Dirty Pretty Things

The narrative of the violent undocumented “alien” serves a dual purpose of instilling fear into Americans and to view undocumented immigrants as criminals. The opening scene of the documentary shows dark, shapeless figures running across the border. This gives the impression of a foreign “thing” crossing the border with bed intentions. During another opening shot, a white male congressman with power talks over a scene

Immigration is a complex and multifaceted issue that faces the US. In his film, Sin Nombre (2009), director Cary Fukunaga aims to juxtaposition the issue of immigration with the issue of gang violence in Mexico, and show the difficulties immigrants face by giving his audience an insider’s perspective into the experience of immigrating to the United States from Honduras. He does this through a variety of characters; most notably Willie and Sayra. Fukunaga did extensive research on life in the Mara Salvatrucha gang and the process of immigrating to America, in order to make his film realistic and authentic. The result is a movie that not only shows immigration in a way that evokes empathy and enforces the humanity of immigrants in the viewer’s mind, but also gives the viewer a look into the realities of being in a gang. Through the use of strong characters, powerful dialogue and vivid imagery, Fukunaga uses pathos to put a human face to the issue of immigration, logos to inform and give his audience context about the issues the film addresses, and ethos to establish his credibility and make the film believable.

As the daughter of an immigrant, I have witnessed the various barriers faced by immigrants, and this experience has motivated me toward my career objective. According to the Pew Research Center Hispanic Trends Project, there were about 11.3 million immigrants living illegally in the United States in 2013 (Passel et al., 2014). These immigrants come from all parts of the world for several different reasons. Whether to provide better resources for their family back home or to live a better life, these immigrants usually work in environments that can be harmful and dangerous to their health.

     Illegal immigrants usually hold jobs that have bad conditions and worse pay.  Oftentimes, these jobs are found in sectors such as agriculture, construction, food-handling and manufacturing (Dwyer).  Unfortunately for the illegal individuals who acquire these jobs, they have no access to comprehensive health care, though their line of work tends to demand it.  Although illegal immigrants are consequently strapped for cash, many of them will not visit primary care physicians for fear of being deported.  This sets up a vicious cycle: individuals get sick yet ignore the signs.  When illnesses get remarkably worse and are too severe to treat at doctors' offices, the individuals then go to emergency rooms, where the cost is considerably greater.  More often than not, the immigrants cannot afford to pay their hospital bills.  The cost is then covered by the medical institutions and tax-payer dollars (Wolf).  While some argue that illegal migrants do not

The whole point of the film is that the illegal immigrants perform jobs that Americans are not willing to do and immigrants are treated as aliens not what they really are human being.

Alien in one definition is: “Too different from something to be acceptable or suitable,” and Illegal in one definition is “Not allowed by the law.” (Mirriam-Webster Dictionary) The words ‘Alien’ and ‘Illegal’ have inherent negative connotations. A person does not need to know the intimate or factual circumstances associated with those words to understand their symbolism. When those words are used to label the social group of undocumented Latino day laborers the inherent reaction is to see them in a negative way. The individuals become a stigmatized group. The people against undocumented immigrants in Farmingville saw the Latinos through the lens of the stigmatized group “illegal aliens.” They thus became

The film showed that some health care providers might mistreat patients because they do not have insurance. Also, they do not have the means to pay their expensive health care bill. The emergency room is the least effective in caring for undocumented immigrants and people in general. Much less, it does not provide an effective way in managing individual health care needs. The film also showed that undocumented immigrants may be afraid of reporting mistreatment from hospitals and employers because they are concerned about being deported.

For many years, people from all over the world have come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves, their spouse, their children and even their children's children. However, not every immigrant comes into this country legally and many of these illegal immigrants are poor, uneducated and may be carrying contagious diseases. They may arrive here via human trafficking, smuggling or other methods. There is one thing we know for sure that many of them choose to remain silence when they become victims. The three main reasons they become invisible victims are they are not aware they are victimized, they don't know the right way to ask for help and they are afraid to be fired or even deported.

When entering the United States Legally the immigrants are tested for all diseases that might be spread onto other Americans. When Illegal’s come into the country they are not tested bringing many harmful diseases. In 2002 900 cases of Leprosy were reported, the following three years 9,000 were illegal aliens. Recently Malaria has been found in our blood supply and it has also raisin in southern California, New Jersey, New York, and Houston Texas. In 2006 we

Can you imagine being confined in a world that has you taken for granted and full of mental abuse? Crossing the Mexican border is a journey and new beginning for many undocumented workers. In their eyes it’s a path for many privileges and opportunities. They feel as if all the hardship and struggles they face will just fade away. The narratives of Crossing with the Virgin portray conflicts that occur for undocumented workers crossing the Mexican border. For many illegal immigrants I personally feel that finding a stable job will be difficult, they will be taken advantage of, and eventually they will either be incarcerated or be deported back to their country.

Theft of an organ, two counterfeit passports, and involvement in the black market resulting in the gain of ten thousand dollars. Were a group of humans to commit these crimes in any developed society with just laws, they would considered felons. That would be true in most cases, except in the 2002 movie, Dirty Pretty Things. Following the story of Okwe, a doctor who ran from his home country after fighting a corrupt government, and Senay, a Turkish citizen seeking asylum in America. Faced with blackmail, sexual abuse, and threats of deportation, the two eventually find themselves in a predicament. Senay is offered the chance to receive a fraudulent passport, as she desires to immigrate to America, if she gives Senior Juan (the movie’s antagonist)

Discrimination has shown up tremendously in this movie, but one of the few incidents that stood out the most to me was when the women decided to give separate bathrooms to the maids because they carried too many “diseases” that would harm others if anyone made contact with. This was very ridiculous because the bathrooms were placed outside and some were even miles away from the house, so if it was a storm the maids would have to

Fundamentally, gender, racism and class are three controversial social issues that have for a long period triggered heated debate in the American society. In essence, this issues concern the daily lives of American citizen and immigrants disregarding their class, social status, educational level or the position they hold in the society. Therefore, it is imperative that these issues are analyzed comprehensively in order to take an informed stand about the impact they have to the society. This paper, seeks to critically examine how gender, racism and class are addressed in the two movies “Bread and Roses “and ”Hammering it”.

Dirty Realism The literature of 20th century was dominated by Realism. Likewise, Dirty Realism had a very profound influence on the society during the late 20th century as it depicted the lives of the working class. It also portrayed the hardships of a commoner, and the unpleasant and dark truths of the society that is often forgotten. Just like the literary movement of modernism, Dirty Realism helped the public to perceive and relate the life of the common society and the popular culture.

Dehumanisation means to deprive of human qualities or attributes. African American’s are seen as the others in this film. That because of their race they are seen as unhuman. An example of this is when Miss Hilly Leefolt, a traditional housewife, places an objection for a disease preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the coloured help. Dialogue is used between Hilly and her friends explaining “uh is just plain dangerous they carry different diseases then we do, that's why I’ve drafted the home health sanitation initiative” A comparison