Since the late 1800s and, especially since the US signed the NAFTA and GATT, whose purpose is to reduce trade tariffs and therefore simplify the trade between U.S. and other countries, the contracted migration from Mexico to the US increased and converted slowly into undocumented migration born from necessity. Concluding, the topic of undocumented migration to the US splits the opinions and concerns large numbers of authors. Reyna Grande and Luis Alberto Urrea, both authors with a migrant background, discuss the subject of unauthorized immigration in their works. Grande 's Across a Hundred Mountains tells the stories of Juana Garcia, a twelve-year-old girl, who is searching for her father and Adelina Vasquez, a young prostitute, who returns to her family after running away with a man. Juana and her family lose her younger sister and daughter due to a terrible accident, therefore Juana 's father Miguel finds himself forced to borrow money from the richest man in the village.
Encountering Ellis Island by Ronald H. Baylor explores the experiences of hundreds of Europeans who flocked to the United States in the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century. Ronald Baylor leaves no stone unturned as he tells of the difficulties immigrants faced as they tried to enter America. He examines not only Ellis Island, but makes many comparisons to Angel Island as well. His book is told in chronological sections, and his presentation is matter-of-fact. The main themes Baylor discusses include, the controversy surrounding immigration, Ellis Island vs Angel Island, and immigrants personal experience.
Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks, explores the life of Bethia Mayfield and how she grew up in a New England settlement where she befriended the Wampanoag Indian Caleb who later comes to an english University. The American Pageant, by David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, gives detailed information on the history and interactions between the New World settlers and the Natives that lived there for centuries. In Caleb’s Crossing the Indians and English settlers form close ties with one another even during major conflict, but in The American Pageant as soon as conflict starts the Indians and English forsake each other and a horrific war ensues. Caleb’s Crossing also gives a more in depth view of the personal relationship between Indians and
The lens of Changes in the Land focuses on the Indians and how “their ability to move about the landscape” (Cronon 159), had been “severely constrained” by the actions of the Europeans, and how their life was affected by the settlement. The lens of Experiencing History: Interpreting America’s Past is one that speaks greatly of the Europeans and their life and their struggles and their point of view. This is specifically evident when the textbook speaks of “communities in conflict” (page 89), and how it spotlights the issues pertaining to the colonists. Another area where the textbook and Changes in the Land don’t align is the portrayal of the settlers and the way that they view and act on the land of New England.
The main theme is the land dispute from the Owen’s Valley Farmer’s point of view in which people from Los Angeles come to try to buy their land. However, the Anglo American farmers are living in Spanish style adobe homes which they must have taken over after the Mexican-American War. Meanwhile, the American Indians and Chinese are workers on the farms, but are
For example, the squatter Hughes has a “sickly smile,” and Clarence maintains that once San Diego “‘is rid of the squatters, [Don Mariano] will recuperate’” (Ruiz de Burton 217, 138). The squatters' threat to the Don and his family acts like a creeping, insidious virus that erodes their wealth and status. And since economic health is tantamount to whiteness, as the Alamares fall prey to the corrupt legal system that enables the squatters, they slowly lose their status as whites and the hegemons of California society. As Szeghi suggests, however, the Californios’ coopting of American Indian body identity does not come without consequence as she ultimately uses illness to reassert whiteness, further silencing Native voices.
The book I chose to write about is The Cajuns: A People’s Story of Exile and Triumph. A lengthy title, and an even lengthier tale, it goes into the journey of the Acadians and how they survived their ordeals and thrived. The author, Dean Jobb, goes into great detail and engaging storytelling to capture their essence. Our story starts with a glimpse of the deportation, but as we turn the pages the author goes into the landscape of what Acadia was and how the name came to be. Dean Jobbs tends to interchange the perspective he uses to change up the pace of the story.
Firstly, they discuss how white settlers in the Prairies often possessed a sentiment of superiority and entitlement over Indigenous people based on their race. In the first chapter, Starblanket and Hunt demonstrate that Canadian officials advertised the Prairies as “a castle” where white men could cultivate their land. This endowment of power to white settlers
The Cherokee women wrote a petition urging their men to work against the removal. They make note of how they never believed in hostility with the white settlers. It is of their belief that they need to keep the land for the prosperity of their children and their existence as a whole. (197-198). The Cherokee women also remark how they and many other Native Americans have given up substantial amounts of their land, that this is their country by natural right.
In the book My Antonia, the characters developed a lot throughout the story, but one character development that stood out to me was Antonia Shimerda. Antonia's character developed so much in this novel, she becomes a more independent character, but that's only because of the challenges she faced when she moved from Bohemia, her dad committed suicide, she had to work as a servant girl and when her fiancé left her. In the beginning of the novel, Antonia and her family are welcomed into Nebraska. They stay next to Jim Burden and his grandparents, they are the ones who welcomed them.
Astrid is also the definition of what Americans aspire to be as she invents ideas that no one else would, and she does what needs to be done to prosper. Clearly, this makes Astrid strong willed because a strong willed person works hard everyday to repair their problems. More so, Astrid yearns to be aware of the settlements’
Montag is the protagonist in this novel. He is thirty years old. He is a fireman whose job is to make sure all books are burned therefore he believes strongly in what his society stands for: all books should be burned. Or so it seems. Throughout the beginning of the novel, it’s obvious that he is conflicting on what he actually believes, everyone around him thinks he believes books are bad.
In My Antonia, Willa Cather pens a nostalgic story focused on a two people with a unique connection. Jim Burden narrates the story of Antonia Shimerda, the girl next door who happens to be a Bohemian emigrant. Jim moves to his grandparents’ house after his parents die; Antonia arrives in the United States with her family and little else. The two are vastly different, but bond quickly on the Nebraska prairie. Most people who study the novel acknowledge the obvious impact that Antonia has on Jim and see Antonia as “in one way or another, the center of the novel” (Lucenti).
Challenges of Immigration: The Shimerda’s Struggle Willa Cather’s novel, My Ántonia sheds light on the topic of immigration. Immigrants have many different reasons for why they might migrate to the United States. Some were trying to escape something from their old country such as avoiding a war, trouble with the law, or shame as is the case of the Russians Pavel and Peter. Reasons for immigrating could also relate to chasing the American dream as is the case with the Shimerdas.
The first volume of Persepolis (2003) addresses Satrapi’s (2003) childhood struggle of identifying with a traditional religious way of life and her modern parents’ way of living. Tarlo (2007) explains that some of the modern Iranian women transformed to simplistic choices of the fundamentalist woman that discouraged Satrapi (2003) from relating to their identity. Tarlo (2007) believes that Satrapi (2004) portrayed the fundamentalist that stood with the leader Ruhollah Khomeyni in symbols that represents their loss of self-identity. Woman drawn in full coverings and closing eyes is one way Satrapi strips a character from individualism. The full coverings symbolize the loss of human shape and form, while the closing eyes symbolize the fundamentalist
