Effective Tools?

Style is what sets writers apart. An author’s use of metaphors, similes, metaphors, irony, and kennings can make or break an piece of writing. Oftentimes, it will be the language of the writing that will make the piece meaningful to the readers.

Laura Parker, a writer for the USA Today, uses the language tools in an interesting and effective way in her article USA Just Wouldn't Work Without Immigrant Labor. She uses the simile in an interesting way to make her point, “Most of the nation's 17.7 million immigrant workers toil, like those who preceded them, in jobs that native-born Americans refuse to do. They work as meatpackers, hotel maids, hamburger flippers, waiters, gardeners, seamstresses, fruit and vegetable pickers, and construction hands” (par. 5, emphasis added). Parker makes an interesting comparison to the past by saying that immigrants today still behave like immigrants always have. It was like she was comparing the jobs that immigrants get to leftovers– the positions that nobody else wants.

Later in the article, Laura Parker says. “Lured by employers who have recruited them aggressively, immigrants have moved from the coasts and border states and settled in the heartland” (par. 8). Here Parker plays with a dangerous metaphor. She first uses the word lured which makes it sound like they were attracted to America with promises of either wealth or power. After she says that though, Parker went on to use the words “recruited… aggressively.” These words don’t quite match up with the word “lured.” Lured implies that the employers carefully thought and planned their strategy to get them– like a fisherman does when he chooses what type of lure he’s going to use when he fishes. Fisherman don’t usually go after their fish aggressively. When one is trying to lure another person they don’t attack them or try to force them. They usually go after them with subtle means. By using the words “lured” and “aggressively,” Laura Parker contradicts herself and leaves her readers wondering whether the employers recruit their potential immigrant employees with subtleties or force.