Comparison Of Our Papers 'And What Is The What' By Julia Alvarez

Both stories, "Our Papers' by Julia Alvarez and "What is the What" by Dave Eggers, have complex issues that correlate with one another. In the excerpt from "Our Papers," the author Julia Alvarez has a major issue and that issue is how she was forced to leave her home due to the hardships faced in her country, so the family is traveling to the United States for better opportunities. The theme of the excerpt is how she is trying to find her identity in a cruel dictatorship. Displacement is a vivid theme that she portrays throughout the excerpt. However, "What is the What" is about a group of refugees who are trying their best to survive yet the muraheleen repels them back. Forced to acquire a new habitat without any source of food or water. The theme is immigration, in other words displacement, both these excerpts share this issue in common. …show more content…

How is the United States so diverse? Well, through immigration, the United States has acquired different races of people. Just like many other immigrants, Julia Alvarez came to the United States. Not by choice but by force due to the dictatorship in her home country. At the beginning of the text, you can see that the author has no issues with her place of origin. Yet as time went on, the oppression of the government became too maddening. Giving the family no choice but to try and get visas/papers to go to the United States for better opportunities. This was expressed when the author announced, "We were under virtual house arrest by the SIM." SIM being the dictator's secret police