The atmosphere was dim, not due to insufficient lighting, but rather due to the unsettling nature of the surroundings. Despite its inherent danger, this destination remains alluring to humans. Luis Alberto Urrea wrote, “They were aliens before they ever crossed the line”. He implies that the unpleasant place is their destiny, and they are bound to go there, even if they are unaware of it. The phrase he uses conveys a sense of inevitability and predestination. It suggests that the outcome is beyond their control, and they have no choice but to accept it. What exactly is this place, and why is it so often referred to as the epitome of unpleasantness? The Sonoran desert, also known as "The Devil's Highway," inflicts anguish upon those unfamiliar …show more content…
The author Luis Alberto Urrea writes”...you need a new kind of prayers... to negotiate with this land”.He uses this phrase to show how dangerous it is that you can’t save yourself with normal prayers, you need someone or something stronger and more powerful. The lack of water and shelter makes survival a constant struggle. The terrain is unforgiving, with steep hills, sharp rocks, and treacherous crevices that can spell doom for the unwary. There have been reports of unexplained phenomena in this location, yet people don’t stay away. Urrea quotes “ weird sounds in the landscapes: voices, coughs, laughter, engines. It was the desert haunting they’d been hearing all along”. People would hear and experience all these paranormal things, yet they never ran into fear. Despite its dangers, the Sonoran desert is home to a variety of resilient plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh environment. The beauty of the desert is often overlooked by those who focus only on its dangers. The vibrant colors of the sunsets and the starry skies at night are breathtaking. The silence of the desert is also striking, broken only by the occasional sound of desert
In chapter five of ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!, the author Jeffrey M. Pilcher discusses how women wanted a mechanical mill for making and producing tortillas that were not so difficult to operate. In this chapter, there was a man named Luis de la Rosa who broke down how hard it was to operate tortilla machines. Many Mexican engineers began inventing corn mills and tortilla machines. Julian Gonzalez designed the first mechanical tortilla maker. Don Luis Romero Soto designed an improved model in 1899 and he created the first tortilla factory. This reminds me of my local tortilla shop in Baldwin Park named Ramirez Meat Market. I always see several women operating the machine and rolling the tortilla off the conveyor belt really fast. I also wondered
Charles Percy Austin used fine detail and a mesh of color in order to bring out the beauty in the girl. The strokes he used are precise and even throughout the painting. Charles Percy Austin settled in the golden state of California. He was an artist that had a fine soft brush stroke throughout his canvases. He has done many paintings such as “Mary Pickford’s wedding on the mission’s grounds (1924), La Buena Ventura 91927), and a padre feeding a parrot in the courtyard (1924).” His works earned him a medal from the Panama-California International Exposition. Charles Percy Austin is best known for his splendid and expensive-looking paintings. I experienced this first hand when I entered the museum because his painting stood out from the rest.
Cormac McCarthy's brilliant descriptions of the landscape of the desert southwest in Blood Meridian can be seen to have a dual purpose. In one sense they are the lone highlight of a novel filled with gruesome realities. In analyzing the setting's features and connections to the novel's plot and theme, the reader can see that the setting is an element vital in plausibility of the plot and the understanding of the novel's underlying meaning.
The heat of the deserts and the toll it takes on those who cross it frequently appears throughout The Devil 's Highway. All these main points that Urrea discusses throughout his story are all similar. In the end, all of these main points are used to describe how difficult the Mexicans have it. From the difficult economy in Mexico to being easily exploited for money to risk their life in the hot, deadly desert of Arizona, Urrea attempts to cement the point that these illegal immigrants are humans as well. He wants his readers to know that these Mexicans are just trying to survive economically like everyone else does in the
The 1959 novel, Pocho, by José Antonio Villarreal is an insightful cultural exposition told primarily from the vantage point of Richard Rubio, the coming-of-age son of immigrant Mexican parents who eventually settle in Santa Clara, California, after many seasons of migrant farm work. Although fiction, the story likely mirrors some of the experiences of the author who was born to migrant laborers in Los Angeles in 1924 and was himself a "pocho" - a child of the depression era Mexican-American transition. ("I am a Pocho," he said, "and we speak like this because here in California we make Castilian words out of English words." p 165)
Under what circumstances would you go through to better and provide for your family? Would you embark on these six deadly sins above to just get a simple loaf of bread on the table? There is no solid blame or black and white definite answer throughout this novel, The Devil’s Highway. The author Luis Alberto Urrea takes his readers to different perspectives and offers different points of view whether you appear to be a walker, coyote, or the border control on the topic of illegal immigration. Being that Urrea puts the reader in each person shoe’s and truly sees what immense, harsh, conditions for example these immigrants had to go through. Again there is no solid blame or black and white answers, both sides are at fault and in need of a solution to the problem.
Many people would say that to be born a Mexican is to be born a Catholic. This perpetuating stereotype has forced many Mexican families to raise their children as if no other religions options even existed. In the book Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal a young boy by the name of Richard Rubio finds himself being raised Catholic by a traditional Mexican family. Richard, struggling to find his place in the world, has his parents religious beliefs pressed down on him forcing him to conform to a religion he does not agree with. Throughout the course of the novel the Catholic religious beliefs imposed on Richard affected his personality in many ways. By the end of the book it is clear that not allowing others to find their own spiritual calling can have drastic effects on their ability to recognize who they are. Many of the spiritual problems Richard faces in book are common to a number of Mexican children. Through the use of my personal experiences in being in a situation similar to that of Richard's, I intend to support my claim that forced beliefs may have damaging effects on a person.
If the Martian Chronicles had been written in the 1999’s instead of fifty years ago, many issues and problems would change. Ray Bradbury wrote his book in 1946. In it he wrote about problems such as censorship, man’s cruelty to man, and loneliness. Each issue shows up in one or two of his chronicles. All of his issues affect every one of his characters in many different ways.
Rafael Trujillo was the infamous dictator of the Dominican Republic. He was often feared by some and loved by others. Trujillo often attracted followers by utilizing his sexual intrigue. He would take advantage of woman to boost his political power and to put his subjugates on a higher pedestal . Trujillo also changed the “common Dominican household”, with this being he aided in changing the gender relations between males and females. Trujillo also utilized the infamous trait that various men from Latin America take pride, Machismo. With this being said Trujillo utilized gender relation, sexual intrigue and machismo to his favor to get the citizens to jump on his bandwagon causing them to legitimately agree with his regime.
Didion paints uneasy and somber images when describing the Santa Ana winds. “There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air… some unnatural stillness, some tension,” starts the essay off with the image of Los Angeles people in a sense of stillness or tense. She further adds, “Blowing up sandstorms out along Route 66… we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night,” propagating the uneasy and stark image of Los Angeles. “The baby frets. The maid sulks,” she adds, giving a depressing view into the effects of the Santa Ana winds on people. Didion, in an attempt to show the craziness associated with the Santa Ana winds, points out the Indians who throw themselves into the sea when bad winds came. At any rate, Didion attempts to show the negative effects of the Santa Ana winds through images of stillness, uneasiness, and sobriety.
Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for a healthy couple identity; however, the more the Wheelers hide behind their desired roles, the more they lose sense of their true selves as individuals and as a pair.
The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.
In each of the cases the coyote plays a huge role in the novel. The coyote in the novel is a symbol regarding the characraters engagements and their lifestyles. The first time the coyote appears in the novel, it had eaten one of the Mosschaber’s dogs by jumping over the fence. The family was left heart broken, so they decided to construct a bigger fence to keep out the coyotes. However, even with the bigger fence, the coyote managed to jump and eat the other dog of the Mosschaber’s. It appears that the coyote would do just about anything to survive. The community of Arroyo Blanco plans to build a wall/gate to keep out “the Salvadorans, the Mexicans, the blacks, the gangbangers, and the taggers and carjackers…” Even though the Mosschaber’s put up a bigger fence to keep the coyotes out, it failed, just as the wall may not keep the illegal immigrants out. Delayne is an author for a local newspaper and wrote about the problem with the coyotes stating, “ One coyote, who makes his iving on the fringes of my community… has learned to simply chew his way through the plastic irrigation pipes whenever he wants a drink.” This quote signifies how the coyote shares a similar lifestyle as to that of the illegal immigrants. The coyote is parallel to Candido and America. They are illegal immigrants who are living on the bottom of the hills trying to live of the land. This is exactly what the coyote does. It too lives of the land surrounding Arroyo Blanco. Delayne also mentions about calling the county animal control to trap the coyotes, which is similar as calling “la migra” to pick up the illegals off the land and set them in the other side of the
Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles shows us not only a different world from Earth and Mars, but also the future of America. Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles depicts the colonization of Mars in terms of the colonization of America. The story is similar to what America experienced, such as thediscovery of America, the invasion of Indian colonies, and the new civilization. Dana's response paper also discussed the colonization of Mars.
In life it is necessary to have fantasy, because without it, life would be dull and meaningless. Life would be so different without dreams, since they are what motivate humans to keep on moving forward in order to achieve their goals. This is what Jorge Luis Borges is trying to explain to the reader in the book Ficciones which is very confusing, but also very deep in meaning. These stories demonstrate a theme of reality vs. fiction which is fascinating because in many of the readings fantasy is required at some point to accomplish a purpose or goal. Each unique story hides a meaning in the text which is a lesson to be learned. The confusion that is caused is similar to a labyrinth in which the reader gets lost. The message is hidden within the story so; it causes confusion to the reader. Events in the story suggest that the story is fiction, because most of the stories have existent scenery. The timing in some stories is from an event or tragedy that has occurred around that date. The reader realizes later on in the stories that unrealistic events began to occur which are impossible to take place in real life. This is when our minds become entangled with facts from our world and others form the impossible.