“Merican’s” by Sandra Cisneros and “Response to Executive Order 9066” by Okita

Introduction

Writers such as Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros were greatly influenced by American culture. ‘Response to Executive Order 9066’ by Dwight Okita and ‘Merican’s’ by Sandra Cisneros both authors establish the topic of American identity. In Okita’s poem, American identity has more to do with how you experience a culture than with where your family came from. Both Okita’s poem and Cisneros’s short story show that cultural heritage and physical appearance do not determine what it means to be American.

Comparative Analysis of “Merican’s” by Sandra Cisneros and “Response to Executive Order 9066” by Okita

In Merican’s, they choose to compare how the grandma feels about American culture. In the poem’s response to executive order 9066, Okita uses direct thoughts and the different opinions of others. While both texts have different approaches to defining how individuals view American identity, they both even have similar devices used, like the narrator’s own opinions and the way outsiders view them.
In both Merican’s and response to executive order 9066, the writers define their identities not based on heritage but where they relate the most. Both authors demonstrate it differently in the texts. In Mercian’s, they choose to compare how the grandma feels about American culture. In the poem’s response to executive order 9066, Okita uses direct thoughts and the different opinions of others. While both texts have different approaches to defining how individuals view American identity, they both even have similar devices used, like the narrator’s own opinions and the way outsiders view them.

In Mercian’s, the author utilizes the emotions of both the grandmother and, therefore, the narrator to point out their opinions on how they see their identities. “The awful grandmother knits the names of the dead, and therefore the living into one long prayer fringed with the grandchildren born therein barbaric country with its barbaric ways” (Cisneros).

While both texts have samples of alternative ways of conveying an identical theme, there also are similarities within the texts that serve an equivalent purpose also. An example of this is often both authors’ use of the narrator’s opinions. “I gave her a packet of tomato seeds and asked her to plant them for me, told her when the first tomato ripened she’d miss me”.

Conclusion

Overall both authors use both different and similar ways of conveying the identical theme that identity isn’t supported by heritage but by where one feels they relate and belong the foremost. Cisneros uses the methods of comparisons and popular culture to get her ideas across, while Okita uses direct thoughts. While they both do different organizations, they also share some, like the narrator’s opinions. Lastly, both authors can make their point that identity is up to every individual in similar and other ways.

References

1. Cisneros, Sandra. “Merican’s.” Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Vintage Books, 1991.

2. Okita, Dwight. “Response to Executive Order 9066.” The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry, edited by Jack Myers and Roger Weingarten, Columbia University Press, 1995

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