Classwork on 3/5/08

Think critically->What kind of revolution do you think the speaker is calling for? Explain. Analyze the poem as an effort to persuade. Who do you believe is the intended audience, and what do you think the poet wants the audience to do, think, and feel?

I think that the speaker is calling for a Revolution that will bring all people together to stand as one with no label to their nationality and only call them the name that they were both with. He is fighting for equality. When he says "Whatever I call myself, I look the same, I feel the same, I cry and sing the same. I am the masses of my people and I refuse to be absorbed. " I think that the intended audience are people who are constantly labeled and immigrants who migrate to a new location. He wrote this to them to give them something to be inspired by and to step out of their shell to be who they were born to be without the restriction of the labels posted on them. He wrote this to gather followers who will form a Revolution to stop this segregation he talks about.

Epic Characteristics	Evidence from Poem
Hero with high ideals	"My fathers have lost the economic battle and won the struggle of cultural survival."
Courageous deeds	"I must fight and win this struggle for my sons, and they must know from me who I am."
Large-scale setting	"in the barrios of the city, in the suburbs of bigotry, in the mines of social snobbery, in the prisons of dejection, in the muck of exploitation and in the fierce heat of racial hatred"
Universal idea	"I am Joaquin." "I am still here."