Question

Read the excerpts from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” and “Speaking Arabic.”

My friend had concluded that if he took his language and culture out of his poetry, he stood a better chance of receiving a fellowship. He took out his native language, the poetic patois of our reality, the rich mixture of Spanish, English, pachuco and street talk which we know so well. In other words, he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry.

At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, “I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one.” And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head.

Which structural element is used in the excerpt by Anaya but not in the excerpt by Nye?
pathos
anecdote
tone
logos

Answer 1

Logos.

Anaya’s excerpt presents a causal claim/reasoning (removing language might increase fellowship chances and therefore removes the poem’s “soul”), while Nye’s short anecdote is purely descriptive/emotional and contains no logical argument.