How Does The Poem Borderlands By Gloria Anzaldua Relate To Belonging

In the poem Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua, the speaker connects living by the physical border between the United States and Mexico to invisible borders that exists when people struggle to express their identity. While the physical border separates the countries, she suggests the presence of a hidden border that separates cultures. Experiencing the rigid mindset of cultural segregation, the boundaries people set cause them to lose their identity in the midst of conforming to a new one. She also discusses the issue of xenophobia, creating barriers between cultures. Using two languages in her poem, Anzaldua attempts to link American and Hispanic culture, establishing an example of a crossroad. Many authors also often grapple with ideas regarding borders and crossroads to search for the origin of

institutional arrangements in human society.

They dive into basic human experiences like epiphanies, gender, and marriage in attempt to define a human being.
In stories and poems, authors often explore the concept of epiphanies. In Sightseeing, Lapcharoensap uses the analogy of Luk’s mother disappearing on an island across a sandbar to illustrate Luk’s epiphany. Lapcharoensap uses his realization that precious time passing with his mother will slip away soon to show how epiphany’s act as a warning. The warning causes Luk to reorder his priorities and make his life wait instead of his mother. Lapcharoensap believes that Luk’s epiphany will occur in the lives of most people as they mature. Demonstrating the power of epiphanies, he shows Luk breaking the border between him and his mother to create a crossroad. Ping also describes the power of epiphanies in American

Visa, where she describes the struggles of the sisters immigrating to the United States. She clears up the sister’s childhood by describing their epiphany about their mother’s love. Ping uses Sea Weed’s realization that her mother and sister admired her potential to help her understand the reason for her emotionally abusive childhood. Ping uses Sea Cloud’s realization of her sister’s jealousy to encourage her during the hard time. She wants readers to recognize the unification the epiphany brings the sisters. Both Lapcharoensap and Ping use epiphanies in their stories to create a crossroad. They want readers to understand that epiphanies give people knowledge to understand the real story underneath the surface. Since humans experience and learn from epiphanies throughout their life, they signify stages of growth and maturity. Authors like Lapcharoensap and Ping describe epiphanies in their stories hoping to educate readers and spark their own epiphanies.
In addition to marriage, authors often delve into the concept of gender. In Girl, Kincaid illustrates the mother teaching the girl character to “try to walk like a lady and not the slut” she starts to become to show the introduction of gender roles at a young age (Kincaid 320). Using the mother’s belief that women hold two reputations in society, lady or slut, Kincaid shows that parents often raise their children with society’s gender roles to protect them. Since reputation often dictates the treatment of people, she warns readers against borders with one’s identity when trying to conform to the society’s expectation of gender. Similarly, in The Most Handsome Drowned Man, Marquez talks about the connections of masculinity to size, strength and attractiveness. By ending the story with both men and women admiring Esteban as the ideal standard of masculinity, Marquez wants readers to see how gender expectations dictate society. He argues that these expectations deeply ingrain themselves into lives, making people change their identity in order to fit in to the ideal. In both stories, the authors address how gender roles cause separation with one’s identity. While each person has different talents, dreams, looks, and tastes, Kincaid and Marquez talks about gender roles taking away the uniqueness that sets each individual apart. With expectations so deeply integrated in cultures, it limits the agency for people to truly be themselves. The issue with gender creates discomfort. It makes people question society’s rigid views on gender roles. It also makes people reflect on how much of their individuality remains hidden.
In stories and poems, authors often analyze the concept of marriage. In Imitation, Adichie introduces Nkem living a life of wealth and security with her children in America, while her unfaithful husband keeps a girlfriend back home in Nigeria. With Nkem constantly “imagining the originals [and] the lives behind them”, the artwork symbolizes her relationship with Obiora. (Adichie 25) At the beginning, Adichie compares Nkem’s marriage to imitation artwork by depicting her as Obiora’s “fake” wife. She points out the borders in her marriage when Nkem frequently questions her happiness. Then Adichie reveals a crossroad when Nkem recognizes the growing border in her marriage, and learns to exercise her agency. She wants readers to notice how marital ties bind couples together. The Mallard’s marriage in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin also illustrates the bond of marriage. After Mr. Mallard’s death, Mrs. Mallard possess “self-assertion…the strongest impulse of her being” (Chopin). Chopin wants readers to understand that even though love exists between husband and wife, the end of the marriage offers a release and a sense of freedom. She uses Mrs. Mallard as an example for women who feel trapped within their marriage. She argues that throughout history, marriage itself remains a border that causes one to lose their identity and freedom. Both Adichie and Chopin explore examples of how patriarchal marriages limit a woman’s agency. They reveal the borders within marriage and question the happiness of both parties. While some rise above the borders to work the relationship out, some continue to submit and never learn to exercise their agency. Marriage, one of the most abstruse and obscure of the human relationships, receive lots of criticism from authors. Like Adichie and Chopin, authors present flawed marriages to show the imperfect nature of humans, and ideas the solution to this problem.
In all these stories, authors weave crossroads and borders in human life experiences like marriage, gender, and epiphanies to address the strengths and weaknesses of our culture. My friend, Isabela, adopted at age 5 from China experienced a life changing epiphany after meeting her biological mother. Her mother told her that her father filed for a divorce after finding out Isabela’s gender. In China, the gender of a baby sometimes determines the outcome of the family. Because of the association of strength with a son, daughters were often neglected after birth. With no work, money, and the resources needed to raise her, her mother abandoned Isabela. Before meeting her biological mother, Isabela always remembered the abandonment and felt lost for her purpose in the world. But after seeing the poor living conditions of her mother she felt thankful for being taken out of that situation. She realized the blessing of her adoption into a great family and found a new appreciation for her real parents.