Though much of this piece is an expository examination of the history of immigration, we learn some biographical details of Kalman herself. Identify the information we learn about her that is most relevant to the topic.

Re-examine page 632, in which Kalman covers about three hundred years of American history in about five lines. What are the significant portions included? How do they support her theme? What is excluded from this recounting? Why?

Though Kalman never explicitly states it, readers can make inferences about the author’s position on the issue of immigration reform. How would you state Kalman’s position? What evidence supports your inference?

At her own citizenship ceremony, Kalman reports, an official told her that becoming an American was like putting on a new sweater. How does Kalman reject this point of view visually in her piece?

What does Kalman mean when she says, “Think small” on page 643? What has led her to this conclusion?

On page 641, what point is Kalman making when she says, “we stroll through an Indian supermarket and buy a box of cookies from Pakistan”? Consider the visuals on the page, as well as the text, in your response.

Through word choice and images, Kalman expresses different attitudes toward various subjects in her piece. Choose two examples and explain her tone.

Immigration is a topic that can be politically divisive and generate very strong feelings in readers. How does the style of Kalman’s words and illustrations work to defuse some of the adversarial feelings often evoked by the immigration debate?

An effective argument often includes a balance of appeals to emotion and logic. Evaluate the success of Kalman’s argument by examining how she uses pathos and logos in her piece.

What is the likely intended effect of the use of handwritten text?

There are moments of unexpected humor throughout the piece, most often created by the use of a non sequitur, a figure of speech created when a statement lacks a logical connection to the topic at hand. Identify one or more non sequiturs in Kalman’s piece and explain how she uses them to create humor.

Examine the picture of the official for the Department of Homeland Security and compare it to one other full-size picture in the piece. Focus on what details are included in each picture and speculate about the effects Kalman intends to produce.

How does Kalman’s use of Irving Berlin’s lyrics at the very end of the piece support her argument?

Every story has to have a beginning. And though it’s not included here, Kalman decided to start her story about contemporary American immigration at the absolutely literal beginning: with humans emerging from “the primordial soup.” How does this choice relate to the overall point she ultimately makes about immigration in this excerpt?

Notice that on page 638, Kalman uses the word “undocumented” to refer to people who have entered the United States illegally. Below is a passage from a blog posting by George Lakoff, a linguist who regularly advises Democratic candidates about their use of language. Do you agree with Lakoff’s analysis about President Obama’s word choice? Identify other similarly politically charged words being used today.

First, Obama repeatedly uses the phrase illegal immigrants. It evokes a conceptual frame in which undocumented Americans are understood first and foremost as criminals. The President evokes this frame in his Florida speech, stating that current immigration policy “denies innocent young people the chance to earn an education or serve in the uniform of the country they love.” Being innocent is the opposite of being guilty. The word cannot be understood outside of the Criminal Frame.

Try creating your own illustrated blog entry. Using both text and visuals, create a page or two about a significant event in your life that addresses the topic of culture in some way.

Choose one of Kalman’s images and analyze it using the following elements of painting, as identified by Mary Acton in Learning to Look at Paintings: