Legal Alien By Lucille Clifton

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Poetry Analysis Legal Alien by Pat Mora and Forgiving My Father by Lucille Clifton are poems that reflect sentimental values that connect with our society. However, a correlation and contrast exists between the two poems. On the one hand, Legal Alien is a piece of literature that describes the life of a person of hispanic descent struggling for social acceptance on a daily basis due to society’s racial perspective. With this in mind, there is a tension due to the character’s racial background that creates feelings of social exclusion that evolve throughout the poem. Additionally, Legal Alien is a poem that displays a tone of frustration and depression due to character’s lifestyle. On the other hand, Forgiving My Father portrays the main character’s …show more content…

In fact, the poem demonstrates how the daughter feels towards her father due to their socioeconomic status and the connection that exists within her family. Additionally, throughout the poem the daughter portrays a certain preference for her mother over the father – characterizing the father as irresponsible and “old liar” (10) for not providing enough income. Furthermore, the daughter continuously criticizes in a negative manner: “never be time enough daddy daddy old lecher / old liar. i wish you were rich so i could take it all” (9-10). On the first stanza, the daughter recognizes that “today is payday”, expecting anxiously the father to pay the bills due to the fact that, as described by the daughter, “all week you have stood in my dreams / like a ghost, asking for more time” (3-4); must be remembered that both parents are dead at that time, given that the speaker mentions “my mother’s hand opens in her early grave” (6) and “old dead man” (20). On the second stanza, the speaker portrays the resentfulness towards her father, seeing the mother as the victim “ i wish you were rich so i could take it all / and give the lady what she was due” (10-11). However, soon after, the speaker describes how the father comes from a low-income family as well and realizes that it was not completely his

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