Argumentation
“Why Latino Children Are Scared of Donald Trump” by Héctor Tobar is an opinion article. In this type of article, the author’s message and intentions are not purely informative. The sender of opinion articles usually expresses his opinion and arguments on a specific topic. In this case, the author wrote the article to criticize Donald Trump’s political plans regarding immigrants and to show the negative impact of his campaign on the Latino community.
To convey his message, the sender resorts to several argumentative and linguistic features designed to make the article more attractive, appeal to the audience and convince them of his arguments.
Hidden argumentation
Héctor Tobar uses hidden argumentation in his article, which means that his arguments and critique are presented indirectly. The author covers and presents the opinion of Latino children living in America, to criticize Republican politician Donald Trump’s electoral campaign which explores anti-immigrant feelings. However, the author does not make his critique directly but lets the interviewed children speak for his case: ““He wants to kick out the Mexican people from America and just leave the American people. I think that’s pretty much rude. Everyone should be fair, and we should all be treated the right way.”” (ll. 46-48)
Furthermore, he uses irony and compares Donald Trump to a boogeyman taking on the children’s perspective, to draw attention to the discriminatory campaign the politician has created against immigrants and which affects the whole Latino community, not just children:
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Rhetorical devices
Here are the main rhetorical devices Héctor Tobar employs in his article:
Allusion
The text employs several allusions and analogies between real public figures and fairy-tale monsters, or other historical figures.
Allusions are defined as references to something (object, person) from history or literature to give a symbolic meaning to what or who is discussed. In this case, for instance,...
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Apostrophe
Apostrophe – addressing someone who is not able to answer – is employed in two ways in the text. It is first used when the author quotes the children, and one of them has questions for Donald Trump, which the politician is not there to answer:
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Satire and Irony
The most important rhetorical devices in the short story are satire and irony. The sender ridicules Donald Trump throughout the article, by taking on the children’s perspective on the politician who has become a boogeyman for them: “He’s a villain in a flaccid pompadour, spewing threats and insults that have...
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Propaganda
The article may only seem a humorous critique brought against Donald Trump, designed to draw attention to the negative impact his plans against immigrants have. But, since the piece was written during the electoral campaign and it tackles political issues, it is implicitly propagandistic.
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Assessment
The main argumentative and linguistic features which help the author convey his message are the use of humor, irony and satire together with his resort to pathos or feelings created by focusing the story on Latino children’s perspective on Republican politician Donald Trump.
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