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. I was able to relate to when Jessie said that borders are symbols of the divisions we make of each other. These borders are made up by people to keep each other apart from one another. Whether it is for social, economic, or cultural reasons, the division remains. As Brooke pointed out, these borders prevent freedoms and deny opportunities. …show more content…
Many of the people trying to cross the border were not given same luck. Their efforts to leave the situations they are in only cause them a different kind of pain. The lack of safety for these people was astonishing. As Jessie was, I was impressed by Anazulda’s description of living there and the realistic depiction of how it was to live there. As Natalie put, I also loved the realistic writing that Anazulda brought to this piece. She did not try to ease the tone or make it lighter than the reality of the situations. She brought the realness of what happened there to life in her writing, which I greatly admire. The imagery that Brooke points out from Borderlands from page 2 is such a clear image of being trapped within a place you cannot escape from. While I had not thought of the curtains in such a way, I understand the reasoning behind it. Curtains are supposed to provide privacy, shelter from the outside world. Yet, these steel curtains are prisons, keeping those near them from getting away. As Jessie pointed out, the United States is governed to protect the rights of each American citizen, including each of us. Nevertheless, Anazulda and many others who try to cross the border can be subjected to the rules of those who live near the borders and not the laws of the United States that are in place to protect them. I did not think about the call for unity as Natalie described until I read her essay. While she does not make light of the situations caused in the United States, she does leave this impression of hope that we can fix this. We can make it so these borders are less of walls that divide us, and we can make the journey in our country a less terrible and horrifying
There are several theories to look into when discussing the morality of borders. I specifically look into Stephen Macedo’s chapter “The Moral Dilemma of U.S. Immigration Policy, open borders versus social justice?” in Debating Immigration and Joseph Carens article “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders.” Using political theory back up his argument, Carens uses Rawlsian, the Nozickean, and the utilitarian to support and explain his claims that there is little justification for keeping oppressed people from other countries seeking a better life out of the United States. Macedo also uses similar liberal philosophy referencing Rawlsianism to support the opposing idea of a more restrictionist society, posing the question of cosmopolitanism
The author is using personal experience to convey a problem to his or her audience. The audience of this piece is quite broad. First and foremost, Mexican-Americans just like the author. People who can relate to what the author has to say, maybe someone who has experienced something similar. The author also seems to be seeking out an audience of white Americans who find themselves unaware of the problem at our borders. The author even offers up a warning to white America when she notes, “White people traveling with brown people, however, can expect to be stopped on suspicion they work with the sanctuary movement”(125). The purpose of this writing is to pull out a problem that is hidden within or society, and let people see it for what it is and isn’t.
Literal and figurative borders can restrict and control many aspects within the lives of people all over the world. All people should be able to make the decision of where they wish to settle, start a family, and eventually die as a happy and fulfilled human being. The idea of travelling or living in a different country other than where you were conceived and brought up is a dream many people aspire to in era, but all wander-lusting souls should have the opportunity to make that dream a reality and find happiness and a new home in an unfamiliar city or country. The issues with this can vary widely; sometimes there can be issues with obtaining legal immigration papers while moving across countries or maybe financially they are not ready to
The creation of borders and boundaries has been around since the beginning of civilization. The division of property and possessions among individuals establishes a sense of self-worth. The erection of fences and walls keeps property separate. Walls also serve as a means of separating worlds. Modern society demands the creation, and maintenance of these boundaries. In his poems, “The Tuft of Flowers,'; and “Mending Wall,'; Robert Frost explores the role that walls play in our lives. He examines how the lives of men are both separated, and drawn together by walls.
Walls are built up all over the world. They have many purposes and uses. The most common use of a wall is to divide a region. One of these famous walls is the Berlin Wall, which was constructed in 1961. This Wall was erected to keep East Berlin out of West Berlin, and even America had its own wall well before this one. There were a few major differences though. America’s wall, in contrast, was not a physical one that kept capitalism from communism. America’s wall was of a psychological variety, and it spread across most of the nation. America’s wall was more of a curtain in the fact that one could easily pull it aside to see what behind it, but if one didn’t want to they didn’t. This curtain was what separated whites and blacks in America, and one famous writer, James Baldwin, felt there was a need to bring it down. He felt that one should bring it down while controlling his or her emotions caused by the division. One of the best places to see the bringing down of the curtain and the effects that it had on the nation is where the curtain was its strongest, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Border Battles was chosen because it is a current situation that not only impacts Americans and their fears but other lives globally. This documentary, although it is a news piece, does not try to portray an unbiased view but rather definitely has an agenda. This special assignment was created to instill fear and seems more of a certain side’s political agenda rather than an objective news piece. It deals with fear, violence, and economic injustice for mainly two countries-Mexico and the United States.
The idea of crossing boundaries and its failures and triumphs is explored in the autobiography, Sally’s Story by Sally Morgan, which tells you about the life of a young Aborigine who overcame many boundaries in order to develop and change her life and the lives of others. Comparably, the poem, “Refugee blues” by Wystan Hugh Auden discusses about migrants who crossed a geographical boundary and experienced difficulty fitting in. These two texts discuss the experience of prejudice and segregation the personas have lived through. To cross a boundary means, to get out of your comfort zone and take risks to achieve your goal, there will always be obstacles, challenges and changes in one’s life, which aids them to develop a better understanding of themselves and transform their lives and the lives of others.
As explained by “The Homeland, Aztlán/ El Otro Mexico,” “borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish the us from them” (Alvarado, Cully 392). These group categorizations are the foundation of what trigger the society into creating a divergence from one another. Social affiliations are intoxicated by preexisting stereotypes and labels forced upon different individuals. David Newman also creates guilt and realization towards the public by admitting that “we are all cognisant of the fact that borders create (or reflect) difference” (Newman, 147). Walls, made up of either brick or metal or glass, symbolize privacy, and restriction. This restriction creates stern differences between communities that are oblivious or unfamiliar with one another; correspondingly, these differences create fear and concern. The differentiation between the savage versus the civilized and the wealthy versus the poverty-stricken influences
It is common knowledge that each person is one entity which its one identity. However, that notion differs from reality because it can be observed that each person has many personalities and sub-personalities inhabiting all together and what identity this person chooses to displays depends on the person’s position. “You’re not a single entity. You’re a multiple identity” (Keating 111). This multiplicity is further analyzed in her book Borderlands La Frontera The New Mestiza. Anzaldua talks about a new race, a hybrid race which is born from the physical borderlands to the ideological borderlands. The borders are the geographical areas where this hybridity occurs due to “[l]iving between two countries, two social systems, two languages, two cultures” (Anzaldua 7). According to Anzaldua, “living in the borderlands creates a third space between cultures and social systems” (Anzaldua 6). This border is a limited space where there is not just one identity but a duality that is in constant clash with each other; neither one nor the other but in a state of transition. The individuals who are involved in such situation are treated as aliens by both cultures. Nonetheless, Anzaldua does not indulge people to make a choice and give up on important parts of the self. What the author aims is for people to evaluate the aspects of their home culture that have been devaluated by the white culture, while recognizing that there are some home cultural elements that are hurting them instead of protecting them. When facing this crossroad there is only one solution, a new culture, but how to get there is a long process that Anzaldua explain through the images of mythical creatures from her own
The effect that walls have on people is quite the scary thing to think of when it comes to these two text,”Mending Wall,” (Frost),and “Tear Down This Wall”(Reagan). These are two great text that we will be reading about that represents some tragedies. Both these text represent a theme of serration, the effect they have on people, the effect it has on the country, and how the walls affect civilization. Now let's move into the theme of separation.
The borderland space I choose to discuss was Los Angeles County. The county itself is filled with over 80 cities and has a long history with red lining. Red lining is often looked at as a discriminatory practice. An example of redlining can be when bank establishments and insurance companies refuse or limit loans, home mortgages, etc to people within a certain area. A border can be defined as a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially
The wall is a simple stone structure, but the narrator feels as if it creates two separate worlds between the men. It’s unnatural, something that even nature doesn’t love, as it “ sends the frozen-ground-swell under it / And spills the upper boulders in the sun” (ll 2-3): that is to say, when the ground freezes in cold weather, the stone divider begins to fall apart, as if nature never wanted it there to begin with. The neighbor, on the other hand, adores the wall, and repeatedly tells the narrator, “good fences make good neighbors” (l 27). It’s a statement the narrator has learned to despise. Why must they put any border between one another? The only purpose it serves is to make the narrator feel more isolated from his neighbor, who is more than happy to keep others out. No matter how much the narrator pleads to be rid of the barrier between them, the neighbor simply claims, “good fences make good
The solid gold electronic wall is what the government can build with the most powerful, expensive materials, but the brick wall is showing us what we as a society are building to tear one another apart from the inside. For example, not being able to accept one another for what one might look like, who one choses to love, or what gender one is, is a way that humanity is building walls to separate each other. The president of the United States believes that once his wall is up, crime rate will go down, because criminals are the ones that come from other countries, according to him. Discarding the fact that not every immigrant is a criminal, most are looking for a better future, not only for themselves, but also for their children. They wouldn’t leave their home towns if it was a good enough place for their children to grow up in. Immigrants only come to the United States to experience the American dream. As if it isn’t enough looking down at others for their looks, and heritage, our society is now looking down at those that chose to love the same sex, and lowering respect for a women’s rights to choose what to do with her own body. Each and every one of us can be influenced by anyone, regardless if they are the president of the United States or just a friend, but the only difference is that no one can make another individual to something they don’t believe is right. Keeping the people united should
For thousands of years countries went without borders, with open arms to adventurers and seekers, but what happened in this world to create this need for controlled and closed borders? One justifiable argument is that these borders are a result from the colonization of 3/4ths of the world by many European countries. Their need to control and “civilize” foreign countries that had not heard of their god killed millions and set up these borders between different colonized territories. Since the 1500s, western countries have felt it to be their right and their duty to control and keep a watchful eye over other countries in the “less developed” (as it is tended to be called) part of the world. One heavily watched region is the Middle East, watched
Problems raised surround the border, the border conflicts, bring out the need of a border thinking. Because border has already imbued with oppositions, the interaction happened in the border is also problematic. Conflicts happen not only identity conflict but also classed, racial, language etc. Mignolo and Tlostanova argue that this kind of “thinking or theorizing emerges from and as a response to the violence (frontiers), modernity, and globalization that continues to be implemented on the assumption of the inferiority or devilish intentions of the Other and, therefore continues to justify oppression and exploitation as well as eradication of the difference” (206). Kanellos affirms that people who cross borders either physically or symbolically or even in both ways “construct more than one national identity at a time or deconstruct and reject them all” (34). In the process of constructing the identity,