Thesis For Enrique's Journey

Throughout high school, many books are assigned to be read during the summer with the intent of opening students’ minds to learn. Students who read the books often find them enjoyable, however, there are some books that don’t acquire the same positive impact. Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, unfortunately, happens to be one of those books. The writer attempts to shine a positive light on immigrants and their struggle to get into the United States for a successful life, but ultimately contradicts her message by the end of the novel when Enrique ultimately throws his life away once arriving. Enrique’s Journey should not be considered as required reading material because the situation portrayed only happens to a small percentage of immigrants

In the story, we’re told that Enrique spends a lot of time with gang members, in a Mara Salvatrucha neighborhood. The Mara Salvatrucha are an infamous gang affiliated with Central Americans. This creates a negative stereotype, as people believe that many Latinos in poverty driven neighborhoods belong to gangs, and should therefore be feared and not allowed in the United States for the safety of citizens. With Enrique spending more and more time with friends, he begins to distance himself from his family members and ends up leaving them to reunite with his mother. Soon after reconvening with his mother, Enrique similarly pushes his mother away by accusing her of abandoning him. Confusingly, this contrasts a lot of Enrique’s decisions as he went on a dangerous journey in order to be with his mother again, but he is now unappreciative and wishes he was back in Honduras, making his trip completely useless. On the contrary, many immigrant children are happy to be with their parents again and understand they had to be left behind in order for them to have a better life. Enrique’s Journey unfortunately, doesn’t explain this and confuses readers by flipping back and forth with

Many Latinos arrive in the United States to work hard and pursue a life that would’ve been impossible in their home country. It’s true that Lourdes worked hard to achieve a decent life for her and her children.Yet, we also learn that all of them were unable to be successful and eventually threw their life away. Lourdes’ daughters Belky and Diana, both dropped out of school, despite being so close to finishing, and Enrique ends in prison with the possibility of being deported back to Honduras. This only gives people the implication of Latinos being undeserving of a life in the U.S. because they won’t amount to anything if given the chance. On the other hand, this is completely inaccurate as many immigrant children, including Latinos, are the first in their family line to finish high school and go to college, which is nearly unheard of in their home countries, disproving the cases in Enrique’s