Analysis Of The Tattooed Soldier By Hector Tobar

In the late nineteenth and twentieth century many immigrants were migrating to the United States for an economic advantage and some by contract labors from various agents, much different from their predecessors. Thomas Bell’s novel “Out of this Furnace” is a generational novel of the characters Kracha, Mike, Mary, and Dobie, coming to America expecting to receive the American Dream and have a better life to soon return back home with riches. However, immigrants and many working class individuals undergo long hours and strenuous work, with minimal amount of pay. Not to mention, the living conditions were horrendous for the average person and particularly worse for arriving immigrants. There was a division between the classes which ultimately

The abuse of power has led to a division among Latino communities. The Tattooed Soldier depicts the struggles of Guatemalans trying to survive in an environment that is filled with wars and havoc. The use of power has led to the creation of social classes that are not only based on wealth but of gender, and heritage. This practice of power has led to the lack of collaboration amongst Guatemalans and resistance movements has led to chaos that can not only be left behind in Guatemala. The novel itself follows the stories of a Guatemalan man and his struggles that have caused him to migrate to America to seek the opportunity that seemed to be out of his reach. The man who killed Antonio’s wife and how he tries to reflect how life in America is different in the sense of use of power. Antonio’s wife appears to tell her story leading up to her death and which gives insight to how Antonio’s personality has drastically changed due to the tragic events that he underwent in Guatemala. The nation was undergoing constant wars between the government and the people seeking to gain economic and social help. The war was between the government and the Guerillos, but innocent lives were caught in the middle and many had to be extremely cautious as the government was being cautious against anyone who hinted at resistance.

In the story “Four Stations in His Circle”, Austin Clarke reveals the negative influences that immigration can have on people through characterization of the main character, symbols such as the house that Jefferson dreams to buy and the time and place where the story takes place. The author demonstrates how immigration can transform someone to the point that they abandon their old culture, family and friends and remain only with their loneliness and selfishness.

Downtown Los Angeles is one of the busiest commercial centers in the United States. However, the city holds two groups of people in different economic level-the homeless and the working class. Hector Tobar frequently includes the landscape of the setting in downtown Los Angeles in The Tattooed Soldier. The novel is about two immigrants from Guatemala who have moved to Los Angeles. The protagonist, Antonio, takes a revenge on the antagonist, Longoria because he murdered Antonio's wife and son when he was a Guatemalan soldier. Tobar applies a number of metaphors to connect the buildings and freeways in downtown to Antonio's position in the city. Buildings, freeways, and shadows are metaphors for Antonio's economic and social status.

Unfortunately, this mass migration to the "New World" came at a terrible cost to the lives of the Natives already here. Not everyone came here free to pursue a better life. Many arrived as indentured servants, even worse much more came as slaves. Upon arriving some immigrants found success, many others did not, and a select few of them, as well as some Natives, expressed their experiences through writing about their quest. One author, Charles W. Chesnutt, in The Wife of His Youth tells of the torment that burdened some free-born blacks. Chesnutt’s character, Mr. Ryder, achieved a level of status and class that was better than many whites, due to his assumed mixed race and literacy. However, Liza Jane, Mr. Ryder’s former wife shows up at his house one day looking for him, yet does not recognize him. Ryder is left to decide if he will reveal himself to her and the impact that would have on him among his societal friends. Perhaps, this is what minorities today go through when they achieve the level of status they are seeking. Are they sellouts for succeeding, or should they use their gains to assist others in their communities, like them, in obtaining a better life? Moreover, all the rewards in the world are of no value if one has not the liberty to enjoy

The Smolinsky family soon discovers the difficulties that come with being immigrants in America. Discrimination is one such problem. The family lives in an apartment building and they encounter discrimination from the rent collector. The Smolinskys, because of financial problems, cannot pay the rent regularly and when the landlady shows up on their doorstep, she is upset and says, "The cheek of those dirty immigrants! A fool I was, giving them a chance another month" (17). These words are a far cry from the father’s expectation that "all America will come to my feet to learn" (9). Discrimination is certainly not what the family expects upon their arrival in America. They expect a welcome with open arms and what they receive is just the opposite.

Why is it that the old immigrants did contribute to the advancement of the American economy and the newer immigrants are people who are just useful for menial jobs? One hopes that society’s judgment of present immigration is not determined just on their color of skin. The problem with American society is the pessimistic attitude they obtain when things are not going their way. As Harry Truman wisely said, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties!”

According to Karla Thomas, Immigrants of color work above board with their families for years to ful fill their dreams,but their efforts are unacknowleged. She Says, “I also know that the narrative expressed in my last few sentences is met with pride and joy when the immigrant we speak of is Lrish, Russian or the ever attractive Norwegian. Yet when we tell these stories about Black and Brown immigrants, the narrative

African Americans were among those that resented the preferential treatment Cuban refugees received. One should keep in mind that this occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, when accumulated racial tensions came to surface in both national and local demonstrations. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that a marginalized group, such as these African Americans in Southern Florida, would feel infuriated at the preferential treatments Cubans received. As Cubans began to enter the business world, African Americans claimed that the new Cuban employers would fire them from the shops and hire their own fellow Cuban exiles (Levine & Asis, 87). Moreover, due to the nature of racism in America being predicated largely on skin color, many white Americans preferred to have a Cuban with a heavy accent and little English capacity than to hire a black worker (Grenier & Perez, 53). This only intensified the resentment because

“Immigrant communities in the first half of the twentieth century were marked by increasing prosperity as well as by cultural change. Despite the hardships of industrial life, workers of all ethnic groups were able to achieve a

Even though Danticat does not present her father throughout her memoir, her diction of depicting her father's imagery is powerful enough to convey a culture and life of an immigrant that other immigrants can relate to. Yet, society still imposes negativity and alienation towards the immigrants' community simply because they do not understand other supreme cultures in a different country. Danticat yearns to connect that facet with her father's experiences of living and working in the U.S. in order to formulate the notion of working hard and striving for a better life, despite the hardship that society places upon him. With the understanding of what Danticat wants to impart in her memoir, the portrayal of immigrants that is often presented via social medias and news is still inadequate to elevate the significance of the culture of immigrants and lower-class people. Despite the challenges that immigrants have to face in order to enter a better country, there is still hope for them to progress towards a better

In the Dominican children bullied for fun and had no punishment in return. Thus, in America, those same children found themselves beating people in America. In the short story No Face, Diaz walks readers through a cringing story of children badly beating another child for no reason but to have fun. Then, in the short story Drown, those children are stealing, breaking windows, and “pissing on peoples steps” (page 91) in America. The change in culture always had a way of dismissing the fact that they were hard workers. Growing up they stole. At work in America they stole from their bosses. From the time they were children, many of the immigrants never saw a good future for themselves. Teachers told them “… the majority of you are just going to burn out. Going nowhere”. Some people have debated that a Hattian Immigrant’s success in America is all the luck of the

Many of them are then sent back to where they had came from. The authors decision to use an unconventional plot structure, to depart from strict chronological order, allows the reader to see that immigration is an issue that America is currently facing. With foreshadowing , readers can visualize the current issue immigrants are facing when taken away from these jobs, while foreshadowing allows for the reader to understand that if these immigrants are taken away from these simple jobs, Americans are left doing the jobs that they do not really like to do. The reason why it is, because immigrants like Javier don’t have it easy getting used to a whole new culture in

Living in the United States has changed our culture significantly; in my household I consider us “Americanized” Cubans. Most of us speak English almost the entire day, we eat American food a lot, and we just identify ourselves now has Americans (De Blij and Muller, 2010: 31). In the Cuban-American community we try to hold on to the practices that define us a people, but has each day passes on it become harder, has we start to see ourselves more American than Cuban. The reasons why my families left our homelands and came to the new world transpire with those of most immigrants who come; to seek a better life. We escaped poverty and oppression; these “Push and Pull” factors really do come into play (De Blij and Muller, 2010: 242). For the story of migrant, since leaving Africa thousands of years ago, it has been in order to find a new life and

The view of immigrantion in America. The immigrants go into the United States they are expected to acclimate, “in return for being accepted into the United States, immigrants were expected to adapt unilaterally and without any help both in social and cultural areas” ( Martino 531). A scene in the movies, when Robert who knows English better than the rest of the group asks where a town is, he is ridiculed on his pronunciation. The towns people assume that the immigrants are lesser and uneducated. Plus, they have not acclimated well enough or fast enough. The article has an opposing view which is “that immigrants reach a high socioeconomic status (while managing to preserve their cultural differences and even recap benefits form them) thanks to the upkeep of international networks” (Martino 531). This idea completely