The Effects of Stylistic Decisions in Sui Sin Far’s “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” Anonymous College

Throughout the life of each and every human, waves of cascading happiness, sorrow, confusion, anger, and relief will be evoked; a person can be triggered to undergo an endless number of these emotions, and each person reacts to such feelings in individual and often inexplicable ways. Not everything a person experiences can be adequately expressed in words, especially when those words are inscribed on paper with nearly no way of displaying deeper meaning. The ubiquitous challenge faced by writers is to find an alternative way to communicate the nuances of emotion, demeanor, and implication. In a time when Chinese people and culture were viewed as corrupting and unassimilable in the United States, author Sui Sin Far, the child of an American man and a Chinese woman, contends with powerful feelings of alienation, as well as an intense struggle with identification and self-acceptance. In “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian,” Far discloses her experience as a biracial woman in a prejudiced society by utilizing clear and concise syntax, minimalistic yet cogent diction, the repetition of rhetorical questions, and the classification of her own piece as a “portfolio” to translate her emotions and sentiments to paper.

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