in the US, the so-called ‘Dreamers’.

Author
The author of the text “‘Dreamers’ Put Their Trust in DACA. What Now?” is Jose Antonio Vargas,
an American citizen- Filipino journalist, film maker, and NGO founder.

Jose Antonio Vargas is “the founder of the organization Define American” (line. 61). The
organization is a “non-profit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to
transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a
changing America.” (line. 63-65).

Jose Antonio Vargas credibility as the author of the article is manifested through his own personal
experience as an activist and his involvement as the founder of the organization ”Define America”.

Reader & Media

The article is published in the American newspaper, The New York Times. The choice of newspaper
points in the direction that the potential readers of the article of course are those who read The New
York Times on a regular basis, other Americans, and maybe other international audiences.

The New York Times is known as a newspaper with a liberal orientation. The newspaper is also
known to share some of the views of the American Democratic Party. Therefore, we could predict
that a large share of the readers are also Americans who would describe themselves
as Democrats or at least have liberal political stand point.

The topic of Immigrant rights also, suggests that Jose Vargas tries to target readers who are political
activists or protesters who defend immigrants. we can expect that readers of the article are
interested in the topic, of course including immigrants and immigrant children themselves.

Language

The language of the article is generally very simple and easy to read and understand. The language
style for the most part very informal, though later on the article changes slightly style wise and
becomes more formal. This change happens when Jose quotes a leaked official document,

Looking at the authors choice of words, it´s clear that Jose wants to raise awareness about the
situation of the immigrant children. This is done by using negative words and phrases, a few
examples could be: “illegally” (line. 15), “fear” (line. 19), “injustice” (line. 49).

On the opposite site, only a few positive words are used throughout the article, an example could
be: “trust” (line. 35). A word like trust is used describe possibility of better options for immigrants
and immigrant children.
Analytical Essay Charlotte Kvist Ovesen
D.07.10.2019
Engelsk
The article is written in the first person “I”. This Is a choice that supports Jose’s appeal as a writer,
as he uses his own personal experiences to convey his arguments: an example of this could be:
“She was a stranger, the first potential employer I’d ever told, and I asked for her trust.” (Line. 16-
17).

An interesting detail is that when the author, uses first-person plural “we”, he is trying to show his
identification with other illegal immigrants. The same goes for the second person “you” or “your” -
when used in the article, is to make the readers empathize with illegal immigrants.

Forms of appeal

Logos

Jose Antonio Vargas appeals to his readers’ through logos by using logical arguments and evidence.
In the article, he quotes statistics to show that the DACA helped a lot of people and that the
initiative has been beneficial: “Since then, an estimated 800,000 undocumented Americans across
the country have received this deferred action.” (line. 29-30).

Ethos

The article appeals to the readers’ through trust and authority. Jose wants to emphasize the fact that
he and the people he mentions in the article are in fact trustworthy.

For example, Jose choose to point out Barack Obama and his DACA act - this appeals to the
authority of the former president - and the readers supporting his political stand. The former
president suggests that the so called dreamers would most likely benefit from having a legal status.
The example being: “...in 2012, when President Barack Obama issued a directive to establish the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.” (line. 20-21); “…it granted a work permit to
qualified immigrants who were under age 31 on June 15, 2012, the date of its announcement.
Applicants paid a $465 fee for processing…” (line. 23-24).

The author also appeals to “people’s trust in other people,” this is done by writing about teachers
helping immigrant children. The quantity of the help not mentioned. From here the author once
again uses his personal experience, by reminiscing about his own teacher helping him when he was
young. The example being: “But we do know who to trust now — the people we had to trust before.
To me, that means the teachers…” (line. 48-49).

Pathos

Pathos is by far the most dominant form of appeal in the text because Jose uses numerous personal
anecdotes that are very emotional and these appeals to the reader’s emotions.

Early on in the text Jose mentions a brief story about two women wondering about the DACA
program. In the story they describe their feelings regarding the insecurity.
Analytical Essay Charlotte Kvist Ovesen
D.07.10.2019
Engelsk
The example being: ‘I don’t know if we should trust the government,’ one of the women said.
‘I don’t know, either,’ the other replied. ‘But I really want to work and help my mom pay rent.’
(line. 5-6)

Jose’s text also appeals to the feeling of fear among the “immigrant community”. In the text the US
government is nearly described as a disastrous monster. The example being: “The scariest stranger
of all is the United States government. It could deport you from the place you call home. That’s a
fear I live with.” (ll. 18-19; “Friends whose lives and livelihoods depended on this promise the
government had made needed to know: Will my boss still keep me on when DACA expires?” (line.
32-34).

The emotion put behind the written words encourage the reader to emphasize with the Immigrants,
and to try to relate to the feeling of uncertainty and fear.

How successful is the author in communicating his message?

As the author uses his personal story as an illegal immigrant in the text, he is very successful in
communicating to other illegal immigrants, as they easily relate to the story and his struggles. AN
example being: “…a recruiter at The Seattle Times, told me that she couldn’t offer me a summer
internship because I am in the United States illegally.” (line. 14-15).

Jose also engages other “pro-immigrant” activists through the text and the image covering the front
of the article. An example being: the mentioned article photo, in which activists and protesters uses
signs to suggests that a large amount of people support the “Dreamers”.

The author tries throughout the entire text to appeal to the Americans citizens, to try and encourages
them to take action. The part appealing to the American citizens largely appeals to morals and
values. An example being a conversation between him and his former teacher: “I told her it was
more complicated than that, that I didn’t have any piece of legal document that I could show, that I
wasn’t supposed to be here.” (line. 55-57); “Years later, she told me: ‘You were my kid. I wasn’t
going to leave any of my kids behind.’” (line. 58-59).

This positive memory crowns the achievement of the text. Jose Antonio Vargas, is indeed very
successful in communicating his message