Into The Beautiful North Luis Alberto Urrea

1048 Words3 Pages

There are two ways in which success is determined; Whether or not one was able to reach their goal, and how one is affected by the journey and it’s occurrences.Yes, a prince can save the princess, but if he destroys the kingdom in the process, would his quest still be seen as successful? In Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel, Into the Beautiful North, Nayeli and her friends venture to America on a mission to bring back 7 Mexican soldiers and police officers to their village, Tres Caramones, so that they can protect their town from the dangerous bandidos. Many people would say that Nayeli’s mission was indeed successful because they were able to bring 7 men back to the village. However, in Nayeli’s personal mission of bringing her father back with …show more content…

In the beginning of the story, we learn that Tres Caramones is in danger of being taken over by a group of bandidos. After watching the movie The Magnificent Seven , Nayeli came up with a plan. “We go,” she said, “we find seven men who want to come home…We interview men. Only cops or soldiers can come,” (ITBN, 55). “We have a mission,” Nayeli said, “we’re only going there to bring men back home,” (ITBN, 55). Nayeli and her friends had a mission and without the help of Aunt Irma, they were able to recruit 4 men. On their journey, Nayeli and her companions were able to recruit Atomíko, an ex-sergeant from the Mexican Army, Alejandro or El Brujo who had intentions to start a band but had failed, Chava Chavarín, La Osa’s lost lover, and finally, Angel, an ex-member of the Mexican Navy. With these four men they already had half of the men they needed, but when Aunt Irma …show more content…

Before they left, Nayeli and her mother had a small conversation, “I wish you could go there,” Maria said. “To KANKAKEE. I wish you could bring him back.” “If I can,” she suddenly heard herself, promising, “I will,” (ITBN, 63). Throughout the story, Nayeli expresses her need to find her father. When talking to Aunt Irma over the phone Nayeli says, “I...I think I want to get my father,” (ITBN, 175). “To Kankakee,” Nayeli continued. “I want my father to come home,” (ITBN,175). When Nayeli was finally able to find her father, things did not go as she had planned. He wasn’t “moved by her brave journey to find him, to save her home,” (ITBN, 308). His features didn’t “soften and break into a smile,” (ITBN, 308). In reality, when Nayeli found her father, his arm was wrapped around another woman as he “accepted a kiss on the mouth from her and smacked her bottom as he yelped as she skipped inside. He briefly skimmed the neighborhood-his eyes passed right over Nayeli-before stepping inside and shutting the door,” (ITBN, 323). Nayeli was heartbroken, “She shook, she gasped, she shouted as loud as she could. “FATHER!” she wailed. Over and over,” (ITBN, 323). To Nayeli, “she had lost Yolo, she had lost Matt...She pondered Chava, too. Now that she had found him, would she lose Aunt Irma? To love?” (ITBN, 260) “Her world was coming apart. Pretty soon it would be

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Matthew Restall's Seven Myths Of Spanish Conquest

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this chapter, he is bringing light to our current vision that the conquistadores were hand picked by the king in other to serve a greater propose. According to Restall the “Army” we know today was not created until the late 17th century. Through out this paragraph, Restall shows, that this myth was also brought to life trough narratives and letters. Many, if not all were regular men, without military experience. He uses of a historical time line to prove that it was not until after the military revolution that the Spanish started speaking of conquistadores as solders. In this chapter, Restall mentioned that the conquistadores were merchants, artisans and farmers that saw in the new world a chance to change their life and the way they live. Most of them were not directed or funded by the

    Read More

  • Semiautobiographical Work- Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every writer has the ability to make their writing remarkable, beautiful, and complex by using elements like genre, discourse, and code. Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza is a semi-autobiographical work by Gloria Anzaldúa. She examines the relations of her lands, languages, and herself overall. She defines the borders she has around herself in the preface of the book: “The actual physical borderland that I’m dealing with in this book is the Texas-U.S. Southwest/Mexican border. The psychological borderlands, the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands…the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy” (Anzaldúa: Preface). The book is broken into two main sections. The semi-autobiographical section composed of seven smaller sections and the poetry section that is both in Spanish and English.

    Read More

  • Identity And Empowerment In Juan Felipe Herrera's Poem 'Borderbus'

    362 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Is The Relationship Between Pedro And Rosaura In Like Water For Chocolate

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the next few weeks go on we see Pedro and Tita's relationship develop. The biggest change is when Pedro's son Roberto is born. Tita begins to breast feed Roberto because Rosaura had no milk after the strain of her pregnancy. The author uses imagery to express the feelings of longing between Pedro and Tita by writing about the looks they gave each other. Specifically when Pedro looked at Tita, it was a look that, when matched with Tita's "fused so perfectly that whoever saw them would have seen but a single look, a single rhythmic and sensual motion." This look changed their relationship forever, it bonded them together and they would never be separated in their hearts. This shows that the theme of, true love can withstand anything, is true. After this interaction between them they had been less careful about hiding from Mama Elena and when the baptism rolled around Mama Elena had seen enough. She decided, in the middle of the party that Pedro, Rosaura and Roberto would be moving to San Antonio to be with her cousin. They left and after about a year Mama Elena passed

    Read More

  • Success in Willa Cather's My Antonia

    2593 Words  | 6 Pages

    The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions,  or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in  Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was.  But to Willa Cather in My

    Read More

  • Optimism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    For her 15th birthday, Mariam asked Jalil if he could take her to his cinema to watch Pinocchio. She also asked if Jalil could bring her brothers and sisters so she could meet them. Both Nana and Jalil thought it wasn’t a good idea, but Mariam insisted on going, so Jalil said he would send someone to pick her up. Mariam did not like this idea and said that she wanted to be picked up by Jalil. Jalil reluctantly agreed. Later that day, Mariam gets the backlash and hate from her mother from her decision: “Of all the daughters I could have had, why did God give me an ungrateful one like you? …How dare you abandon me like this, you treacherous little harami!” Mariam wakes up the next day, disappointed and fed up since Jalil did not come to pick her up. She heads out to town to find Jalil herself. She makes it to his house when a chauffeur tells Mariam that Jalil was “away on urgent business.” She slept outside of his house and was awoken by the chauffeur, telling her that he would take her home. Mariam snatches away from the chauffeur’s grip and turns around towards the house, to see Jalil in an upstairs window. It was then that Mariam figured out that all she was to Jalil was a disgrace. Jalil had always been careful with the information he told Mariam. He may have loved her, but only on his own terms. Once Mariam realizes that her father allowed her to sleep on the street rather than bring her into his

    Read More

  • Hernan Cortes: A Man On A Mission

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    First to start out, we should get some facts straight. A conquistador is basically a Spanish conqueror. Their main goals were to search for gold and other riches from the Caribbean and draw them back to the mainland. The absolute most important conquistador in all of history is Hernan Cortes.

    Read More

  • The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Author Mariano Azuela's novel of the Mexican revolution, The Underdogs, conveys a fictional representation of the revolution and the effects it had on the Mexican men and women who lived during that time. The revolutionary rebels were composed of different men grouped together to form small militias against the Federalists, in turn sending them on journeys to various towns, for long periods of time. Intense fighting claimed the lives of many, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves. Towns were devastated forcing their entire populations to seek refuge elsewhere. The revolution destroyed families across Mexico, leaving mothers grieving for their abducted daughters, wives for their absent husbands, and soldiers for their murdered friends. The novel's accurate depiction also establishes some of the reasons why many joined the revolution, revealing that often, those who joined were escaping their lives to fight for an unknown cause.

    Read More

  • Bravery of the Butterfly Sisters: Resistance Against Tyranny

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    These girls were different, they stood out to Trujillo and this made him furious. The butterfly sisters were the country's inspiration. Yet another rebel group was formed, the name is still unknown. Trujillo ended up jailing them and the butterfly sisters but soon released everyone except the sisters husbands. Trujillo then realized that the only way to remove the sisters influence on the people was to kill them.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Underdogs written by Mariano Azuela, we are introduced to a character that strongly symbolizes the fuel of the Mexican Revolution. Heroes like Demetrio Macias brought the Serrano’s hope of giving them what they felt they truly deserved. Although Demetrio Macias, the general (colonel) of a rebel army is hunting down the army of Pancho Villa, he seems to have the same ideals as the enemy. In addition to Demetrio Macias, we meet women like Camilla and War Paint who represent the different roles that women played during the Mexican Revolution.

    Read More

  • Rough Riders Thesis

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    These men had returned with the news of a Spanish outpost with the name Las Guasimas. By afternoon of the same day the Rough Riders had been order to head out to the location of Las Guasimas and eliminate all opposition and secure the surrounding area, the men would camp outside the outpost then attack the next morning. For started, the Rough Riders were at a disadvantage, they were not accustom to the dense jungles of Cuba in which they were fighting in, and did not know the jungles trails like the Spanish did. Yet the next morning the attack commenced, with General Young, commander of the cavalry and regulars, attacked the outpost straight on.

    Read More

  • A Journey Along The El Cambino Real Summary

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    Event Analysis of a Journey along the El Camino Real History is the story that happens to everyone and people tells it to others. According to the history speaker in my class: “History is thus not a description of the past but a particular method of interpretation of the past”. History serves a liaison for people to connect past events and modern issues, a line that making connection for people who live in the past and the one who live now and future. In analyzing the event of “A journey along the El Camino Real” (El Camino Real is the trail along Spain, New Mexico and North America), the setting of the event and the history of the trail between Spain and America gives me a concept that the trail of El Camino Real serve more than a road, it is a bridge that brings people together from different backgrounds, locations but it also has formed a diverse society.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Sacrifice In A Thousand Splendid Sun

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    From start to finish, one could see how much Mariam values Laila, Aziza, and their friendship. The first example is when Mariam vows to help Laila while they are in the hospital for Laila’s unborn child: “I’ll get you seen, Laila jo. I promise” (287). This simple promise is a deep portrayal of Mariam’s desire to help Laila find a doctor and deliver her baby. Additionally, one can see Mariam’s love for Laila when she protects her from Rasheed’s grip of death, “‘Rasheed.’ He looked up. Mariam swung. She hit him across the temple. The blow knocked him off Laila” (348). Rasheed was going to kill Laila, but Mariam steps in and knocks him off of her with a shovel to save her life. Mariam forms a tight-knit bond with Laila, and when Hosseini includes their relationship, one can see how Mariam values Laila enough to kill another man. The author also describes their relationship after Mariam and Laila discuss plans for leaving: “When they do, they’ll find you as guilty as me. Tariq too. I won’t have the two of you living on the run like fugitives.” … “Laila crawled to her and again put her head on Mariam’s lap. She remembered all the afternoons they’d spent together, braiding each other’s hair, Mariam listening patiently to her random thoughts and ordinary stories with an air of gratitude, with the expression of a person to whom a unique and coveted privilege had been extended” (358). The love Mariam has for

    Read More

  • An Essay On Enrique's Journey

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ganas was what Enrique showed on his deadly journey that would reunite him with his mother in the U.S. Enrique was required to endure obstacles which the usual individual may not have been able to mentally withstand. “ganas” a hispanic word that represents guts, true grit, and one of my favorite determination. This is the word that describes the immigrants mentality when going on this “Hell Train”. Enrique was one of many children left abandoned by his mother at a young age. Like millions of others children enrique’s need for his mother's affection and nurturing grew and grew more over the years, a need that psychologically affected Enrique. As a young age enrique vividly remembered what his mother had promised him, and that was to return during christmas time. So every christmas Enrique would wake up every morning and instantly like an alarm clock

    Read More

  • Reflection On The Battle Of Pasqual

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    Later, Major Andrés Pico, after a failed search for a detachment of U.S. soldiers, joined forces with the captains and took command. These Californios led a force consisting of landowners, sons of landowners, and vaqueros, many with well-known and respected family names in the community

    Read More

More about Into The Beautiful North Luis Alberto Urrea

Open Document