Analyze the Intent of Pat Mora in “The Leader in the Mirror”: Essay Question
Explore based on the passage, what was Mora’s purpose for writing her essay? To encourage readers to recognize and embrace diversity to entertain readers with stories about her childhood to inform readers about mountains on the us/Mexico border to persuade readers to vote for leaders who support education and the arts.
Pat Mora’s Leader in the Mirror
In her essay “The Leader in the Mirror,” Pat Mora encourages the readers to look at the society as a diverse and multicultural society. According to the passage given, Mora explains that a third of the population can now claim ancestry from outside Western Europe. This statistic is not just a fact; it is the reality of the new America, calling for change and the need to embrace diversity in leadership in all areas of the country including political, scientific, business, educational, and art leadership.
Purpose of Mora's Essay
Mora’s purpose is clear and evident in her writing piece. She aspires to persuade the readers to embrace the diversity. She stresses that the country’s promise is not fully realized if its leadership does not encompass all aspects of its cultural and ethnic diversity. In claiming that the country’s talent is wasted if there is no representation, Mora uses pathos by appealing to the reader’s sense of fairness and reason.
She suggests that power and creativity lie in the diversity of people, their backgrounds, and their thoughts. By comparing the strength of diverse leadership with mountains, she paints a picture of strength and stability and challenges people to rise up to embrace diversity just as mountains rise to meet challenges.
Call to Action and Empowerment
Mora’s call is not simply for representation; it is for action and change. When she calls upon students—and by extension, all readers— to “contemplate the strength of the mountains that surround us,” she is asking them to look at the world and embrace it, to be strong and face the world. This metaphor is particularly useful in encouraging people, especially those who have been marginalized, to envision themselves as leaders who can help to chart the destiny of their societies and the world at large.
Challenges to the Existing Order
It is also important to note that the essay is a critique of the current state of affairs. Mora’s argument that leaders in different sectors are not diverse enough forces the reader to question the current power relations and practices. She is indirectly asking herself how, while the demography of the nation is diverse, leadership is not. This critique is not only about representation but about the losses and the potentials that are left unrealized when marginalized people are excluded from the process of decision-making.
A Collective Concern
In addition, Mora’s choice of words like “our grand variety” and “all of us” emphasizes that diversity is not a problem that belongs to a specific group, but rather a problem for everyone. She encourages people to be included and to contribute to the change, thus emphasizing that diversity is not only a positive thing for minorities but for the whole society. It also goes a long way in eradicating the ‘them and us’ mentality and replaces it with a ‘we’ mentality.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the poem by Pat Mora “The Leader in the Mirror” is a powerful call for diversity in leadership. Through the use of such metaphors as strength and endurance and by pointing to the absence of people of color in leadership positions in the present day, Mora aims to encourage the reader to embrace the potential of diversity. Her essay is a reminder that the full potential of a nation can only be realized when all its people are seen, heard, and empowered to lead.
