Sonrisas

Paper #1 Explication of “Sonrisas” (Revision)

In this free verse poem, Sonrisas,” Pat Mora, a Mexican American creates images of living in two worlds where she is living in the middle of the doorway. As a first generation American, I can relate to the lifestyle of living between two worlds or cultures and the struggles to understand and cope with both. When I first thought of living in a doorway I thought of two rooms where I must live in which I had access to both and this is the case because Mora’s doorway is her life and the rooms se lives in are possibly her job and her life at home. Every day that she steps out of her front door, she enters a new world, and when she comes home she reenters her reality. In “Sonritas,” Mora is able to document some experiences she faces on a journey into the world in which she lives.

Mora begins her free verse poem and introduces the reader to the first world in which she lives. Mora describes a place where she works as a very quiet, strict and boring place she does so by the use of imagery of the office is that it is very quiet, so quiet that you can hear the quiet clicking of computer keys. The alliteration in “quiet clicking” and in the repetition of the word click helps emphasize and reinforce how quiet it is in the office. In the office the workers do little socializing with each other. I think Mora wanted the reader to imagine this place as not friendly. Mora use imagery of the “black coffee” to reinforces to plain and dull the office is. When I think of black coffee I think of something that is bitter and plain, also I think of workers who have so much work to do that they need plain black coffee to keep them awake. Imagine that work on “budgets, tenure, and curriculum” is boring work and you made need to drink black coffee to stay awake. Mora’s tone helps the reader understand how she feels about this world. Mora use sight and color to make to the reader understand how plain this world is. From the women in their plain beige suits to the black coffee it is obvious that Mora is trying to say that this world lacks color and the color it does have are not bright but dark colors that would be associated to being boring, plain or unfriendly. Like the plain “beige smiles that seldom sneak into their eyes.”

In the second world she seems to be more at home. She shows her culture by including some Spanish language like “ Senoras,” in this second stanza because I think she wants to separate the two by langue just like her life is separated and to show that she is more comfortable with her culture in the second world. This time, in the second world, Mora uses brighter imagery that evokes many human senses like taste, smell, and sight. The coffee in this world is “Sweet milk coffee,” and there fresh “tamales,” tamales are bright red. I would associate sweet with happiness in this world and the cooking red tamales as a way that Mora wants the reader to see the togetherness of the women in the second world. I think Mora did this to show the happiness she feels in the second world. Mora also shows that these women are affectionate to each other and enjoying one another’s company