Six Deadly Sins Under what circumstances would you go through to better and provide for your family? Would you embark on these six deadly sins above to just get a simple loaf of bread on the table? There is no solid blame or black and white definite answer throughout this novel, The Devil’s Highway. The author Luis Alberto Urrea takes his readers to different perspectives and offers different points of view whether you appear to be a walker, coyote, or the border control on the topic of illegal immigration. Being that Urrea puts the reader in each person shoe’s and truly sees what immense, harsh, conditions for example these immigrants had to go through. Again there is no solid blame or black and white answers, both sides are at fault and in need of a solution to the problem. To be called a walker you need to come from a place where you work all day but don’t make enough ends meat. Urrea explains the small towns and villages where all the poor Mexican citizens yearn for bigger dreams and a better lifestyle. He talks about the individual subjects and circumstances that bring the walkers to decide to cross the border and risk death. Urrea tells the stories of the fourteen victims and giving brief sketches of each individual lives in Mexico. The men were mostly workers on coffee plantations or farmers. They were all leaving their families who consisted of new brides, a wife and several children or a girlfriend they hoped to marry someday. They all had mainly the same aims about going to the U.S, like raising enough money to buy furniture or to build a house, or, in one case, to put a new roof on a mother's house. All of these men really craved a better life and saw the chance for that in the U.S. Being that these men are so hung... ... middle of paper ... ... 2002. Mexican immigrants use about $250 million in social services such as Medicaid and food stamps and another $31 million in uncompensated health care, that leaves a profit of $319 million” (218). But should we still allow people to put their lives at risk? It isn’t the desert that kills the immigrants. It isn’t the coyotes. It isn’t even the Border Patrol. What does kill the people “is the politics of stupidity that rules both sides of the border” (214-215) This quote shows the power of both sides of the border have and it is evident that it shows both sides are truly the blame for this problem. Both sides of the border should unite and come up with a solution to this severe problem of the immigration system. Work Cited Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. New York: Little, Brown, 2004. Print.
In Borderlands, the realities of what happens by the border instill the true terror that people face every day. They are unable to escape and trapped in a tragic situation. After reading my three classmates’ papers, I was able to learn a lot more about this piece than I originally encountered just on my own. I was able to read this piece in a completely new light and expand on ideas that I did not even think of.
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
Since the beginning of the United States the American people have been on the move. Public transportation has played a major role in the development of this nation and in bringing its citizens together. In the book “Divided Highways”, author Tom Lewis takes the reader on a journey of the building of the Interstates and the consequences(good and bad) that came from them. Lewis believes that the Interstates are a physical characteristic of America and that it shows “all our glory and our meanness; all our vision and our shortsightedness”(xiv).
Some viewpoints assert that if a person is in the United States illegally, he should have no rights and no benefits. Proponents justify this position by blaming illegal immigration for economic hardships, such as increasing health care costs, for the American people. This attitude is simply inaccurate. Many undocumented immigrants do contribute to the economies of the federal, state and local governments through taxes and can stimulate job growth. However, the cost of providing healthcare impacts federal, state, and local governments differently.
“I do not believe that many American citizens . . . really wanted to create such immense human suffering . . . in the name of battling illegal immigration” (Carr 70). For hundreds of years, there has been illegal immigration starting from slavery, voluntary taking others from different countries to work in different parts of the world, to one of the most popular- Mexican immigration to the United States. Mexican immigration has been said to be one of the most common immigration acts in the world. Although the high demand to keep immigrants away from crossing the border, Mexicans that have immigrated to the U.S have made an impact on the American culture because of their self sacrifices on the aspiration to cross over. Then conditions
The book, The Devils Highway, gave me a very different perspective of what undocumented people coming from México have to go through and the struggles and barriers they face. Even though I had an idea of how and what undocumented people have to go through, after reading this book; Urrea, opened my eyes when
The Devil’s Highway, written by Luis Urrea, is a true story about the migration from Mexico into the US. It tells the story of immigrants dying as they try to enter the US for a better life. The Author focused on individual subjects as well as the circumstances in which brought the men to decide to cross the border at the risk of dying.
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
Most immigrants usually fill essential service jobs in the economy, which are vacant. Unfortunately, like new immigrants throughout U.S. history, “they experience conditions that are commonly deprived, oppressive, and exploitive” (Conover, 2000). They are paid low wages with little potential for advancement, are subjected to hazardous working conditions, and are threatened with losing their jobs and even deportation if they voice dissatisfaction with the way they are treated. Many work several jobs to make ends meet. Many also live in substandard housing with abusive landlords, have few health cares options, and are victims of fraud and other crimes.
In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, chronicles two nameless characters who are surviving in a desolate aftermath of an apocalyptic happening and undergo misery, starvation, and isolation throughout their journey. The unnamed man and his son, the protagonist in the book struggle to live in a terrifying post-apocalyptic world filled with cannibals and marauders. From the start the man has one mystical purpose which is to keep his son alive and what was left of goodness in humanity. He told the boy stories about courage and justice and how the world used to be. Throughout the novel, the man and boy have a powerful relationship in which the man would sacrifice his own life to save his son’s. There is no higher moral compulsion than making ensuring the survival of his son.) He would rather have his son kill himself than be captured by cannibals and endure capture, torture, and cannibalism. while avoiding being eaten by cannibals, the man and his son travel to the south to a warmer climate, and in search for food and supplies. The protagonists face extremely harsh conditions and encounter chaotic situations. Some people can't cope with the changes of the world and choose to leave everything behind and kill themselves. Just like the man’s wife and his son’s mother chose to do by leaving them feeling hopeless and sorrowful. The man made a conscientious effort to keep on living for the only purpose of keeping his son alive. Despite the unreasonable hardships the protagonists encounter, there is little hope for the pair in the devastating world.
In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy in 2006, a catastrophe takes over the world and leaves civilization struggling. The book focuses in on the hardships of son and father just trying to make it to the coast. Through their journeys we see the lengths to which people will go to survive, and the man’s determination to do things the right way. They survived on scavenging over the scraps of past society. They kept pushing and found encouragement in the small things. Throughout the book the duo learn that hope strips away troubles in order to instill strength and confidence.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, illustrates what life in a post apocalyptic world would resemble after humanity has been eradicated. In this deteriorating world, chaos reigns and death is constant. Without a sovereign state to establish laws and guidelines, individuals must make their own judgments in order to survive, causing a clash between good and evil. According to the Leviathan, morals do not exist in man’s natural state because to be in a natural state is to be free from authority (Williams). This barren world displays human life in its most simplistic form, causing men and women to act upon their own will for survival. The apocalypse in The Road marks the end
Bestseller journalist, Sonia Nazario, in her literacy non-fiction, Enrique’s Journey, describes a young man’s journey trying to reconcile with his mother in the United States, but has to go through many obstacles to reach her. Nazario’s purpose is to inform readers about how immigration affects children and their mothers in Central America. She adopts an optimistic/determined tone in order to reveal to her readers the difficulty and bravery the children have to face to get to the United States. Nazario begins her credibility with ethos to retrace an abandon teenager’s journey through Central America, pathos to follow the mother son relationship, and logos by giving facts and statistics for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
As of 2016, 11 million illegal immigrants reside in the US (Barbour 60). That number grows by 700,000 every year, these people are stealing jobs from fellow Americans, thrusting them into poverty.(Kane and Johnson). And adults are not the only ones who are crossing the border, in a span of 8 months 51,000 Unaccompanied Children were let into the US. (Costa et al.) These mass amounts of people being let into the United States mean that the current generation’s social security money is going to pay for these illegal immigrants, which results in their financial reserves being significantly less than what they should