Tone 2: Elena - Pat Mora

Interview of Patricia Mora :



This poem really caught my attention. 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. Her tones are depression, frustration, and self degradation. The mother says shes "embarrassed at mispronouncing words" and how she feels "dumb" and "alone". I feel as thought I can sympathize with her because sometimes I also mispronounce words and I have seen these things happen so close to me. When people sometimes make fun of my mother's accent, I attack them verbally. I try not to, but this poem explains how I feel sometimes.

The mother is "embarrassed at the laughter of [her] children, the grocer, [and] the mailman" which is just horrible. How could anyone be put through so much. The use of tone changes the whole meaning of the poem. Without the depressing, frustrating tone, and self degradation, the poem could just be humorous. This was the only poem where I saw a great contrast from having the specific tone that is used and the use of no specific tone because in this poem, it was easy for me to capture the tone at the beginning, and it just wouldn't be the same without it. It's very hard to explain how I feel and I am probably going in circles, but this poem has just caused me to have a revelation.