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Rhetorical Analysis Of My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant

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Rhetorical Analysis Paper:
My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola. Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and …show more content…

Even though Vargas knew what he was doing was wrong, he convinced himself that if he lived up to the qualities of a citizen he would be o.k. (Vargas 7). Vargas talks about when he returned to Washington he told one of the higher ups, Peter, about his secret. Peter told him to keep doing what he’s doing and once he has accomplished enough they will tell the chairman. Vargas eventually leaves the paper and moves to New York to join The Huffington Post. Vargas talks about his successes of working for The Huffington Post but ended up leaving because he couldn’t take the guilt and the lies he was telling himself and friends about his problem of being illegal. Vargas ends his article by explaining why he finally admitted to being an illegal immigrant and how he feels now after he has admitted to it. After reading this article I feel that the audience he is appealing to is people who are against illegal immigration or people who are on the edge about it. I feel that his purpose is to show that not all illegal immigrants are bad people and many of them turn out to be successful human beings. He uses many examples of how he contributed to this country and he wants to convince people to allow him to stay and support his staying along with other illegal immigrants who have put their time and effort into making this country a better place. The Kairos for this article is that the election just ended and there are still many debates about illegal immigration so I feel that he

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