The Life Of Carlos An Undocumented New York Summary

The article “The Life of Carlos, an Undocumented New Yorker” exposes the dehumanizing atmosphere Honduras reveals to the population at a young age, causing many teenagers such as Carlos to be in search of a new life in the United States while losing their innocence along the journey to survive. Carlos makes it to the United States, but quickly is thrown to an adult detention center, but temporarily released to be with his U.S. citizen Grandmother. Alexandra Starr’s article is coupled with Edward Keating’s photography of Carlos. Starr’s writing focuses on the story of Carlos which vividly includes many experiences an average person will never experience in their lifetime expect Carlos experienced this all before the age of 20. Carlos’s court

Starr makes use of literary devices such as point-of-view and detached tone to bring the main subject focus to be Carlos. The writer tells Carlos’s story in third person, she does not included her feelings about child immigration or her opinions on immigration policies to keep the focus off her and onto the story. Throughout the article, the author uses a detached tone because she does not comment on any experience, but rather just simply tells the story. We a lot of Carlos’s life through Starr’s detached tone in the following lines from the article, “Soon after they talked, he saw her stumble and fall on the tracks as she tried to board a train. Her decapitated head rolled to the ground near Carlos’s feet… A month into his journey, Carlos was detained by a member of the Zetas cartel who demanded $80. At the stash house, he stood on a floor stained with blood and could hear the screams of migrants being tortured in back rooms… Carlos was sleeping under a bridge when a man just a few feet away from him was burned to death(Starr).” The quote was an example of how Starr uses a detached tone to solely focuses on telling Carlos’s story to emphasize that he is the subject focus and her opinions or feelings do not

Keating effectively makes use of details to express enjoyment and gracefulness through the fourth and seventh picture in the article. The fourth picture in article is of Carlos in the center of the photo in a cheerful mood inside of a liquor. Keating makes use of the surrounding detail of the liquor store to provided a normal scene. Moreover, he relies heavily on Carlos’s facial detail and body language to powerfully communicate his carefree and poise expression. His almost dance-like position and the enormous simile on his face in a simple American liquor store shows how Carlos is very much appreciative of life. Similarly, in the seventh picture in the article is of Carlos riding his bike eating an ice cream cone with an ice cream truck in the background. The photographer includes many details in the background to bring a vibrant feeling to the picture. Additionally, the photographer incorporates details on Carlos and what he is doing. In this photograph, the photographer portrays Carlos as carefree and progressive in moment in a casual manner. The straightforward detail of him on his bike connect to how Carlos has overcome his struggles and grown a new perspective on life. Although both works employ different methods to show details on Carlos, Coupling both Starr and Keating’s work on Carlos effectively conveys overcoming hardship can often lead to a