All throughout Senator Ellison DuRant’s “Shut the Door” speech presented in 1924 in Washington D.C at a congressional debate, he explicitly states the need to stop the steady stream of immigration into America. DuRant reiterates his thesis, uses emotional appeals and questions the image of America in order to pass the Johnson Reed Act. The speech begins with Senator DuRant’s deductive thesis “the time has arrived when we should shut the door”. This metaphoric statement is repeated many times over the course of this speech to communicate his powerful point to the audience. His repetition gives structure to his speech as he uses it to introduce each of his arguments against immigration. This has the effect of aggressively focusing the attention of the audience on the image of America’s closing door. This image …show more content…
When he describes his fellow white countrymen as ”descendants of those who cleared the forests, conquered the savage, stood at arms and won their liberty from their mother country, England” he is expressing bellicosity and a certain pride in a violent history. DuRant feels as if America should be done being a “melting pot” so that our country can “breed up a pure, unadulterated American citizenship”, a statement which illuminates his fear of America becoming a country of men “like dumb, driven cattle”. The Senator displays his perfervid national pride in his description of the American dream: “where the boy to-day poverty-stricken, standing in the midst of all the splendid opportunities of America, should have and, please God, if we do our duty, will have an opportunity to enjoy the marvelous wealth that the genius and brain of our country is making possible for us all”. These intense appeals effectively engage his audience’s emotional reasoning. He hoped all of this raw emotion made his audience more ardent in enacting the Johnson Reed
Daniel, Roger is a highly respected author and professor who has majored in the study of immigration in history and more specifically the progressive ear. He’s written remarkable works over the history of immigration in America, in his book Not like Us he opens a lenses about the hostile and violent conditions immigrants faced in the 1890’s through the 1924’s. Emphasizing that during the progressive area many immigrants felt as they were living in a regressing period of their life. While diversity of ethnicity and race gradually grew during this time it also sparked as a trigger for whites creating the flare up of nativism. Daniel’s underlines the different types of racial and ethnical discrimination that was given to individual immigrant
In the first paragraphs, Mr. Schwarzenegger effectively addresses talk of “false choices” (26). He says, “We are told that in a free society it's not possible to have border security. We are advised that in order to secure the borders, we must deport 12 million people” (Schwarzenegger 26). He refutes these claims by citing evidence of the cost of deportation as well as stating that the immigration strategy will collapse without both compassion for the immigrants and control of the border (Schwarzenegger 26). By acknowledging the opposing side and rejecting it, he makes his own argument stronger. Mr. Schwarzenegger also addresses both parties in Congress and gains their respect by supporting them and their discussion (26).
Through many creative forms of literature one can see how authors such as John Cheever, Louise Erdrich, and John Updike present a variety of views on American Life. It is through short stories like “The Swimmer”, “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” and “A&P” that authors put forth examples of how the American Dream means different things to different people. American politician Bernie Sanders once said, “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.” Thanks to these stories it is possible to see how the American Dream is viewed and how the idea of freedom in this country affect people from all sorts of backgrounds. It could be argued that each story shows a struggle either while being at the pinnacle of success in terms of reaching the American Dream or while attempting to feel a sense of freedom within such a promising country. This is seen through Neddy’s struggle to get his life together after being hyper focused on artificial possessions that the American Dream often romanticizes, through the Native American narrator in “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” struggling to accommodate and resist his displeasure with society via reckless behavior, and the group of girls in the A&P store who are displeased with Lengel’s remark on their attire or lack thereof.
Gjerde, Jon. Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History: Documents and Essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.
“Immigration could account for all the yearly increase in population. Should we not at least ask if that is what we want (Hardin, 1974)?” Well! The audacity of Garrett Hardin’s 1974 essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” to ingeniously imply concern for illegal entry, but in all actuality supports partiality to who is advantaged to populates the United States! Thus, Immigration policies in America continuous changes reflects discriminatory processes of past and biased judgement by elected officials.
This topic is a problem, but it may not be all that it is said to be. Throughout this piece the author shows us what is wrong with system of keeping illegals out of our country. She opens talking of her cousin Bill Pratt, who she claims rode freely from New Mexico to Arizona without disturbances throughout the early 1900’s. From a story of freedom of the past, s...
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was established to reduce racial exclusions in America. The key provisions to this legislation was “to have family reunification, to meet the labor needs, and to have a more diverse nation” (Lecture, October 1)
Star Parkers essay, “Se Habla Entitlement” was published in 2006 on the website WorldNetDaily.com. In the essay, Parker attempts to convince the reader that the United States should not have an open border policy. She uses the techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and logos to present a compelling argument to the reader, which in the end falls a bit short.
Ngai, Mae M., and Jon Gjerde. "Minutemen Call for Border Security First, Only, and Now, 2006." Major Problems in American Immigration History: Documents and Essays. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. 585-586. Print.
Perea, Juan. Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States. New York or London: New York University Press, 1997. Print.
Raoul imagines the American Dream as one that only comes once in life and in order to live it, you must take risks and follow it wherever it takes you. “You have no faith in the essential decency of a white man’s culture. Jesus, just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baiginio, stone broke
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
Robert H. Clancy in his speech, “An “Un-American Bill”: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas” effectively describes how the Johnson Reed Act affected immigration. Clancy’s purpose is to inform people in the racial discrimination of the immigration act in 1924. He adopts a serious tone and strong feeling in order to provide proof to the intended audience. Robert H. Clancy uses sufficient pathos with many examples throughout the text, many logos were used clearly and ethos was provided effectively.
The immigration influx during the late 1890 into the early 1900s was a key characteristic of the Progressive Era. Although this country may have experienced rises and falls in immigration rates over the century, the goal of immigrants remains the same. Regardless of their agreement or disagreement with Roosevelt’s views on Americanism, the United States is a symbol of hope, possibility, justice, and freedom, to both native-born Americans and immigrants alike; and we all stand united on that front. That is true Americanism.
He uses words such as poverty, rich, young, old, freedom, devotion, loyalty, and sacrifice. He doesn’t just focus on a certain group he focuses on reaching out to everyone and making them feel as if they belong in this dream. By the use of these words he gives off a welcoming feeling to all the different types of groups that they all contribute to what the United States is and will become. “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right” (Kennedy 463). Everyone has to contribute in helping each other out in order to see a change in the world. The founders of America said that they had to create a constitution because people were selfish it was their natural way of being. President Kennedy was trying to break that judgement by bringing in a new idea that everyone had to work together and that people didn’t have to be selfish. “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich” (Kennedy 463). He describes the consequences of being selfish by explaining that focusing on one group will not bring success in the U.S but bring it down. There are many who are poor and suffering, but a few who are