No Place Like Home? Essay

Many people always want to live a better life. Some even search for a while to find what they are looking for. However, in this case the Haitian people are seeking asylum help from the US Government in order to have a better living style than back in their country. Therefore, the problem is that the Haitian asylum seekers are not getting the real help they need and isn’t being treated well by the government. Danticat is reporting on what is happening to these people who come for help and how they are all mistreated. Danticat’s essay is to get the readers to sympathize the Haitian people and to get to feel for them as they struggle to seek a better living style therefore she convinces her readers by her good tone, appeals, and connotative language. She starts off her essay by describing what the area is like and how it related to her from years ago when she went to visit this place. She then describes it by using tone of voice to really express the way of the people talking to her and to share a bit of their stories being told. She states: The women in that hotel also told us how six of them must live together in one room, how some of them were forced to sleep on the floor when there wasn’t enough space on the beds or couches. They told us how they missed their own clothes and seeing their children play in the sun, how they had perhaps been wrong about America. This shows that she feels for what the people are experiencing and going through. However, Danticat misses some points on how the tone of voice really speaks out and the true intent behind the words, only speaks out the point of view of the people and not all of the intent behind the words. Thus she mainly shows how the Haitian people’s lives are and how they manage to survive this hell. During this whole essay, Danticat shows a lot of emotional appeal to get the reader’s sympathy tow ards these people. She does it in a way to show not much emotion, but to stay neutral in her feelings and let the feelings get to the reader so then they can connect with the people and have a feel for their lives. While she mentioned her uncle, she tried not to put too much emotion towards his side of the story because if there is too much emotion the reader will not feel much into it and only the author is expressing how she feels rather than what the story has to offer. This neutral emotional appeal will get the readers more interested, rather than read on about emotions and get off topic of the essay. She did a good job on this because then she can get the readers to feel more sympathy for these Haitian people seeking for help because they can’t even survive in their own country. Besides the tone of voice and the appeals, Danticat uses connotative language to defend her argument about how the government is treating the Haitian people. She mentions something one man told her, â€Å" If mad dogs are chasing you, shouldn’t your neighbor shelter you?† When people think of mad dogs, they think of dogs that will attack when they see anything and the dogs represent the viciousness of the country Haiti and the shelter is the US government that is suppose to have a open door to help these people and protect them from harm. It can also show how the American government is very deceiving in how they offer up opportunities. She hopes to assume that the readers can already have an image in their head on how these people are doing and have a sense to feel for them. The best strategy that Danticat use is the emotional appeal. It is being used throughout the whole essay and has showed little or neutral feelings towards the essay to ensure the interest of the readers and the readers to have their own feelings and thoughts on the essay itself. Her primary goal was to get the readers to connect and sympathize for the Haitian people and to much care about what they are going through. Towards the end of Danticat’s essay she mentions, â€Å" Will America ever learn again how to protect itself without sacrificing a great many innocent lives? So that my uncles did not die in vain, I truly hope so.† Many of the people risk their lives to come to a better place and to start all over again, but there will always be a price to pay. The American government shouldn’t be that harsh on those only wanting to seek help. If people truly see what their situation is, things will be different in terms of wanting to make a difference for a better h ope.