Ashurst's 'The Wall Is A Fantasy'

1667 Words4 Pages

With the strict border control and complicated visa programs, modern nation states have enacted policies to defend their territories since day one. However, building a wall as Trump advocates is not only an old way to protect sovereignty but also puts nativism in disguise. In “The Wall Is a Fantasy,” Declan Walsh argues that the support for the construction of the wall between Mexico and America is backed by the rise of exclusivity caused by strong nationalism. In the article, pictures strongly resonate with the text to indicate that building the wall affects undocumented immigrants and local Americans in Arizona personally, through showing us details about how badly both sides want a better life.
The photographer, Tomás Munita, gives readers …show more content…

After Walsh presenting Ashurst’s thought of having border sheriffs holding AR-15 rifles, (Walsh) Munita shows the picture focusing on Ashurst’s, a Republican Trump supporter’s, face. By setting Ashurst’s room as the blurry background and specifically depicting the Republican’s facial feathers, Munita reminds us that the article is full of individual stories. Ashurst looks away from the camera in the photo and gazes in the direction where the light comes from. The behavior of not facing the camera indicates that the featured person is thinking and possibly being emotional, and his face of being lit implies that the man is confronting political oppositions, and his firm gaze demonstrates that he is not going to change his stand. He looks at the light in a way that he is going to fight whenever he needs to. In addition, the wrinkled face, the tanned skin due to a long time of outdoor working, and the typical cowboy hat make us wonder how life was for the old man, how stereotypical his way of living is to a resident in Arizona. The mere focus on Ashurst’s face enables us to be curious about the man’s life, and with the willingness to get a deeper understanding of what he had to go through, we can understand that Ashurst’s defensiveness about the cultural heritage of Arizona underlies his stand of supporting an extremely strict border control. Munita shows us the political effects on a personal

Open Document