Blog 4 Globalization Articles

The article I chose to analyze is "Behind the 'Illegal Alien' Label, Real Kids with a Lot to Contribute".  The author, Marcos Breton, is a writer for the Sacramento Bee, a newspaper published in California.  His articles focus mostly on local issues and sports and are directed towards Californians and sports fans.  This article isn't strictly about a local issue, but illegal aliens are more of an issue in California than in many places in the United States.  He is rather liberal and disagrees with the Republican Party on many issues aside from this one.  His analysis could definitely be biased because of this.  His audience, California, is fairly liberal from what I understand, so he wouldn't be too worried about counterarguments and could focus more on his views.

Breton's main purpose at the beginning seems to be convincing people that so called illegal aliens need to be dealt with on a case by case basis.  He brings up the point that, as mentioned in the title, many illegal aliens are students with a lot of academic promise.  In fact, they often were brought into the country by their parents and had no choice in the matter.  And yet, they're being punished for it.  This is the main point of his article, although he expands it to include other law abiding, hardworking illegal aliens further on in his argument.  He uses a somewhat casual tone throughout the article, forging a connection with his audience without hurting his credibility.  Since he's a columnist for a newspaper, most of his audience is probably familiar with his writing style and expects him to write that way.  He always uses quotation marks around the term illegal alien, putting focus on it as well as casting doubt on its legitimacy as a term; he refers to them as words, not the real people those words are meant to represent.  It's like the opposite of personification.  He uses extreme examples rather than the most common to get his point across, notably drug dealer and rapist.  He uses legitimate sources to supplement his opinion and brings up vivid imagery to evoke emotions and urgency in the reader.  Specifically, he relates the phrase "illegal alien" to "blood dumped in shark infested waters".  He responds to counterarguments and uses words with violent connotations when describing those with a close minded view of illegal aliens.

While Breton uses many rhetorical techniques to persuade the reader of his point of view, towards the end of the article he sort of gives up.  He admits that there is no great solution to the problem of illegal aliens while arguing against the opposition and accidentally hurts his own argument as well.  There is no good answer.  He has no solution, no action for his readers to take.  At the end, he just reinforces that the current situation is unjust and depressing and sad and who knows what else.  There is no solution.  No call to action.  In the end, Breton hurts his own argument and then fails to save it with any hint of hope or progress.  He leaves the reader with an image and a story, but with nothing to do about it.