The Strawberry Fields By Eric Schlosser

Over the past couple decades the number of undocumented immigrants involved in American agriculture has increased by the hundreds. They have dominated the fields on the west coast and have been put to work in some very harsh conditions. Many people in the US believe that these men, women, and even children are occupying jobs that legal citizens could have. We realize that even though much of our agriculture these days is harvested by modern technologies, a big part of the agriculture’s economy is made up of labor intensive from people, such as harvesting grapes, strawberries, pistachios, raspberries, etcetera. As we dig deeper into this topic we will realize why our agricultural

The author of Green Gulch conveys that when in a group, one can be overwhelmed by pressure that brings them to savage extremes. After being lost, a young boy joins a group of kids he has never seen before. The group is nice and offers to bring the boy home. They stop at a sanctuary of a pond. There is a turtle in the pond that is violently murdered by the boys after one decides to throw a rock. Then, the group turns on the new boy. They beat him maliciously and leave him stranded on the road to get home. As, the boy look backs he can’t think of what went wrong, “They stood in a little group watching me, nervous now, ashamed a little at the ferocious pack impulse toward the outsider that had swept them.” Obvious from the boys’ reactions, it was the fault of the group impulse. After the murder of turtle, the adrenaline and riot of the group caused them to turn on the next vulnerable target. They were not acting as they should have, and the realize that afterwards. They were nervous. Even though there is not immediately an adult around, they are nervous because society has conditioned them to behave. They are also ashamed. The shame shows that they are nice boys. They feel bad. This shows that the vicious group mind set was so strong that it came over there good personalities and conscious. However, there is only this slight remorse after the fact. This does not make up for the brutal murder and beating that they had dealt. Being in a group turned them into

In the Fences, by August Wilson shows that life of African Americans in the U.S. in the 1950s with the story of Troy and his family. Wilson uses the symbol of the fence to show the desires of each character like Rose’s desire is to keep her family together, Troy’s desire is to keep death out and to be not bound forever, and Bono’s desire is to follow Troy, his best friend, as an example of the right way to live and to be with Rose and Troy who are basically his family. Rose and the other seen characters represent people and show gender roles of the time, like Rose is a housewife, Troy is the provider. Also Cory is the new generation of emotion over responsibility, Gabriel represents the war heros that were permanently disabled from war

To elaborate, the farmworkers have been laboring day and night, even when their bodies are in pain. As stated by a young girl, named Carmen, “‘She (mom) doesn’t want to see me work there (in the fields), … she says because it’s a lot of work, … She doesn’t want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it’s really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning.’” As migrant worker, children who work and go to school, never have the chance to have a full education or experiences with friends. We know this because NBC’s Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food states, “Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.” Also, the Braceros during WWII worked hard, however, their paychecks seem to always show signs of deduction. We know this from the article, The Realities of Life and Labor, in which a man stated, “‘Sometimes the check stubs indicate the deduction and sometimes they

“Listen to the mustn’ts, the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, and the never haves. Then, listen to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” This is a poem the famous children’s poet Shel Silverstein. Now, if he was best known for being a children’s author, how could he even be considered to be controversial? Now, Shel Silverstein, while having no earlier inspiration for his career to draw and write for children, wrote many famous poem books, such as Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends: however, with him writing these books came some controversy with it, such as claims that he promoted cannibalism and suicide.

Farm workers are not agricultural implements. They are not beasts of burden--to be used and discarded.

America, United Stated of America (USA), is a land of immigrants. The country was built by immigrants but gradually immigration to this country became harder. Several contagious nations of American continents have lot of population living in poverty and were strongly convinced to immigrate to USA illegally, by travelling on foot for several days, crossing deserts, mountains and the southern border of USA, to get a decent and secured better life for them and for their kids. Eric Schlosser in his article " In the Strawberry Fields" honestly assessed the conditions of the migratory work force in California straw berry fields while providing facts and evidences to support

Farm labor can be one of the most difficult job to handle. From the low wages to the horrible weather and health conditions. Most of these farm labor workers are immigrants who are here in the United States seeking for a better job, and providing for their children’s. However, they do not have a good job and are struggling so bad for their children. The average pay for a field worker is ten dollars per hour. There must be a change to these wages since many workers are working in extremely hot weather conditions that no one can imagine or are willing to work like that. Not only that, but the farmers benefit from them dramatically. In the 1984 address by Cesar E. Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, to the Commonwealth Club of California, uses different appeals to present the unfairness a farm worker faces. His main point is to

To begin, migrant farmers are not paid fair wages. In Source D, the graph demonstrates that a farm worker will earn only $.30 for every $100. of produce that he harvests. The majority of the earnings are split between the manufacturers and the retailers. This does not leave the farm worker with an adequate salary to feed and clothe his family. Furthermore, with such measly wages, the farm workers cannot live “The American Dream.”

The book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States illustrates the fieldwork of the author Seth M. Holmes by explaining the myriad aspects of migrant workers’ lives in the U.S.—from the politics to the social environments to the physical body. By not only studying, but living, the lives of these migrant workers, Holmes brings the reader a view unseen by the vast majority and provides the opportunity for greater understanding through the intense details of his work. The voices of vastly different characters—real people—are captured and expounded on without judgment but with deep consideration for all factors that contribute to each person’s life, opinions, and knowledge. Ultimately, a picture of intersectionality is painted in the colors of migrants, mothers, fathers, children, doctors, soldiers, executives, the poor, the rich, and more.

According to the Cesar Chavez Foundation, “Some 800,000 under-aged children work with their families harvesting crops across America and as much as 30 percent of Northern California's garlic harvesters are under-aged children” (Chavez Foundation 1). All those children are being of an education because they are too busy working all day to go to school. Also because they are working all day farm workers have no time to teach their kids how to read and write so the kids never really develop the skills necessary to be able to communicate with other people. In addition the Cesar Chavez Foundation affirms that, “Babies born to migrant workers suffer 25 percent higher infant mortality than the rest of the population. Malnutrition among migrant worker children is 10 times higher than the national rate. Farm workers' average life expectancy is still 49 years --compared to 73 years for the average American” (Chavez Foundation 1). Most of those infant deaths are because the migrant workers don’t have the time or access to the medical attention required to raise infants. Farm workers' average life expectancy is probably so short due to the strenuous work they do on a daily

Everyone has someone they consider family. Sometimes people bond solely with their blood relatives, but more often than not we choose who we consider to be our family as we grow older. This happens most often when people find a spouse, but many also adopt children as their sons and daughters, peers as their brothers and sisters, and role model figures as aunts and uncles. The Bean Trees is written by Barbra Kingsolver and is set in the early 1980 's. It tells the story of a young woman named Taylor, and the life she builds in Tucson Arizona. Far from home, she meets many great people and finds a place where she belongs. Kingsolver shapes her message of the importance of families both blood and found through her use of character archetypes

The book New Found Land was written by Allan Wolf in 2004, Allan used striking poetic features and fictional characters to recreate Lewis and Clark 's expedition across the continent. There mission, find the fabled Northwest passage to the pacific ocean, this group of courageous Americans may never come back. Through his use of Historical and fictional characters, Wolf was able to showcase the different viewpoints of Lewis and Clark 's crew. One of the key characters that led the expedition to success was Meriwether Lewis. I chose to look up his last name due to the fact that his last name is the more well known than his first name. Lewis is the english form of the french name Louis, this form was also derived from the german name Ludwig

Strangers in the Land of Paradise by Lillian S. Williams explores the settlement of African Americans in Buffalo in the time of the Great Migration. In this book, Williams discusses the process in which migrants from the South made their own black communities in Buffalo while bringing their beliefs and traditions with them, and having those beliefs evolve over time in a new setting. Her work sheds light on the experiences of blacks in Buffalo during a time where many changes were occurring; the Civil War had just ended and the Industrial Revolution was underway. She also speaks on how Buffalo was unique in that it became the final point for those escaping the racism and violence in the South, since it was the last point before crossing into Canada. In her own words, “the book examines the growth and development of Buffalo, the movement of European immigrants and African American migrants into the city, and their ability to secure an economic foothold. It tests the extent to which family and friendship networks for blacks were a significant force in their migration and acculturation. It also describes the establishment of institutions that African Americans created to shape their modern, urban community" (p. xiv).

The author thinks that many characters have lost their innocence. Raymond was awake the whole time, aware of what was going on around him. Page 98, paragraph 7, tells us that Raymond was speaking, and therefore, must have been awake. Kate was in a situation endangering the lives of the children on the bus and her own life as well. From the reading, we know that Kate knows she is going to die. Bill felt as if he has failed both his country and his father. Robert Cormier tells us how Bill felt and how he reacted to these feelings. These three characters have lost their innocence in some way.