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In the poem La Migra by Pat Mora, there are two speakers. The first stanza has the writer as an officer and the reader as a victim. The game appears to be a simple game of catch, but the details that follow prove otherwise. The first speaker offers to “be [b]order [p]atrol”(Mora line 2) and tells the reader to be the “Mexican maid”(Mora line 3). Immediately, a power imbalance is clear as it is shown he is racist and wants to arrest the maid. He goes on to threaten and intimidate the reader, even stating he has a gun. He then tells the maid that they should not bother trying to defend themselves as he does not speak Spanish. The maid is supposed to be terrified and the officer seems to enjoy it. In the second stanza, the maid’s point of view is shown. From her perspective, there seems to be nothing to be afraid of. As a matter of fact, it seems that the officer is on the lower end of the imbalance as he “has a flat, [has] been spotted by the sun [and] [a]ll [he] [has]is heavy”(Mora lines 25-29). The maid on the other hand is thriving as she is in familiar territory and has a significantly better chance at surviving than her “captor”. Initially, there was worry for the maid and incredible anger at the officer for being so cruel. However, reading on, the officer seemed very foolish as opposed to threatening, and the maid, a genius. The spirit child in Abiku by J.P Clark and Wole Soyinka is given the functionality of a trope because her arrival symbolizes mourning. In several African cultures, it is believed that specific children die and come back to their mothers repeatedly to cause them sorrow. These children are often branded, so that their parents know when they come back. This is shown in J.P Clarks Abiku when he speaks about “knife scars [s]errating down [his] back and front [l]ike beak of the sword-fish, [a]nd both your ears[being]
notched ( lines 16-19). It is further insisted upon when Soyinka says “[w]het the heated fragment, brand [him] [d]eeply on the breast - you must know him” (lines 10-11). When they arrive, everyone pleads with them to stay as their mother is distraught and can not handle anymore of her children’s death. Clark tells the to “step in and stay” (line 22), and Soyinka’s Abiku claims that the rituals and pleadings are “[i]n vain”(line 1) as they will continue returning. Abikus reincarnate to be born by their mothers, and die leaving their families more distraught than the last time. They symbolize mourning and sorrow, and as such are given the functionality of a trope. Satrapi’s Persepolis demonstrates Bakhtin’s argument that “the dialogic, heteroglot aspects of language are essentially threatening to any unitary authoritarian and hierarchical conception of society, art, and life” using the Islamic revolution. The Islamic revolution began in 1979 in Iran(Satrapi 7). Immediately, millions were subjected to laws, and women would eventually have several of their rights stripped. A vast majority of Iran’s population was subjected to laws and one of the laws included parties being “strictly forbidden”(Satrapi 109). The sole purpose of an authoritarian system is to get everybody to fear and obey the rules. However, Satrapi, her family, and friends continued to party despite the general fear of being caught”. According to Bakhtin, when people can communicate with each other, they begin to slowly revolutionize to get little authority over their lives. This is further shown when Satrapi gets into university, and she continues to party with several of her peers despite being arrested(Satrapi 313). As long as there is a common language, authoritarianism is never truly safe.
personal belief system. The line “some view our sable race with scornful eye”(Wheatlet line 5) confronts the racial prejudice of the day head-on but places it within a Christian context of redemption. Here, Wheatley directly addresses the prejudice against African slaves and proposes that Christian salvation operates independently of racial distinction. She promotes the idea that people of African descent, despite their racial otherness, can be redeemed through faith-a theological and moral argument against the scorn directed at Black people. Wheatley's statement- “May be refin'd and join th' angelic train”(Wheatley lines 10-11)speaks to the possibility of spiritual equality, framing racial identity within the broader, more inclusive Christian doctrine of salvation. The racial prejudice to which she refers is certainly real, but the poem inverts this prejudice by suggesting that Christian grace offers a means of escaping racial distinctions. In the poem, focus is solely placed on this theme of race and redemption; to understand Wheatley's stance, one need not explore a broader ideological context. The text alone critiques racial prejudice by placing faith as the universalizing force which can eradicate racial boundaries. Wheatley presents her experiences in the context of a Christian salvation narrative, believing that her journey to America represents part of God's intentions for redemption. Her recognition of racial bias is also placed in the context of Christian religion, indicating that spiritual equality surpasses racial differences. The poem's message of mercy, redemption, and racial transcendence is self-contained, and does not require references to a wider web of external texts or influences.
Works Cited Clark, John Pepper. “Poem: Abiku .” Literature PADI , 29 Jan. 2023, www.literaturepadi.com.ng/2022/09/20/poem-abiku-by-john-pepper-clark/. Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon Books, 2023. Soyinka, Wole. “Abiku .” African Literature , literature.africa/Article/abiku-by-wole-soyinka. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024. Wheatley, Phillis. “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Poetry Foundation , Poetry Foundation, Nov. 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america.
