Hilario 1

Elli Hilario
English 115 Honors
Professor Lawson
13 September 2016
Rhetorical Analysis
Word Count: 859
Roots of Ones Identity
Melissa Algranati, the author of Being an Other, states that her essays purpose is to
describe how she does not fit into one identity category easy, because of her biracial identity. Her
essay focuses on her thoughts about her own identity and her parents roots, as well as what
people categorize her based on appearance. In the essay, Algranati talks to the reader, primarily a
college student with a foreign (non-American) ethnic background. In order to understand
Algranatis position, the reader must examine himself about his own identity, and recall what
experiences he may have had regarding their physical and cultural identity. This essay was also
published in Thomas Dublins Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic: College Students
Explore Their Roots, perhaps the purpose of the essay has something to do more with opening
up the subject of being someone else in a community that assumes you are a certain person for
the physical characteristics one possesses. Thomas Dublins book addresses [contemporary
debates by] bringing together essays written over the [past years] by college students exploring
their ethnic roots (Dublin). In the essay, Algranati argues that even though she was an
other, contrary to what society may think, [she] is somebody. Algranati wants her audience
to understand that being an other means that he or she is someone with a unique identity, not
someone with an identity generalized by society. She also claims that she knows how it feels

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not to be recognized by society for who you are (Algranati), whereas her mother, is considered
as white because of her physical features: blond hair and blue eyes (Algranati), even though
she is Puerto Rican. In order to support her claim, Algranati uses anecdotes about her familys
and personal life.
However, I do not find Algranatis position persuasive as much as I agree with her claim.
Algranati argued about being an other despite what society categorizes her identity sounded
weak, because she only shared about the history of her real biracial identity, and what the people
around her thought of her based on appearance. She never mentioned about actively stating her
identity to her friends, unless someone asks her about who she is. It seems really unreasonable
for someone who has recognized and accepted her born-identity to not introduce herself as
someone who being a Puerto Rican, Egyptian Jew during her younger years, especially with
her Korean friends, who seem to think she is just a Jew and not Hispanic. Although Algranati
mentioned living a healthy balance of both of her parents cultures, she did not mention anything
that would tell people that she is different, aside from this essay. The composition of Algranatis
essay is very structured by introducing her concern about her own identity into describing her
parents roots, until concluding about what she wants us readers to know about her life and how
it should be important for us to think of our identity too. The organized structure of Algranatis
essay helped support her thesis through personal anecdotes, which helps the reader connect to
her personal life as much as possible with the purpose of understanding her thesis more. Overall,
Algranatis stern tone about her identity issue gives weight to her thesis by telling the audience
that they should consider her thoughts on unique identities seriously, although she herself did not
mention in the essay of what she had done to tell people that she is one of a kind. Much of her
essay is more of an internal conflict as she explains what she thought about her family and the

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people around her assuming her identity as someone other than who she really is. Nonetheless,
all of her explanation supported her thesis by relating her experiences with self-identity and
social-identity. As an immigrant, I can relate to Algranatis parents experience when they first
arrived in the United States. However, I cannot relate completely with Algranati herself because
she was born in the United States with two very unique identities from her parents. She was
biracial and I am not, however, Filipinos are not completely just Filipinos. The Philippines has a
long history of being colonized by Spaniards, including the arrival of the Japanese, Chinese and
White American people during the World Wars. Furthermore, there are many sub identities in the
Philippines, so Filipinos are pretty diverse in identity too, and I am pretty sure that many other
countries are the same. Meaning that identity goes a long way in history and geography, similar
to Algranatis story of her parents and her biracial identity, compared to mine in which being
Filipino is made up of multiple ethnicities other than the actual Filipino origin, and it is still
unknown to anyone how much of which race is made up in each of our clans blood. Similar to
Algranatis essay, my topic will connect to how I describe my own identity and how I am trying
my best to adapt into American society without confusing my identity.

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Works Cited
Algranati, Melissa. Being an Other. Pop Perspectives: Readings to Critique Contemporary
Culture. Ed. Laura Gray-Rosendale. San Francisco: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 144-148. Print.
Dublin, Thomas. "Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1148_reg.html>