A Perspective On the Subject: Profiling a Controversial Subject

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

Two of the profiles in this chapter touch on a controversial subject about which people have strong opinions. Cable addresses the commercialization of death, and Coyne, the unfairness of the legal system. While profiles do not engage such debates head on, the way essays arguing a position do, they do offer a perspective on an issue. In doing so, they provide readers with certain kinds of information that they might not get from more explicit arguments.

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a few paragraphs analyzing Thompson’s perspective in “A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields”:

  1. Start by identifying the subject of the profile. Point to a couple of specific passages in the text that tell you what the subject is.
  2. Identify Thompson’s perspective on the subject. Consider the title of the profile (“A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields”) and the title of the book from which it is excerpted, Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do. What do these titles tell you about Thompson’s perspective?
  3. What do you think Thompson wants readers to take away from the profile? How does the political debate raging in this country about undocumented (or illegal) immigration affect how you understand the subject and perspective of this profile?

    Question