Source: Literary analysis essay, Accelerated Reading and Composition (UC Berkeley)
Tags: Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us, memoir, immigration, rhetorical analysis, poverty, childhood abandonment, Spanish diction, internal monologue, imagery, visual rhetoric, ENG 101, undocumented immigrants, El Otro Lado
This essay analyses four rhetorical devices Reyna Grande uses in her memoir The Distance Between Us to humanise immigrants and counter anti-immigrant prejudice: Spanish diction, internal monologue, vivid imagery, and visual rhetoric (photographs). Each device gives readers personal insight into the emotional trauma of childhood abandonment and the harsh realities of systemic poverty in Mexico and the immigrant experience in the U.S.
Rhetorical devices
Techniques a writer uses deliberately to persuade, inform, or emotionally engage readers. In this essay, the focus is on diction, internal monologue, imagery, and visual rhetoric.
Spanish diction
Grande's intentional inclusion of Spanish words and phrases within her English-language memoir to preserve cultural authenticity and deepen readers' understanding of her Mexican background.
Internal monologue
A rhetorical device where the author reveals private thoughts and feelings directly to the reader, giving psychological depth to the narrative.
Vivid imagery
Descriptive language that appeals to the senses and creates strong mental pictures, used here to convey the severity of poverty and illness.
Visual rhetoric
The strategic use of photographs or visual elements within the text to provide evidence, build credibility, and reinforce the author's written descriptions.
El Otro Lado
Spanish for "The Other Side." The phrase young Reyna and her community use to refer to the United States, conveying its status as a distant, almost mythical place of wealth that "takes parents away."
Serial migration
A pattern where family members immigrate in stages rather than all at once, resulting in repeated separations and reunifications. Grande's family exemplifies this across the memoir.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric
Political and media discourse that frames immigrants as threats. The essay cites Conzo (2021) to establish this as the real-world context Grande's memoir pushes back against.
Grande's memoir uses rhetorical devices to counter anti-immigrant prejudice by offering personal insight into the trauma immigrants face
The essay argues Grande humanises immigrants, especially children, by showing the emotional costs of poverty and parental abandonment
Four specific devices are analysed: Spanish diction, internal monologue, vivid imagery, and visual rhetoric
Grande's father leaves Iguala, Mexico for the U.S. when Reyna is two, seeking work due to severe poverty
When Reyna is about four, her mother follows, leaving Reyna and siblings Mago and Carlos with their abusive paternal grandmother, Abuela Evila
Reyna experiences repeated cycles of reunion and abandonment before eventually crossing the border herself as an undocumented immigrant
Grande preserves Spanish phrases in her English-language text to maintain cultural authenticity and communicate what English alone cannot
"El Otro Lado" (p. 4): The children's term for the U.S., framing it as a frightening, unknown place that takes parents away. This phrase recurs throughout the memoir.
"The Mountain That Has a Headache" (p. 32): Reyna and Carlos pretend to drive an abandoned car over this mountain to reach their parents, illustrating how desperately the children want to escape poverty and reunite with their family.
"Mirálas, pobrecitas huerfanitas" (p. 17): A baker's wife calls the children "poor little orphans" as they pass. The Spanish phrase stresses the visible poverty (ragged clothes, no new purchases from the grandmother despite parents sending money) and the community's pity for children abandoned by immigration.
Why it works: The Spanish terms carry emotional and cultural weight that direct English translation would flatten. They position the reader inside the community's perspective.
Grande reveals her private thoughts to show the psychological damage of her parents' absence
The two-minute phone calls (p. 33): Calls from the parents are expensive and brief. When the mother announces a new baby, Reyna and her siblings "said nothing at all," and the silence communicates heartbreak, the feeling of being forgotten and replaced.
Christmas presents from El Otro Lado (pp. 56–57): Parents send gifts on 25 December rather than on the Day of the Three Wise Men (6 January), the Mexican tradition. Grande thinks to herself, "because that is what they do in El Otro Lado," showing the cultural drift between parents and children.
Wrong-sized shoes (p. 57): The presents arrive in the wrong sizes. Reyna thinks, "the fact that they didn't even know what size shoe I wore made me want to throw them in the trash." She asks herself, "what else don't they know?" This internal monologue exposes how the absence has become a fundamental disconnection, not merely physical distance.
Why it works: Internal monologue lets the reader experience Reyna's emotional reasoning in real time, making abstract concepts like "psychological impact of abandonment" concrete and personal.
Grande uses sensory comparisons to make suffering tangible
The umbilical cord as a ribbon (p. 21): Mago takes Reyna to the shack where she was born and shows her the buried umbilical cord, comparing it to "a ribbon that connected her to their Mami." The comparison conveys a fragile bond that stretches and eventually breaks with distance, mirroring the deterioration of the mother-daughter relationship.
Carlos as a skeleton (p. 94): Carlos falls severely ill (later diagnosed as hepatitis). Abuelita Chinta initially says he is "suffering from sorrow," leading the children to blame their mother's abandonment. Grande describes him as having "lost so much weight that he really did look like a skeleton," communicating the severity of his illness and the terror of a child too sick to eat.
Why it works: These images (ribbon, skeleton) give readers a visual and emotional anchor. The comparisons are simple enough for a child's perspective but carry serious weight.
Grande includes actual photographs in the memoir to provide evidence and credibility for her descriptions
Black-and-white photograph of Abuelita Chinta's street (near p. 89): Shows a rough dirt road, "scrap metal" shacks, scattered rubbish. Without this image, readers might not grasp the severity of the poverty Grande describes in words alone.
Photograph of Reyna and her father in the U.S. (Chapter 7): Shows Reyna smiling beside her father, surrounded by ordinary household items (desk, lamp, plant). For Reyna, these commonalities are luxuries. This chapter covers the lice-check incident at school, where Reyna is confused by hygiene standards she never encountered in Mexico. The photo reinforces the contrast between her two worlds.
The lice removal scene (pp. 203–204): After the school sends Reyna home, her father spends the afternoon removing "white nits very carefully." Grande treasures this moment of parental care, and the adjacent photograph of them together captures that rare feeling of closeness.
Why it works: Photographs function as primary-source evidence. They bridge the gap between the reader's world and Grande's, making the poverty and the emotional moments undeniably real.
⚠️ Be able to identify and distinguish all four rhetorical devices (Spanish diction, internal monologue, vivid imagery, visual rhetoric) with specific textual examples.
⚠️ The essay's argument is fundamentally about how memoir as a genre counters political anti-immigrant rhetoric through personal narrative and emotional engagement.
⚠️ "El Otro Lado" functions on multiple levels: literal (the other side of the border), emotional (the place that takes parents), and cultural (a mythical land of wealth). Expect questions about layered meaning.
⚠️ Serial migration is the structural backbone of the memoir. The repeated cycle of departure, absence, and reunion drives every rhetorical device discussed.
⚠️ The essay draws on an outside source (Conzo, 2021) to frame the real-world context of anti-immigrant media portrayals. This connection between personal memoir and broader political discourse is a likely exam topic.
⚠️ Visual rhetoric (photographs in a memoir) is a less commonly discussed device. Be prepared to explain how images serve as evidence and affect credibility differently from written description.
Q: How does Grande's use of the phrase "El Otro Lado" function as a rhetorical device in the memoir?
A: "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) preserves the Spanish term used by Grande's community to refer to the U.S. It conveys the sense that America is a distant, almost mythical place of wealth that "takes parents away." Keeping the phrase in Spanish immerses the reader in the children's cultural perspective and communicates emotional weight that a plain English translation would lose.
Q: What is the significance of the wrong-sized shoes in Grande's internal monologue?
A: When Reyna's parents send Christmas presents in the wrong sizes, her internal thought, "the fact that they didn't even know what size shoe I wore made me want to throw them in the trash," reveals that the physical distance has become a fundamental disconnection. The wrong sizes symbolise how little her parents know about her daily life, making the abandonment feel complete rather than temporary.
Q: How does Grande use visual rhetoric differently from vivid imagery?
A: Vivid imagery is descriptive language within the text (e.g., comparing Carlos to a skeleton), while visual rhetoric refers to actual photographs inserted into the memoir. The photographs serve as primary-source evidence that corroborates Grande's written descriptions, giving readers undeniable visual proof of the poverty and the emotional moments she recounts.
Q: Why does the essay reference Conzo (2021) in its introduction?
A: The Conzo source establishes the real-world context of anti-immigrant media portrayals, arguing that negative depictions increase prejudice and discrimination. This frames Grande's memoir as a deliberate counter-narrative: where political rhetoric dehumanises immigrants, Grande's personal story humanises them through rhetorical devices that invite empathy.
Q: Explain the significance of the "ribbon" comparison for Reyna's umbilical cord (p. 21).
A: Mago compares Reyna's buried umbilical cord to a ribbon connecting her to their mother. The image conveys a bond that is delicate and physical but also capable of being stretched to breaking point. As the mother moves further away, the "ribbon" weakens, mirroring the emotional deterioration of the parent-child relationship caused by serial migration.
Q: How does the photograph of Abuelita Chinta's street enhance Grande's argument?
A: The black-and-white photograph shows a dirt road lined with scrap-metal shacks and scattered rubbish. It provides tangible, visual evidence of the extreme poverty Grande describes in words. Without it, readers might underestimate the severity of the conditions. The image bridges the gap between the reader's experience and Grande's reality, strengthening her credibility.
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