Immigration has been a very disputable topic in America. Newcomers to America undergo many struggles during their time trying to get a better life from which they came. The author Cristina Henriquez is that of Latino immigrants, she published the book in 2013 around the time when Immigration started becoming more controversial. Henriquez wrote the book as a way to show the point of view of immigrants escaping corrupted homelands or in search of better lives but sometimes at certain costs. An article on the Book of Unknown Americans editorial eyes says “Book of Unknown Americans plays against the idea of America as the promised land for people running from social or political upheaval, or people running toward a shining dream of success in a
A dream can push people into the upper level, but dreams do not always come true. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez is about immigrants who move to America. This is a book of the story collection; also, it combines different emotions, especially love and guilt. Alma loves her daughter, Maribel, more than anything else like every parent does, so Maribel is the only reason they are in America. Alma does as much as she can to Maribel. Although Alma is a newcomer to America, she becomes stronger because of her daughter.
“It was only a matter of seconds before the cop had thrown the guy to the sidewalk and pressed him face first into the concrete.” (Reynolds 36). In the realistic fiction book All American Boys by Jason Reynolds, Quinn, A senior boy in high school has witnessed the unnecessary beating of a black boy by a white cop. Quinn’s best friend Guzzo and his brother Paul practically raised him after his father died in war. Paul had become a cop in his father's honor and taught him how to play basketball which led Quinn to making the team. The boy who was beaten by Paul was later discovered on the news to be Rashad, a teammate of Quinn's on the basketball team. Quinn is now forced to make the decision to stand up for what is right and defend Rashad who
At the end of Prohibition President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, "What America needs now is a drink". 13 years before Roosevelt said that, on December 16, 1920, the United States went dry causing all breweries, distilleries, and saloons to shut down. This also prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol nationwide which is stated in the 18th amendment. This tried to decrease violence, increase efficiency in the workplace, and overall just make America better. In Prohibition 13 Years that Changed America by Edward Behr, Prohibition is a crucial event that takes place which causes a disruption in American society which makes illegal activities more normalized such as George Remus’s Bootlegging business causing him to find
In the poem “America,” by Tony Hoagland, the idea of Americans being consumed with their money is shown using symbolism and metaphors. The speaker in this poem is a teacher whose name is never mentioned. One thing revealed in the poem is that the speaker has a father who is presumably very wealthy and successful. One of the teacher’s students compares America to a maximum security prison. A recurring theme throughout “America” is Hoagland showing examples of America’s greedy society using a teacher, student, and a father’s experiences. Using metaphors of money and symbols of rivers filled with merchandise, Tony Hoagland captures how the teacher begins to think after he hears his student compare America to a maximum security prison.
Journalist and author, Sonia Nazario’s novel “Enrique's Journey” has sparked tremendous attention to the immigration laws of the United states.Immigration and immigrants are the integral parts of the United States, which constitutes to the cultural and economic prosperity of the country.Yet, people segregate immigrants based on race, color and culture; especially, illegal immigrants that are labeled criminals, drug addicts and rapists.Through Enrique’s journey, Sonia Nazario illustrated the illegal journey of a young boy named Enrique to reunite with his mother in the United States.Enrique always felt abandoned by his mother Lourdes, when she left him and his older sister Belky to travel across borders to the great land of opportunities, the
Daniel Rodriguez a professor of religion and Hispanic studies expressed his thoughts from a Christian perspective about Immigration and Undocumented Immigrants living in the United States of America. I found it very important to attend this summit session because I’m an exchange student from Trinidad and Tobago and always heard so much negative stories about how Americans see people from other countries.
Since the dawn of American colonization in the early 1600s, the notion of immigrating to America has long been instilled upon various people as a stimulating opportunity to begin a fresh chapter in their lives. Even now, this possibility has brought many variations of people to America, culminating a society that brims with dreams and aspirations to form the diversified nation of today. When speaking of the current state of immigration, it is easy to conclude that immigration is heavily discussed from political standpoints. Though this current condition is composed of highly controversial perspectives, many of the early-century viewpoints found in literature genuinely embrace reality, for these writers were indeed immigrants themselves, thus adding an authoritative standpoint over immigration. The Americanization of Edward Bok (1921) by Edward Bok and The America I Believe In by Colin Powell, display the perspectives of two authors, who have lived as immigrants, through their own personal anecdotes. Both Edward Bok and Colin Powell convey a sincerely grateful tone and develop the idea of Americanization and the quest for opportunity through the use of connotative diction in contrast to the Immigration Chart and Political Cartoon which have a downright concrete and pessimistic tone and supports the idea that immigration exposes various challenges to incoming immigrants.
What every American should know by Eric Liu thoroughly examines the issue of cultural literacy and its place in modern America. It takes on a convincing argument against E.D. Hirsch’s book on the same which included some 5000 things that he thought define cultural literacy and every American should know. Liu argues that America has changed over time, becoming more multicultural, and to capture the cultural literacy of the country, no one person should sit down and come up with what they think everyone else should know. Instead he suggests that in order to capture the view of the nation, every American should be involved in the making of the list. The most engaging part of this article is Liu’s idea that this new list that is crowd-sourced should always change according to the times. It should not be cast in stone because things in this day and age change really fast; what is a hit this month will be old news in the next one. This is what cultural literacy really is; keeping up with what is going on around you and being open to learn new things as they emerge. This can also be said of education; in order to stay educated in any field, you have to be in the know of in terms of new developments.
In “The Right Road to America?,” Amy Chua informs her audience about the possibility of America’s national identity becoming lost due to the influence of immigrants. Chua’s defines her thesis by stating “Around the world, nations face violence and instability as a result of their increasing pluralism and diversity,” (336). The key points of the text includes Chua explaining why America and other nations could lose their core identities, how the United States could become unglued from its true meaning, and how citizens can fix this imminent problem. The information in this text is significant, especially in today’s society. With all of the issues about immigration coinciding with our current president, this text relates to current subjects
Have you ever referred to someone as “high class,” “middle class,” or “low class?” The article “Class In America” is a very educated read and describes the way people are characterized by their “class.” I think that this article informs all types of readers and allows people to see how people are grouped based on themselves. “Class in America” is written to show and prove to society that people do not talk about “class” anymore, because of the way the world looks at it today. Gregory Mantosis is the author of the article, and he uses many facts and data to prove his points.
The book “The Other America”, written by Michael Harrington, describes poverty in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when America became one of the most affluent and advanced nations in the world. The book was written in 1962, and Harrington states that there were about 50,000,000 (about 25% of the total population) poor in America at that time. The author did extensive research with respect to the family income levels to derive the poverty numbers, and used his own observations and experiences to write this book. This book addresses the reasons for poverty, the nature of poverty, the culture of poverty, the blindness of Middle Class America with respect to poverty, and the responsibility of all Americans in addressing the issue of poverty in America.
This book has the focal point of having the truth being told once and for all from the Latino perspective. "Mine is the perspective of a Latino who has grown tired of having our story told, often one-sidedly, without the passion or the pain, by "experts" who have not lived it." (Gonzalez, XVII) Gonzalez cuts straight to the point when he wrote this book. Gonzalez went through the bushes and cut through the bullshit to make his point. He wrote about how various groups of Latinos migrated here to
The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American
Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.
The Quiet American was a book originally written in 1955 by Graham Greene, inspired by the first French Indochina war in Vietnam placed during 1951 - 1954. The author adds a love triangle in the mist of war’s chaos to deepen the reader’s interest. His decision to create a fictional love story during a turbulent time in our history proved to be successful, even though, Greene insists, "This is a story and not a piece of history." Bushnell reflects Greene’s comment adding, Unfortunately, The Quiet American became a chillingly accurate foreshadower of history (Bushnell pg.38). The books success led to two movie renditions, one made in 1958 and the other 2002. The movie produced in 2002 by Philip Noyce was the popular version that brought the book to life with a bit more accuracy. What contributed to the movie’s flare was the location of the set. According to a movie review, “Location shooting in Vietnam gave the images both documentary credibility and an exotic lushness (McDonald Pg.66). Even though, there were only minimal changes that conflicted with the books presentation, the outcome was positive, and brought a fresh new aspect of interpretation to the viewer. One journalist, McDonald writes in his article, “If The Quiet American can persuade audiences that self-righteousness and naivety are no substitute for realism and intelligence, Phil Noyce 's fine film may come to be one of the more significant achievements of the twenty-first century (McDonald Pg.66).”