The poem, “Elena”, by Pat Mora and the story, “No speak English”, by Sandra Cisneros show how immigrants that move to the United States suffer emotional problem. Born in El Paso, Texas, poet, writer, former teacher, university administrator, museum director, and consultant, Pat Mora is a popular national speaker who promotes creativity, inclusivity and bookjoy. Language is hard for others to learn and is a challenging to master. Constantakis talks about how the poem explicitly highlights the effect of how a language barrier could effect an individual. Thank You. The teens may be using slang terms, or text messaging terms, or they might even be texting one another, laughing at jokes the onlooking mother cannot understand. 6 years ago. 10 11 12. Analysis Of The Poem ' Elena ' By Elena Essay 882 Words | 4 Pages. Set against this backdrop, Elena’s present state of isolation is more clearly understood. Elena’s inability to master the new language is a source of shame, embarrassment, frustration, and fear. She goes on in deep explain that with a language barrier problem one may have the “sentiments of exclusions, humiliation, and fear” (Constantakis 1). Read More. … Elena’s children are also growing up. They do not present a united front in coping with the changes their children are undergoing. Every single poem have a different story and characters, but with the same problem. Her book, House of Houses (2008), is a family memoir told in the voices of ancestors. The teenagers are speaking to one another in what appears to the listening parent as code. In the poem "Elena" by Pat Mora, the speaker--a Mexican mother--is portrayed as feeling lonely in America; her biggest obstacle is the disconnection from her family, for she can no longer communicate with her children in her native language. Yet underlying the overt conflicts created for the narrator by language is another, more subtle reason for the isolation Elena feels. Elena must not only overcome the barrier of language, but also the emotional barriers her children have erected in order to keep their mother separate, apart from them. She feels she will lose her children because of the communication barrier. The first line in the poem brings a slight negative tone, “My Spanish isn’t enough. Christine. Mora is proud to be a Hispanic writer and demonstrates how being culturally different in America is not easy. In Anthony Grooms', "Homespace," the speaker's mind-set remains constant from the setting that he had just returned from and in the new setting where the poem takes place. 0 0. “Elena” is portraying a huge obstacle taking place, but no help is seeked, Pat Mora knows that this a struggle for others that they face everyday. Her desire is to remain a significant presence in the life of her children, to be the person they turn to when help is needed. It is about foreigners learning English, and I feel bad for the mother and my mother because I do the same to my mother as this woman's kids do to her. Pat Mora’s poem ‘‘Elena’’ is a work in which the narrator expresses her sense of isolation from her children. "Acrobats" by Ian Hamilton Findley - Shape Poem, Shape: dying is fine)but Death by E.E. Page This comment has been removed by the author. Mora describes a scene in which the children are seated at the kitchen table, laughing together, while Elena is alone, standing next to the stove, feeling mute and foolish. In the poem, Elena, the author conveys a deep meaning through tone and the speaker. Elena pinpoints language as the source of this growing divide, faulting her Spanish as insufficient, and demonstrating the problems in understanding that the English language generates in her household. Top Answer. Not only did Elena understand her children’s language when they were young, when they all spoke Spanish with one another, but she was able to understand her children as people. As for poems, the tone is not as recognizable. endstream endobj startxref Sara Constantakis (Editor), Poetry for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Poetry, Volume 33, published by Gale-Cengage Learning, 2010. What is the hink-pink for blue green moray? The lives of the children and the interactions between the children and their mother were uncomplicated when the children were younger. The narrator’s sense of isolation in the poem ‘‘Elena’’ is a palpable thing, conveyed through Mora’s imagery and word choice. Situation/Setting: The who, what, when, where, and why of a poem. I remember how I’d smile listening to my little ones, understanding every word they’d say, their jokes, their songs, their plots, Vamos a pedirle dulces a mamá. These make the reader understand the characters emotions and feelings throughout the entire book. Pat Mora’s poem ‘‘Elena’’ is a work in which the narrator expresses her sense of isolation from her children. Elena speaks of being able to understand her children, understand their jokes and songs, and their secret conspiring with one another. Mora’s poem ‘‘Elena’’ is concerned with the narrator’s native language of Spanish and the English language of her adoptive country, the United States. This is her only way to adjust to her new setting and because she feared that one day she, "will be deaf/ when (her) children need (her) help" (Line 21-22). The main conflict in the poem is not simply an internal one within Elena; it is not simply that she cannot understand her children. Now my children go to American high schools. When having a conversation with someone it is easy to know how they are feeling by the tone in their voice. 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