Summary Of The Poem 'Borders' By Tara Evonne Trudell

Within Ellis Island by Joseph Bruchac, On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley, and Europe and America by David Ignatow there are different views of what the American Dream is and what it means to immigrants. Each author writes about their own experience of immigration and life in America, which shapes their view of the American dream. The common theme between the three poems is the variable nature of the American dream and how it has different meanings for each person coinciding with contradictions between leisure and suffering.

“When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders

Humans rarely change their ways; they stay in their own worlds and always interact with the same types of people. Unfortunately, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate human beings from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea provides a personal perspective to immigration by telling the story of 26 illegal immigrants, known as the Wellton 26, who are abandoned as they cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea proves there are invisible borders among people that create prejudice, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. By reading The Devil’s Highway, it is clear that these barriers must be broken down to ensure harmony within society.

Final reflection on the common reader “Enrique’s Journey” Through all the hardships of living in a poor country where just putting food on the table is a challenge. Seeing the media overinflate how great it is to live a country like the United States would feel like a pipe dream. Coming from a country full of corruption and powerful gangs governments that does not seem to care and payed off police to look the other way. The poem by Emma Lazarus has a deep connection to the hardships Enrique had to endure.

“He looks both ways and then leaps across the road where riches happen on a red tongue”(34-38). The metaphor used shows how unsatisfied the brown person, the daughter, and the father are in their life. This poem clearly depicts how some people in the world live in poor conditions and have unhappy lives. The poem doesn’t only show hatred and sadness in life in impoverishment, but it also shows how you can get out by perseverance like Gary Soto did in his personal life through literature and hard

The book talks about how men are the breadwinners of the family and that the females are the nurturing kind. For my family alone, it is mostly females and therefore they had to work hard to be the breadwinners. I have never seen them be the stay-at-home mom and take care of the children. For my family, the roles are equal. If it is a mom and a dad, they both work, they both clean, they both take care of the children and they both take care of the finances.

The poem Truth, by Gwendolyn Brooks, has a lot of symbolism in it. Different things throughout the poem both represent parts of the Civil Rights movement as well as things that we can relate to our lives today. She did really well with her literary elements used, especially personification. This makes her writing more relatable and realistic in our minds to grasp. Truth is a wonderful poem full of all sorts of different literary elements.

Many readers of this story can understand that life may be across the border into the United States, but they fail to comprehend to what extent the life is better and Urrea gives a detailed narration that tries to show the difference. Urrea does this well by giving brief overviews of the lives of these men in their home country and what they expect to get once they cross the border. The desperation of the men seeking to cross the border can be quantified in pesos and the men find that they cannot earn enough to cater for their basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing (Urrea, 2008). With the lack of such basic needs the men even find that catering for their children’s need for education is far beyond their reach. Urrea highlights the desperation of families in Mexico and how not only the old suffer, but also the young who miss opportunities because their poor societies have little to offer them.

Being a Cuban immigrant has provided me with a unique bicultural perspective that has become my support system in the United States. For the first eleven years of my life, my culture was composed of music and dancing. In every street corner of my hometown, there was a group of seniors playing domino and close by, their grandchildren dancing to the Salsa music being played on the radio to pass the time. The hardships created by the communist regime are overshadowed by memories of my mother teaching me how to sew and by my paternal grandmother teaching me how to enjoy a strong Cuban coffee. Those precious memories of home became a source of pain when I migrated to the United States.

Disappointment. Betrayal. Deceived. All these terms are common themes in the writing of several immigrants during their journey to America. After reading many personal accounts of immigrants and learning about their expeditions to America, it became evident it is not as joyous a ride as many make it seem.

The traditional Cuban family structure is patriarchal, a dominant male and a passive female is common, but mainly among older generations of family. The new family is more open to changes, education for all, especially women, was a big step in the participation of women in the workforce, gender equality, respect to marriage, divorce, household responsibilities, and decision-making. Cuban American women with acculturation were ready to join work outside the home and contribute, like men, to the social and economic growth of the family. Cubans, both on the island and Cuban Americans, the family, la familia, means support, strength, identity and heritage.

As a young child, after being told of how poor her houseboy Fido was, Adichie did not believe his family could also be hardworking. “Their poverty was my single story of them. ”(Adichie) She also details how later, on a trip to Guadalajara she was overwhelmed with shame because her only image of Mexicans was the “abject immigrant” due to the “…endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.” (Adichie)a She was caught by surprise when she saw Mexicans happy and at work in the marketplace.

The desperation and despair on the mother’s face sums up the tragedy faced by a downtrodden society. It represents the love of a mother that gives everything she must comfort her children while not knowing how they will get their next meal. While the Migrant Mother photograph evokes feelings of great sadness, it also shows the determination and strength of American workers. The photograph is a symbol of all that is great and dissolute in our society. It is a representation of strength, desperation, love and

“Let them eat cake,” she said, just like Marie Antoinette. In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s emotionally-charged poem, “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans,” he shows us in vivid detail how his people are living in poverty and scraping for pennies while the rich and powerful live on as if nothing is wrong in the rest of the world. It’s a portion of life that desperately needed attention called to it. Given what we know so far, how does this poem go about presenting this reality to the rest of the world? Baca’s satirical poem is, in my belief, simple in its message and yet complex in its message; from the author’s intentions to the story’s biting wit to its political commentary, “Mexicans” is a bold statement from somebody who has had enough.

This poem is about a Mexican-American speaker informing the reader about the struggles in which people from different ethnic backgrounds