On top of this, she uses underlying messages and violent word choice to follow up her previously joyful tone to urge the world to make a change.
Coplen begins her persuasive and argumentative essay with a personal anecdote. Here she describes a heartwarming family moment: making tamales with her mother, grandmother, cousins, and aunts. This memory is filled with warm, joyful imagery in order to evoke emotions in the reader, and in doing so she opens the door for her readers to think back on their own cheerful family memories. Evidence of the author attempting to kindle her readers’ emotions are clear through the use of relatable statement such as, “Holiday music humming from the stereo” (82), and “I grab a clean towel and wipe masa from her face and we burst into laughter”(83). By creating these sincere family moments, the author creates an …show more content…
Immediately after Coplen’s anecdote she cleverly describes the ingredients that her and her family used to create their traditional tamales. She states that her family’s traditions are, “sustained by parallel traditions that thrive on the region’s farmland” (83). While referencing her own family’s history she highlights the importance of this history by using a personal, and highly sentimental tone that she carried over from the previous paragraphs. This is evident when she ties her family traditions, and her largely her happiness on the traditions of working with the land and using the cultivated ingredients to create memories she holds most dear. This was an interesting choice by Coplen because she quite dramatically shifts from an anecdote to the history of an entire society of people. By juxtaposing these two very different paragraphs, Coplen is able to recite history while still having the ring of family values. In doing this, it creates an interesting tone that Coplen carries through to her next anecdote. This tone allows the reader to examine facts she is presenting while still relating it to the family moment they just witnessed. Ultimately, through using a wholesome tone Coplen is able to reach out to her readers while also causing them to think back on their own family values. In creating this personal and introspective nature to her essay she is able to add an