ipl-logo

The Symbolism Of Escape In The Crossing

440 Words2 Pages

To most, life is pretty simple, you get a house, food, education, and a family, but have you ever thought about those who don’t have those things? Like in the book The Crossing, a boy named Manny Bustos is seeking a way to escape his life on the streets. Currently, Manny has to wrestle and beg for food and sleep in a cardboard box. He does so, because the street men could take him away and sell him. Then there’s Robert S. Locke, a sergeant who served in the Vietnam War and lost many close friends, who now drinks the night away to keep the memory of them away from him. The two both need an escape, and that escape is symbolized as the Santa Fe Bridge that is the definite border of the U.S. and Mexico.

Ever since the beginning of the book, Manny has thought of the bridge and how he longs for the American dream. In fact, Manny won’t go a chapter in the book without mentioning or even implying to him crossing. For example on page 12 it states, “He had much to do to get ready, and on this day not much time left. He would cross tonight.” What the text is saying is Manny is preparing to leave and he is almost ready to just go to the United States. With the sergeant though, the bridge and border are completely different. …show more content…

Meaning he drinks to forget his dead war friends, because he fears that their memory will haunt him if he doesn’t drink. In Chapter 2, it states, “...Sergeant Robert S. Locke would go to Juarez… and he would drink evenly and professionally until he was in a state that he called brain dead, which would last until he came back to the barracks and get ready for the next day.” (Page 16) . This text is generally explaining is how Robert escapes from his life in a unreal feeling that seems like a fantasy. Robert and Manny both have bad life styles and the bridge helps the two to a better

Show More
Related
1022 Words | 5 Pages

In Rachel St. John’s book, “Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border,” the author offers up “a history of how and why the border changed” (St. John 1). This is her central thesis that she presents, providing evidence and historical context concerning the border and its changes over the course of the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. In seven chapters plus and introduction providing more general information and a conclusion that brings the U.S.-Mexico border situation into the present day, Rachel St. John’s focus is both periodical and geographical. St. John moves across both space and time in her book, looking at how region and era affected the border situation and how these effects differed in significance. St. John takes

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

The names of the group of people in this story were many and will be remembered. Jose de Jesus Rodriguez a man that traveled for the first time to the U.S. Enrique Landeros Garcia was a man who got lost and coming from San Pedro Altepepan, who had a wife Octavia and a child named Alexis who didn’t want him to go but he wanted to better their life. Reyno Bartolo Hernandez was a friend of Enrique and was a coffee farmer and was married to Agustina. Lorenzo Ortiz Hernandez, from the same place as Enrique and Reyno, he had five children and a wife and he didn’t have enough money to afford to keep up with the family so he went to better the life of his family. Reymundo Barreda Maruri and his son traveled because once again there was no work in Mexico

Read More
262 Words | 2 Pages

In chapter two of the book Enrique’s Journey, Enrique has made a total of seven attempts trying to cross the borders. In the first attempt, la migra caught Enrique and his friend, Jose del Carmen Bustamante, while they were riding the train from Honduras and to Veracruz in Central Mexico. They got sent back to Guatemala on El Bus de Lagrimas, the Bus of Tears. In the second attempt, Enrique traveled alone and got caught by the police. They, once again, put him on the bus and sent him back to Guatemala.

Read More
515 Words | 3 Pages

Life has highs and lows, but sometimes when we reach a low point we forget that the people around us may have it a lot worse. Booker T. Washington once said “Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.” In other words when we are having a bad day try to help, because someone has it a lot worse than you, and that will make you feel better. Two works of literature that explore the idea of how we should live our lives with compassion for others. “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “He Ain’t Heavy” by the Hollies.

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

When Polk had decided to send our American troops to the disputed land, the Mexicans went and attacked us. In Document B, President Polk wrote to the Senate and House of Representatives. “...dispatched from the American camp up the Rio del Norte, on its (North) bank, to ascertain whether the Mexican troops had crossed, or were preparing to cross, the river...” so right here he’s saying that they are trying to figure out if they were going to cross the territory that was annexed to the US but according to Mexico that was not the boarder and they were “crossing” so then they went and attacked and this is what Polk said about the attack “(They) became engaged with a large body of these (Mexican) troops, and, after a short affair, in which some sixteen (Americans) were killed and wounded, appear to have been surrounded and compelled to surrender...”

Read More
1211 Words | 5 Pages

Seth M. Holmes is the anthropologist behind the work Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. This book is about an almost hidden world of migrant farm laborers in the USA. This group of hidden people is responsible for providing the United States with fresh fruit and for very little money and poor living conditions. Holmes has written this ethnography to shed light on the downside of agribusiness while showcasing the physical and social problems Mexican workers face in Washington and California while working in the fields providing the United States with fruit. Chapter 1 of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies details the author’s trip from Oaxaca, Mexico to the border of the United States.

Read More
697 Words | 3 Pages

Humans are like parrots; what society tells them, they repeat and believe to be true. However, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate people from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea tells the story of 26 illegal immigrants who are abandoned as they attempt to cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea reveals that there are invisible borders that create discrimination, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. In order to break down these borders, education is essential to prove that they are unnecessary constructions of society.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

A hardship that many people have to endure is poverty. The characters in the short stories, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank Mccourt and The Street, by Ann Petry, both experience living in impoverished conditions. In the story The Street, Petry shows the life of a single mother who lives through the struggles of being poor. In another story portraying poverty, Angela’s Ashes, the author uses kids to paint the image of indigence. These kids are burdened with the task of caring for themselves.

Read More
862 Words | 4 Pages

Soto’s “Small Town with One Road” is a poem that deeply touches upon the issues of Latin Americans stuck in small towns. With the use of literary devices such as similes and imagery it illustrates the deep pain in the townspeople’s hearts. In line 24 the speaker thinks “Papa’s fields wavered like a mirage”(Soto “Small Town”) which shows the illusion of a perfect life in small town fading away. This is a simile that hints at the imperfections hidden in the small town of the speaker’s upbringing. The imagery in the poem such as "And its black strip of highway, big-eyed With rabbits that won't get across"(Soto “Small Town” 2-3) paint a picture of what the quality of life is in the town.

Read More
1005 Words | 5 Pages

Firstly, their squadron’s Sergeant Sterling states that the soldier’s mind is at home. Secondly, Private Bartle believes Private Murphy is using the medic as a replacement for the dullness of being homesick. Finally, when the medic is killed

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

In the process of working toward the American Dream, people struggle to fit in, to belong, to be accepted. For many of them, an important part of the American Dream is the chance to reinvent themselves—the opportunity to become someone different, someone better. In “Outlaw: My Life in America as an Undocumented Immigrant”, Jose Antonio Vargas is an “undocumented immigrant” who has been living illegally in the U.S. since he was twelve years old. To chase his American dreams, he embodied a lie until it became unbearable and he expose his truth and let the masks crumble onto the ground. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. broke unjust laws and engaged in nonviolence direct action in order to pursue his American dream of equality and freedom.

Read More
1171 Words | 5 Pages

People in poverty are generally portrayed as worthless and this is because culture today illustrates a man’s worth from how materially successful they are. Hooks explains how this kind of representation of the poor can mentally and emotionally handicap and entire society of people in poverty. She goes into an example of how a

Read More
434 Words | 2 Pages

It is thought that Hispanics tend to have more hope in the American Dream. It makes sense, they’re more prone to live in terrible conditions because Mexico isn’t in the best shape. Americans are used to having all of these opportunities sitting in front of them. Hispanics don’t live the same way as Americans. Americans perceive the dream as unachievable because of the obstacles they have to go through.

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

My most rewarding accomplishment consists of my ability to overcome the fear and weakness that was conceived upon my arrival to the United States from Mexico, in addition to a newly evolved character which allowed me to achieve academic, professional, and personal success. Nearly seven years ago, my mother and I immigrated from a harsh economic climate in Mexico that was plagued with unemployment. Additionally, our family faced bankruptcy. While holding onto our faith, we left our hometown with only what we could carry and bought two one-way bus tickets. With nothing more than fear, two bags, and $50 in each of our pockets, we set out for what would be the most challenging journey of our lives.

Read More
1777 Words | 8 Pages

There will come a time in every person’s life where he has to make a decision that could alter his life forever. In fact, this exact situation may occur multiple times in his existence. In trying to make the right choices, a person might weigh both options and take into account all the possible effects and arguments for each. For example, when he was growing up, Robert Frost would take strolls with his friend, Edward Thomas, who would constantly face the struggle of choosing the right path and would always worry about whether he made the right decision. In his poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Frost portrays this relatable clash of choices.

Read More

More about The Symbolism Of Escape In The Crossing

Related Topics

Open Document