With such a remarkable yet unique book, I would characterize Urrea's writing as a whole between extremely descriptive to the point that the reader can visualize the world itself and a narrative overall pushing the reader convey similar emotions to the characters. The mix of these two styles seemed most prominent in the novel due to in "The Devils Highway", the author Luis Alberto Urrea describes mainly the tragedy of the treacherous journey of the immigrants to their goal destination of the United States through imagery of the scorching sun, metaphors with matching the desert's aspects to devil-like creatures, and personification by describing the desert with human actions accompanied by inhumane consequences. The overall dreadful tone created by this diction is one of fear, hopelessness, and appreciation. Fear for the immigrants slow but sure death, hopelessness with the immigrants never finding the refuge which they so dearly desire, and appreciation for the lifestyle the walkers used to have although it was encased in poverty. These elements lead to the impact that the author's words fabricate on the book's meaning. When Urrea used third person omniscient perspective to view the "death pictures" being "filed and forgotten" (Urrea 219), it affected the impact of the novel on others on a larger scale because the death files being forgotten so quickly demonstrates how the lives of immigrants are being left behind as if they were insignificant and replaceable. Also how many of their lives could be turned into statistics and numbers instead of treated like human beings. Just after everyone knew the bodies were "long gone" and "buried" (Urrea 219), it gave a sense of closure to the families of the dead and those who cared for them even if that outcome was mainly for a positive publicity stunt. This act further exposes the length that governments go through appear free of error and prejudice. When the "smell of death float[s] in the air" (Urrea 219), it reveals that although there has been some type of closure, the reminder that there are unfair deaths remains. When the author uses descriptions like "dark", "leathery", "burned barbeque", and "trash" (Urrea 219), the imagery helps authenticate how inhumane immigrants are left physically and emotionally when losing the battle with "The Devil's Highway".
In the novel The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea's writing style can be characterized as fatigued as they use imagery to depict the harsh conditions people are exposed to within the desert. Urrea begins introducing the novel by describing the "five men [stumbling] out of the mountain pass so sunstruck they didn't know their own names" (Urrea 1). Urrea chooses the words stumbling and being sunstruck in effort to emphasize the results of being exposed to the harsh conditions of the desert. Urrea depicts the immigrants as having "burned nearly black" and their lips being " huge and cracking" (Urrea 1). Urrea also includes that "their hair was hard and stiffened by old sweat" as "their bodies were no longer sweating" (Urrea 1). Urrea captivates the physical appearance's of the immigrants in effort to emphasize the risks they face as result of looking for better job opportunities. Lastly, Urrea mentions that they were "drunk from having their brains baked in the pan" and "they were seeing God and devils" (Urrea 1).Urrea includes the contrast of God and devils as a way to include the destiny of immigrants as they either face death or success. In all,Urrea includes a weary writing lifestyle in effort to create a realistic image of the conditions immigrants face and its results.
In the novel The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea the author begins with very strong descriptions of what the characters are feeling emotionally and physically going through this journey of the desert. “Their eyes were cloudy with dust, almost too dry to blink up a tear” (Urrea 1) and the hallucinations of the immigrants “seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine” (Urrea 1). With the author being able to reveal these harsh situations of the immigrants going through in the desert it shows Urrea’s writing style as narrative because it’s being portrayed as the author being in that setting and experience what the characters are going through. The type of diction Urrea uses is personification especially towards the desert because it’s described as “the terrible landscape... the devils highway, more death, another desert” ( Urrea 4). With the desert being given these strong descriptions of a place of death and danger it creates the important tones of intimidation coming from the immigrants but also the strong desire to reach the goal of coming to the United States and holding up the standards of the American dream in a unknown country that will allow them to live a life they couldn’t in their homeland. The fear and intimidation that the desert made the immigrants feel caused them to have the mindset in the back of their heads that at any moment throughout this harsh journey they can die because “as long as there have been people, there have been deaths in the western desert” ( Urrea 5). The fear each one of these immigrants had allowed them to keep pushing for a better life even if it meant that they needed to risk their lives and place themselves in the hardest situations of starvation and loneliness. The final and important tone that builds the whole structure is the strong desire of reaching the goal of these immigrants that is coming to the United States to hold the standards of the American dream and keep pushing hard for a better life. With “jobs opened, word went out , the illegals came north” (Urrea 8) it shows how the immigrants were determined to face death by going through the difficult journey of the desert just to come to an unknown country that would allow them to live a better life financially and let them reach the goals they couldn’t in their homeland. They want to hold up the standards of what the true American dream is and that no matter where you come from or what you face in life anything is possible if you have that desire in you to keep pushing in life and not let it bring you down. In conclusion Urrea builds on each tone by showing how fear can push you to the limits and allow you to have that strong desire in your heart to never give up on what is best for your life even if it means you have to sacrifice something in life which for these immigrants it was their own life on the line just to reach that dream of coming to an unknown country with better chances in life to support themselves and their future families one day.
In The Devils Highway,Luis A. Urrea is upfront in telling the reader that the book and his retelling of events is 'Based on many sources'. Urrea establishes himself as a story teller and someone who is simply retelling what happened, and in this he becomes a third peson omnicient narrator; as though he is the god who ruled over the stories in this novel. Urreas position as a third person narrator is often reminded through the repetitive use of "they", "their", and "them"(Urrea 1). Narration style aside, its of improtance to note the harsh and upfront nature of the words. "They[the five men] were burned nearly black, lips huge and cracking(Urrea 1)" This kind of diction, especially when it concerend the desert, the devils highway it self, and the yuma 14 often inspired disbeleif in me as the reader. This wasnt a result of any distrust of the author or his sources but from being so disconnected from the events. After all ive never experianced anything close to what was described in the book. As a result, ive come to beleive that Urreas writing style as well as novel topic, alienate the vast majorirty of readers. As such this novel becomes a glimpse into another world; one which most readers are unfamilliar and will take Urrea on as their guide. -Raul Olivares
In The Devil’s Highway I would characterize my author’s writing style as a way for you picturing how it would be like as the characters in the book and how it affects them being in there situation.For example, a quote that I like that the author said was, “Not gang-bangers, who were “pandilleros”; not thieves, who were “rateros”;and not bandits, who were “ bajaderos”.(Urrea 74) This really stood out to me because it shows how they are described in many ways and how many people in our society see as gangs and gang members as. Urrea has a tone that is seen as a way to push their characters to their limits and reach a point in which they are successful. In all, I feel that Urrea makes a strong statement about what he feels about immigration and many people migrate to different countries to support family or just in general support themselves to live a better life and not struggle with bad situation in your past.
In the novel The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, I would characterize Urrea's writing style as third person omniscient and descriptive. Urrea describes the setting and the effect it has on a character's physical and mental state to illuminate the theme of human vs. nature.Urrea's third person omniscient narrative is shown as Urrea gives a background story of the characters, history of the desert, and context for character's actions. Additionally, Urrea uses figurative language such as; similes,hyperbole, personification,and metaphors.Urrea also employs the imagery of the environment as well as how the environment affects a person's physical state since the story takes a place in a Arizona desert.A small selection that I have chosen to analyze Urrea's diction is: ''They were burned nearly black, their lips huge and cracking, paltry drool still available to them spuming from their mouths in a salty foam as they walked.Their eyes were cloudy with dust,almost too dry to blink up a tear.Their hair was hard and stiffened by old sweat,standing in crowns from their scalps, old sweat because their bodies were no longer sweating.They were drunk from having their brains baked in a pan,they were seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine, the poisons clogging their systems''(Urrea paragraph 1 page 3). In this brief paragraph, Urrea uses hyperbole to emphasize the effect of the environment has on the characters physical state and the imagery of the character's appearance to illuminate the struggles of an immigrant and their struggle to achieve the life they dream of. -Chelsea Miller
Luis Alberto Urrea creates a very aggressive and assertive tone through the blazing diction he uses to portray the journey the Yuma 14 must endure in order to follow their hopes and dreams into a devastating oblivion veiled from their eyes. This oblivion can be depicted when he describes the pictures of the deceased; "They are stretched in angular poses, caught in last gasps or shouts, their eyes burned an eerie red by the sun....those of women, their breasts have shrunk and withered and cracked open under the sun"(Page 35, p.4). These words can be painful to hear for many as this is sadly a reality for many families, and they made me as a reader come close to feeling as they may have felt in their final moments. Urrea has done a wonderful job at conveying this tone of severe loss and "Desolation" to these families and communities.
In the novel "The Devil's Highway" by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea writes in a strong way to make the reader feel engaged into the story with very specific details and realistic actions. A way of characters acting like actual lifelike humans that the page says are reactions like "(looking around)" and "(looks away)"(Urrea 72). Urrea shows what we would do in a situation like that but actively adds it for the reader to feel involved somehow. Another example Urrea does is makes specific dialogue that's short but gets the realism right across. The short dialogue Urrea gives is a simple "Oh, fuck." delivery from one of the characters (Urrea 72). These types of little additions makes the reader feel for the person or can make the reader have a say for what just happened for themselves. This book's purpose is to give off a good read for the reader, so that means Urrea will try his hardest to make it an exciting read for the best possible experience. In all, Urrea does an emotional captivation for the readers with the realism added to his book that can make us all feel like the book were to feel like if it were happening before our very own eyes.
Throughout the writing of the book, The Devil's Highway, Luis Urrea uses a complex writing technique that consists of imagery and writing fragments that connect to one another, almost trying to convey the fragmented and fatigued thinking of our protagonists. Urrea goes beyond describing the harsh conditions and instead uses intense detail that puts the reader with our protagonists in the gruesome and cruel conditions they had to go through. The tones that are created by the descriptive diction are more ghastly and distressing as the novel progresses. Nearing the end of the novel the reader sees how Urrea uses short and descriptive sentences to make the reader feel shocked and sorrowful. He describes the dead bodies as being in a "silent reunion as they lay in a row". They lay there as " small sounds" escape from the bodies "as gases moved through them. Almost sighs… if you listened, you could hear them whispering"( Urrea, 193) . These ghostly images are vivid and clear enough for the reader to see for themselves, Urrea wanted to make sure the reader experienced it. Urrea includes all of these deathly images to bring about the things that immigrants have to face in order to make the reader feel compassion.
In the Devils Highway,Luis Alberto Urrea successfully depicts the cruel nature in which many individuals choose to experience as they sacrifice their life and humanity for the sole purpose to attain a better economic and social life. To do so, Urrea's writing style is characterized as an all -inclusive description about the reality that immigrants are exposed to. This is possible as he utilizes elaborate diction to describe the cadavers who are "black as leather" as they "crack open" to expose "red and brown" liquid(Urrea paragraph 5, page 37). This is done to attract the audience in a gruesome way to create an image that is elaborate about the effect on the long and dangerous walk to freedom through the blazing temperatures of Arizona. As previously described, the immigrants who travel those distances are people in search of inner peace and comfort in knowing that their families and themselves will not have to worry about not having dinner. Urrea in fact, uses that emotional appeal to attract the readers attention and allocate them in a state of desperation as they continue to generate empathy and support towards the immigrants, all while providing wholly facts. This is later carried on as they describe the amount of each undertaken as they verify the identity of the corpse. He finally states that for most of the dead, "it is the most expensive gift they have ever gotten" to demonstrate the pure anguish and poverty that they face, leading them to take a decision involving crucial consequences such as these"(paragraph 7, page 38). As an effect, this diction creates a tone that he continues to illuminate as "desolation". It is used to describe the horrible environment that elicits emptiness within one self as they are surrounded by emptiness as well. This is carried through by creating moments in which the reader finds themselves trapped with the immigrants in a place where their thoughts are filled with despair and resignation of their dreams. In conclusion, Urrea utilizes literary techniques such as diction to formulate an extensive and elaborate description of the immigrants and their journeys to finally produce a connection between the reader and characters.
Luis Alberto Urrea uses The Devil’s Highway to capture the story of a group of twenty-six immigrant men who attempted to cross the Mexican border, yet only twelve survived. Our current immiration system often diminishes the stories of each immigrant who has the determination to make the journey to the United States despise the hardships that they may encounter on the way. Urrea captures the terrifying story through a series of images such as describing the blazing heat of the desert ,and the boundaries that immigrants face such as getting lost. Urrea’s purpose is to allow each immigrant’s story to be shared and to not allow for them to be belittled on the basis of their legal status. One of the methods that Urrea uses is imagery to captivate the extreme weather and conditions immigrants encounter as they pursue to reach the border.As immigrants walk they notice the “abandoned army tanks, preserved forever in the dry heat [ in ] full-sun 110- degree nightmare” (Urrea 5). In the desert, the army tanks symbolize the idea that an individual’s size doesn't matter as the heat of the desert overtakes them as the temperature begins to rise to an unbearable amount. The title of the novel is the phrase best used to describe the desert and the dangers of the long journey for “thousands of travelers [going] into the desert, and piles of human bones revealed where many of them fell” (Urrea 11). The path that they choose to take continues to warn them through many signs such as the bones in an effort to convince them to go back, but only pushes them to continue forward. In all, Urrea captures the fatal conditions that immigrants endure to emphasize that those conditions are worth undergoing in comparison to the reasons as to why they chose to leave their country of origin. Secondly, Urrea captivates the desperate immigrants as they encounter not only physical trauma but also emotional. In order for the men to not get lost they were given a coyote named Mendez who was inexperienced. Mendez would say “ they had just a few miles left to walk” (Urrea 114) which became about forty miles. Mendez continued to persuade the men that he was leading them the right direction and would lead them to water. When the immigrants reached to what they thought was their destination they “ fell down, crawled on the ground, slammed their faces into the dirt” (Urrea 141).Even though the men want to surrender they continue to rely on Mendez for their future and still pursue to achieve their goal. In all, Urrea goes into specifics in an effort to go into depth of what immigrants have to face and how it has caused them trauma as all they desire is to be at their destination. In conclusion, Urrea creates the deadly image of walking through the desert and boundaries one faces,even not being emotionally attached and be “selfish” to gain success. Urrea’s main argument is to demonstrate that many people believe that many immigrants are drug dealers or delinquents , but only want to achieve the American Dream. Urrea’s investigation behind the incident gives the realistic side of crossing a border and killing the assumption that crossing illegally is easier. Urrea’s diction throughout this novel is very intense and graphic as it includes the dead bodies and the blazing sun which is what many immigrants typically experience. Urrea’s motivation towards his book is prove to people that many immigrants do not mean to bring harm to the United States. Multiple immigrants such as in the book attempt this same rigorous journey to America in search of support and a better opportunity for their family. These immigrants are leaving family and their lifestyle behind knowing that this journey could possibly kill them just to get that feeling of having a stable lifestyle. Overall, Urrea captivates readers to be aware of the reality that happens between those borders as it is not a topic that is discussed and only portrays immigrants as bad people when they are capable of more in this country.
The urgent need for Luis Alberto Urrea to write this novel is to reveal to the audience the reality of how immigrants have to face the awful life and death situation of crossing the border everyday to come to the United States for a better life for them and their family in the future . Throughout the novel Urrea focuses a lot on how each of the twenty-six immigrant men are impacted by this journey physically and emotionally. With the strong images of the never ending heat and hallucination for the desire of water it shows the difficult circumstances these immigrants had to face during this journey to just be able to survive and reach the dream of coming to the United States for a better life. The main purpose Urrea wrote this novel is to empathize on one of the biggest worldwide problems we are facing today in a country that is unfortunately treating immigrants as if they were the worst of the worst when in reality all these people just come to the states for one main reason most of the time and that is finding a well stable job and place to provide for themselves and their own family. The Devils Highway is Urrea’s motivation to prove to the world no matter where you come from it shouldn’t put a label on you as a person entering a country that is not theirs for the wrong reasons but instead coming to an unknown country that will be able to help you reach your life long dreams and be able to provide the best for yourself and your family everyday. As the reader something very important everyone should take away is that coming to an unknown country and having to leave your home land for any economic or physical reason is very difficult especially when you know you are putting your life on the line to go through this long journey of many obstacles coming your way just to reach that point of relief and all the worst has passed. Everyday thousands of immigrants cross the border and many never make it because of the awful things they experience throughout the journey but those that do make it come for one reason and that is coming to find a better and more stable life that will allow them to be closer or reach all the goals in life they want to even if it means they have to go through so difficult times at first they will never give up on making sure that journey they went through of crossing the border was not a mistake but instead an opportunity for a better life.
Luis Alberto Urrea’s exigency in the novel, A Devil’s Highway, is to depict how much a human can sacrifice to have a chance of having a finer life. The United States government has more and more ways of controlling the border using violence and acts of oppression without having a reason to. The author highlights how an officer l, “fired at them as they hit the fence, and the victim was hit as he tried to repatriate posthaste,” (Urrea 183). The officer overused his power by claiming that it was self defense, when in reality the officer uses his gun to kill an innocent person because he had felt attacked. The author highlights how the border patrol can make numerous acts of violence and will be cleared of any charges because immigrants are unwanted people. If an immigrant is caught alive by the border patrol, they are going to be sent to a detention center only to give immigrants hope to be set free. Immigrants only want to thrive and have a higher quality of life both economically and socially. The central argument of the novel is that immigrants are not being accepted into the U.S. when the only thing they seek is to provide for their families and themselves. The true harm is in our country because the amount of violence is increasing daily with all of the mass shootings. The immigrants only want to grow the American economy and fulfill the promises that the immigrants made to their family and loved ones. The reader should cherish everything that they have in this world because not everyone can have the same chances that one has. Sometimes we as students complain that school is too complex and that we want to sleep in and not go to school, when there are kids that have to work to provide for their families because their parents do not have enough money to provide for every single member in their family. The author wants the reader to make sure that the audience thinks before one judges because not everyone has everything given to them. Not everyone has to cross the border walking all day in 104 degrees without water and food.
In the novel “ The Devil's Highway” by Luis Alberto Urrea, the author has many motivations to write such a dramatic novel one being to express the horrors and challenges of being an immigrant crossing the U.S./Mexican border. The foolishness in believing in someone else's guidance and not following your own gut is what Urrea was exposing to the reader by characters in terrifying detail experiencing the six stages of death by hyperthermia. “The Devil’s Highway” gives the reader an insight on how problems in immigration have continued to get worse and what better way to explain than use a true story. The author uses details to better reveal to the reader the struggles there come with immigration and the poor fall victim to false dreams of them having a better life. Urrea also uses these characters as a way to take us back to life next to the border and the courageous immigrants that dare look the devil in the eye and seek for their salvation. Many immigrants die crossing the border and would make headlines for the many deaths that the scorching heat of the desert caused. The attempt to cross the border comes with many consequences and risks. The characters knew this but the American Dream does not come true for the majority of these unfortunate people who are not welcomed here in the U.S. The irony for these immigrants not to be welcomed on stolen land is a motivation for Urrea to write the “Devil’s Highway” the injustice in life and what people with nothing would risk just to follow a dead dream. What I can take out of reading this book is how nothing has changed and how immigration has questioned the government if they should increase the amount of security or at least help them settle in and work for a better life.
Luis Alberto Urrea's need for writing this book is for many reasons including a desire to spread awareness of the multiple deaths of immigrants, who can be blamed for their passing, and how we can decrease the overall casualties in The Devil's Highway. The author reveals these reasons using the perspectives of the characters including the immigrants, the Coyotes/smuggling leaders, border patrol, and different governments. By using these different perspectives, Urrea gives the reader a heightened if the fault for these immigrants being deceased really belong to any human and if there is anything we can do to stop them from continuing. Urrea's motivation for creating this text is not only to spread awareness, but to show the reader what really happens in this type of situation from different outlooks while simultaneously encouraging everyone to treat each other with kindness and compassion. The main argument he is building throughout his novel is finding the culprit for all these inhumane immigrant deaths and how to stop future tragedies from occurring. Who the responsibility belonged to really changed in the reader's mind based on who's view they were reading. Urrea also used a tremendous amount of ethos and logos by using the walkers journey in combination with statistics gathered from those incidents to make sure the reader understands how both emotionally and logically important these tragedies are. Nearing the end of the book , Urrea uses a lot of facts and examples from life today to demonstrate that deaths caused from attempting to cross the border still happen but we can do things to change that. For example, something small like voting on certain laws to be passed to help immigrants or something big like providing money for more water towers and shelter. To conclude, the main takeaway from this miraculous novel is small things can help in many ways. The Devil's Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea, enlightens and encourages people to take action in ending inhumane deaths globally.
Luis Alberto Urrea’s exigency for writing “The Devil’s Highway is a multitude of things. Urrea made this book to tell the story of a group of Mexicans attempting to cross the US border to get a better life. As we all know this is a stressful and treacherous journey, but it is one that many people do everyday in order to provide a better life for their family or themselves. This is the exact motivation as to why Urrea wrote this book in the first place. The types of harshness the group endures is something no one would like anyone to be put upon, and that’s why Urrea shared it, for assurance that trying to achieve a better life is no easy feat if you’ve been placed upon bad conditions (being born in Mexico). Urrea’s main argument is that the US border policy is corrupt because it has made millions of Mexicans risk their lives because of the insane repercussions it takes to even be a legal citizen, that they just do it illegally, and it is successful if done right. Urrea doesn't want this pain he endured to go on any longer for anyone else so he is asking that he does not want what he experienced with group to ever happen again in history. As a reader, I take away awareness and caution from this book because the events of what happens in this book is insane and gets me sad thinking this actually happened in real life. Other people also should see that family is important and staying together is basically the number one priority because many bad things can happen if a family gets split apart. This book does a great job at its message and awareness and should speak upon volumes to make everything equal and not unfair.
In the Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea describes a fatal journey of twenty six immigrants crossing the border between U.S and Mexico. They faced extreme heat and dehydration and their only source of food was cacti and urine. The immigrants were abandoned and deceived by their smuggler whom they thought they could trust and because of this, 14 immigrants whom were only looking for a chance to seek a life they had hoped for in America had passed away in their treacherous journey.This Mexican-American novelist's exigency for writing this book is to address the human cost US immigration policy and to expose the truth of the brutal journey the mexican immigrants have to go through to get to the U.S. Urrera's main argument that he is building is that they should not expect what they hope and Urrera is against illegal immigration because it puts people's lives in danger. No matter how far and prepared an immigrant is there is always a risk of dying. What I would take from this book is to consider knowing both the immigrants and the border patrol agents stories although I do not know a lot about the border process. It might seem that the border patrol agents do not sympathize the immigrants but in the book the border patrol agents were concerned for the immigrants well being and were trying to save as many lives as possible by providing them fresh water and calling paramedics. The border patrol agents managed to save more lives than the paramedics and the paramedics took all of the credit. People would've thought the border patrol agents would discriminate the immigrants but they instead helped them. -Chelsea Miller
The main argument that Urrea makes for this novel is to expose the harsh realities immigrants go through when crossing the border through the Devil's Highway. The author wants the reader to understand that when it comes to the border, there will be exceptions to every rule like how not every border patrol officer is against immigrants or even how not every immigrant is a drug dealer. The author's argument is to prove how you can't look at things in a superficial way but instead to look deep within them, everything is not what it seems to be. America home of the free obviously has exceptions to who can really be free, government officials pass on stricter immigration laws in fear of drug dealers and any other illegal activities when in reality many immigrants just want honest jobs to provide for their families. Many even settle for the jobs that not many other people don't want. On top of that Urrea seems to drive in the point that we should be thankful for how our lives are going and how many people should be thankful for how they came legally into the US. Nobody would want to go through what these immigrants went through but they didn't have a choice, they're desperate to find better opportunities for their families. However we as the reader and people overall have the choice to educate ourselves and help out in any way that we can.
Urrea's exigency for writing this book is to demonstrate a real case of immigrants dying under the harsh environment with chilling details to make the reader more aware of what they could be arguing for/against instead of making large generalizations about something they're ignorant about. To put it simply, Urrea wants to make people less ignorant about what they're talking about. Urrea's whole motivation is to bring light to issues that people are unaware of and enlighten them about what's going on in the world. Bringing real information about what happens in the border can convince people to be more compassionate of other people's situations.
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Summer Avalos:
With such a remarkable yet unique book, I would characterize Urrea's writing as a whole between extremely descriptive to the point that the reader can visualize the world itself and a narrative overall pushing the reader convey similar emotions to the characters. The mix of these two styles seemed most prominent in the novel due to in "The Devils Highway", the author Luis Alberto Urrea describes mainly the tragedy of the treacherous journey of the immigrants to their goal destination of the United States through imagery of the scorching sun, metaphors with matching the desert's aspects to devil-like creatures, and personification by describing the desert with human actions accompanied by inhumane consequences. The overall dreadful tone created by this diction is one of fear, hopelessness, and appreciation. Fear for the immigrants slow but sure death, hopelessness with the immigrants never finding the refuge which they so dearly desire, and appreciation for the lifestyle the walkers used to have although it was encased in poverty. These elements lead to the impact that the author's words fabricate on the book's meaning. When Urrea used third person omniscient perspective to view the "death pictures" being "filed and forgotten" (Urrea 219), it affected the impact of the novel on others on a larger scale because the death files being forgotten so quickly demonstrates how the lives of immigrants are being left behind as if they were insignificant and replaceable. Also how many of their lives could be turned into statistics and numbers instead of treated like human beings. Just after everyone knew the bodies were "long gone" and "buried" (Urrea 219), it gave a sense of closure to the families of the dead and those who cared for them even if that outcome was mainly for a positive publicity stunt. This act further exposes the length that governments go through appear free of error and prejudice. When the "smell of death float[s] in the air" (Urrea 219), it reveals that although there has been some type of closure, the reminder that there are unfair deaths remains. When the author uses descriptions like "dark", "leathery", "burned barbeque", and "trash" (Urrea 219), the imagery helps authenticate how inhumane immigrants are left physically and emotionally when losing the battle with "The Devil's Highway".
In the novel The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea's writing style can be characterized as fatigued as they use imagery to depict the harsh conditions people are exposed to within the desert. Urrea begins introducing the novel by describing the "five men [stumbling] out of the mountain pass so sunstruck they didn't know their own names" (Urrea 1). Urrea chooses the words stumbling and being sunstruck in effort to emphasize the results of being exposed to the harsh conditions of the desert. Urrea depicts the immigrants as having "burned nearly black" and their lips being " huge and cracking" (Urrea 1). Urrea also includes that "their hair was hard and stiffened by old sweat" as "their bodies were no longer sweating" (Urrea 1). Urrea captivates the physical appearance's of the immigrants in effort to emphasize the risks they face as result of looking for better job opportunities. Lastly, Urrea mentions that they were "drunk from having their brains baked in the pan" and "they were seeing God and devils" (Urrea 1).Urrea includes the contrast of God and devils as a way to include the destiny
of immigrants as they either face death or success. In all,Urrea includes a weary writing lifestyle in effort to create a realistic image of the conditions immigrants face and its results.
In the novel The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea the author begins with very strong descriptions of what the characters are feeling emotionally and physically going through this journey of the desert. “Their eyes were cloudy with dust, almost too dry to blink up a tear” (Urrea 1) and the hallucinations of the immigrants “seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine” (Urrea 1). With the author being able to reveal these harsh situations of the immigrants going through in the desert it shows Urrea’s writing style as narrative because it’s being portrayed as the author being in that setting and experience what the characters are going through. The type of diction Urrea uses is personification especially towards the desert because it’s described as “the terrible landscape... the devils highway, more death, another desert” ( Urrea 4). With the desert being given these strong descriptions of a place of death and danger it creates the important tones of intimidation coming from the immigrants but also the strong desire to reach the goal of coming to the United States and holding up the standards of the American dream in a unknown country that will allow them to live a life they couldn’t in their homeland. The fear and intimidation that the desert made the immigrants feel caused them to have the mindset in the back of their heads that at any moment throughout this harsh journey they can die because “as long as there have been people, there have been deaths in the western desert” ( Urrea 5). The fear each one of these immigrants had allowed them to keep pushing for a better life even if it meant that they needed to risk their lives and place themselves in the hardest situations of starvation and loneliness. The final and important tone that builds the whole structure is the strong desire of reaching the goal of these immigrants that is coming to the United States to hold the standards of the American dream and keep pushing hard for a better life. With “jobs opened, word went out , the illegals came north” (Urrea 8) it shows how the immigrants were determined to face death by going through the difficult journey of the desert just to come to an unknown country that would allow them to live a better life financially and let them reach the goals they couldn’t in their homeland. They want to hold up the standards of what the true American dream is and that no matter where you come from or what you face in life anything is possible if you have that desire in you to keep pushing in life and not let it bring you down. In conclusion Urrea builds on each tone by showing how fear can push you to the limits and allow you to have that strong desire in your heart to never give up on what is best for your life even if it means you have to sacrifice something in life which for these immigrants it was their own life on the line just to reach that dream of coming to an unknown country with better chances in life to support themselves and their future families one day.
In The Devils Highway,Luis A. Urrea is upfront in telling the reader that the book and his retelling of events is 'Based on many sources'. Urrea establishes himself as a story teller and someone who is simply retelling what happened, and in this he becomes a third peson omnicient narrator; as though he is the god who ruled over the stories in this novel. Urreas position as a third person narrator is often reminded through the repetitive use of "they", "their", and "them"(Urrea 1). Narration style aside, its of improtance to note the harsh and upfront nature of the words. "They[the five men] were burned nearly black, lips huge and cracking(Urrea 1)" This kind of diction, especially when it concerend the desert, the devils highway it self, and the yuma 14 often inspired disbeleif in me as the reader. This wasnt a result of any distrust of the author or his sources but from being so disconnected from the events. After all ive never experianced anything close to what was described in the book. As a result, ive come to beleive that Urreas writing style as well as novel topic, alienate the vast majorirty of readers. As such this novel becomes a glimpse into another world; one which most readers are unfamilliar and will take Urrea on as their guide.
-Raul Olivares
In The Devil’s Highway I would characterize my author’s writing style as a way for you picturing how it would be like as the characters in the book and how it affects them being in there situation.For example, a quote that I like that the author said was, “Not gang-bangers, who were “pandilleros”; not thieves, who were “rateros”;and not bandits, who were “ bajaderos”.(Urrea 74) This really stood out to me because it shows how they are described in many ways and how many people in our society see as gangs and gang members as. Urrea has a tone that is seen as a way to push their characters to their limits and reach a point in which they are successful. In all, I feel that Urrea makes a strong statement about what he feels about immigration and many people migrate to different countries to support family or just in general support themselves to live a better life and not struggle with bad situation in your past.
In the novel The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, I would characterize Urrea's writing style as third person omniscient and descriptive. Urrea describes the setting and the effect it has on a character's physical and mental state to illuminate the theme of human vs. nature.Urrea's third person omniscient narrative is shown as Urrea gives a background story of the characters, history of the desert, and context for character's actions. Additionally, Urrea uses figurative language such as; similes,hyperbole, personification,and metaphors.Urrea also employs the imagery of the environment as well as how the environment affects a person's physical state since the story takes a place in a Arizona desert.A small selection that I have chosen to analyze Urrea's diction is: ''They were burned nearly black, their lips huge and cracking, paltry drool still available to them spuming from their mouths in a salty foam as they walked.Their eyes were cloudy with
dust,almost too dry to blink up a tear.Their hair was hard and stiffened by old
sweat,standing in crowns from their scalps, old sweat because their bodies were no longer
sweating.They were drunk from having their brains baked in a pan,they were seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine, the poisons clogging their systems''(Urrea paragraph 1 page 3). In this brief paragraph, Urrea uses hyperbole to emphasize the effect of the environment has on the characters physical state and the imagery of the character's appearance to illuminate the struggles of an immigrant and their struggle to achieve the life they dream of.
-Chelsea Miller
Luis Alberto Urrea creates a very aggressive and assertive tone through the blazing diction he uses to portray the journey the Yuma 14 must endure in order to follow their hopes and dreams into a devastating oblivion veiled from their eyes. This oblivion can be depicted when he describes the pictures of the deceased; "They are stretched in angular poses, caught in last gasps or shouts, their eyes burned an eerie red by the sun....those of women, their breasts have shrunk and withered and cracked open under the sun"(Page 35, p.4). These words can be painful to hear for many as this is sadly a reality for many families, and they made me as a reader come close to feeling as they may have felt in their final moments. Urrea has done a wonderful job at conveying this tone of severe loss and "Desolation" to these families and communities.
Daniel Lozano
In the novel "The Devil's Highway" by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea writes in a strong way to make the reader feel engaged into the story with very specific details and realistic actions. A way of characters acting like actual lifelike humans that the page says are reactions like "(looking around)" and "(looks away)"(Urrea 72). Urrea shows what we would do in a situation like that but actively adds it for the reader to feel involved somehow. Another example Urrea does is makes specific dialogue that's short but gets the realism right across. The short dialogue Urrea gives is a simple "Oh, fuck." delivery from one of the characters (Urrea 72). These types of little additions makes the reader feel for the person or can make the reader have a say for what just happened for themselves. This book's purpose is to give off a good read for the reader, so that means Urrea will try his hardest to make it an exciting read for the best possible experience. In all, Urrea does an emotional captivation for the readers with the realism added to his book that can make us all feel like the book were to feel like if it were happening before our very own eyes.
Throughout the writing of the book, The Devil's Highway, Luis Urrea uses a complex writing technique that consists of imagery and writing fragments that connect to one another, almost trying to convey the fragmented and fatigued thinking of our protagonists. Urrea goes beyond describing the harsh conditions and instead uses intense detail that puts the reader with our protagonists in the gruesome and cruel conditions they had to go through. The tones that are created by the descriptive diction are more ghastly and distressing as the novel progresses. Nearing the end of the novel the reader sees how Urrea uses short and descriptive sentences to make the reader feel shocked and sorrowful. He describes the dead bodies as being in a "silent reunion as they lay in a row". They lay there as " small sounds" escape from the bodies "as gases moved through them. Almost sighs… if you listened, you could hear them whispering"( Urrea, 193) . These ghostly images are vivid and clear enough for the reader to see for themselves, Urrea wanted to make sure the reader experienced it. Urrea includes all of these deathly images to bring about the things that immigrants have to face in order to make the reader feel compassion.
Marie Alonso
In the Devils Highway,Luis Alberto Urrea successfully depicts the cruel nature in which many individuals choose to experience as they sacrifice their life and humanity for the sole purpose to attain a better economic and social life. To do so, Urrea's writing style is characterized as an all -inclusive description about the reality that immigrants are exposed to. This is possible as he utilizes elaborate diction to describe the cadavers who are "black as leather" as they "crack open" to expose "red and brown" liquid(Urrea paragraph 5, page 37). This is done to attract the audience in a gruesome way to create an image that is elaborate about the effect on the long and dangerous walk to freedom through the blazing temperatures of Arizona. As previously described, the immigrants who travel those distances are people in search of inner peace and comfort in knowing that their families and themselves will not have to worry about not having dinner. Urrea in fact, uses that emotional appeal to attract the readers attention and allocate them in a state of desperation as they continue to generate empathy and support towards the immigrants, all while providing wholly facts. This is later carried on as they describe the amount of each undertaken as they verify the identity of the corpse. He finally states that for most of the dead, "it is the most expensive gift they have ever gotten" to demonstrate the pure anguish and poverty that they face, leading them to take a decision involving crucial consequences such as these"(paragraph 7, page 38). As an effect, this diction creates a tone that he continues to illuminate as "desolation". It is used to describe the horrible environment that elicits emptiness within one self as they are surrounded by emptiness as well. This is carried through by creating moments in which the reader finds themselves trapped with the immigrants in a place where their thoughts are filled with despair and resignation of their dreams. In conclusion, Urrea utilizes literary techniques such as diction to formulate an extensive and elaborate description of the immigrants and their journeys to finally produce a connection between the reader and characters.
-Maria Martinez
Luis Alberto Urrea uses The Devil’s Highway to capture the story of a group of twenty-six immigrant men who attempted to cross the Mexican border, yet only twelve survived. Our current immiration system often diminishes the stories of each immigrant who has the determination to make the journey to the United States despise the hardships that they may encounter on the way. Urrea captures the terrifying story through a series of images such as describing the blazing heat of the desert ,and the boundaries that immigrants face such as getting lost. Urrea’s purpose is to allow each immigrant’s story to be shared and to not allow for them to be belittled on the basis of their legal status.
One of the methods that Urrea uses is imagery to captivate the extreme weather and conditions immigrants encounter as they pursue to reach the border.As immigrants walk they notice the “abandoned army tanks, preserved forever in the dry heat [ in ] full-sun 110- degree nightmare” (Urrea 5). In the desert, the army tanks symbolize the idea that an individual’s size doesn't matter as the heat of the desert overtakes them as the temperature begins to rise to an unbearable amount. The title of the novel is the phrase best used to describe the desert and the dangers of the long journey for “thousands of travelers [going] into the desert, and piles of human bones revealed where many of them fell” (Urrea 11). The path that they choose to take continues to warn them through many signs such as the bones in an effort to convince them to go back, but only pushes them to continue forward. In all, Urrea captures the fatal conditions that immigrants endure to emphasize that those conditions are worth undergoing in comparison to the reasons as to why they chose to leave their country of origin.
Secondly, Urrea captivates the desperate immigrants as they encounter not only physical trauma but also emotional. In order for the men to not get lost they were given a coyote named Mendez who was inexperienced. Mendez would say “ they had just a few miles left to walk” (Urrea 114) which became about forty miles. Mendez continued to persuade the men that he was leading them the right direction and would lead them to water. When the immigrants reached to what they thought was their destination they “ fell down, crawled on the ground, slammed their faces into the dirt” (Urrea 141).Even though the men want to surrender they continue to rely on Mendez for their future and still pursue to achieve their goal. In all, Urrea goes into specifics in an effort to go into depth of what immigrants have to face and how it has caused them trauma as all they desire is to be at their destination.
In conclusion, Urrea creates the deadly image of walking through the desert and boundaries one faces,even not being emotionally attached and be “selfish” to gain success. Urrea’s main argument is to demonstrate that many people believe that many immigrants are drug dealers or delinquents , but only want to achieve the American Dream. Urrea’s investigation behind the incident gives the realistic side of crossing a border and killing the assumption that crossing illegally is easier. Urrea’s diction throughout this novel is very intense and graphic as it includes the dead bodies and the blazing sun which is what many immigrants typically experience. Urrea’s motivation towards his book is prove to people that many immigrants do not mean to bring harm to the United States. Multiple immigrants such as in the book attempt this same rigorous journey to America in search of support and a better opportunity for their family. These immigrants are leaving family and their lifestyle behind knowing that this journey could possibly kill them just to get that feeling of having a stable lifestyle. Overall, Urrea captivates readers to be aware of the reality that happens between those borders as it is not a topic that is discussed and only portrays immigrants as bad people when they are capable of more in this country.
The urgent need for Luis Alberto Urrea to write this novel is to reveal to the audience the reality of how immigrants have to face the awful life and death situation of crossing the border everyday to come to the United States for a better life for them and their family in the future . Throughout the novel Urrea focuses a lot on how each of the twenty-six immigrant men are impacted by this journey physically and emotionally. With the strong images of the never ending heat and hallucination for the desire of water it shows the difficult circumstances these immigrants had to face during this journey to just be able to survive and reach the dream of coming to the United States for a better life. The main purpose Urrea wrote this novel is to empathize on one of the biggest worldwide problems we are facing today in a country that is unfortunately treating immigrants as if they were the worst of the worst when in reality all these people just come to the states for one main reason most of the time and that is finding a well stable job and place to provide for themselves and their own family. The Devils Highway is Urrea’s motivation to prove to the world no matter where you come from it shouldn’t put a label on you as a person entering a country that is not theirs for the wrong reasons but instead coming to an unknown country that will be able to help you reach your life long dreams and be able to provide the best for yourself and your family everyday. As the reader something very important everyone should take away is that coming to an unknown country and having to leave your home land for any economic or physical reason is very difficult especially when you know you are putting your life on the line to go through this long journey of many obstacles coming your way just to reach that point of relief and all the worst has passed. Everyday thousands of immigrants cross the border and many never make it because of the awful things they experience throughout the journey but those that do make it come for one reason and that is coming to find a better and more stable life that will allow them to be closer or reach all the goals in life they want to even if it means they have to go through so difficult times at first they will never give up on making sure that journey they went through of crossing the border was not a mistake but instead an opportunity for a better life.
Luis Alberto Urrea’s exigency in the novel, A Devil’s Highway, is to depict how much a human can sacrifice to have a chance of having a finer life. The United States government has more and more ways of controlling the border using violence and acts of oppression without having a reason to. The author highlights how an officer l, “fired at them as they hit the fence, and the victim was hit as he tried to repatriate posthaste,” (Urrea 183). The officer overused his power by claiming that it was self defense, when in reality the officer uses his gun to kill an innocent person because he had felt attacked. The author highlights how the border patrol can make numerous acts of violence and will be cleared of any charges because immigrants are unwanted people. If an immigrant is caught alive by the border patrol, they are going to be sent to a detention center only to give immigrants hope to be set free. Immigrants only want to thrive and have a higher quality of life both economically and socially. The central argument of the novel is that immigrants are not being accepted into the U.S. when the only thing they seek is to provide for their families and themselves. The true harm is in our country because the amount of violence is increasing daily with all of the mass shootings. The immigrants only want to grow the American economy and fulfill the promises that the immigrants made to their family and loved ones. The reader should cherish everything that they have in this world because not everyone can have the same chances that one has. Sometimes we as students complain that school is too complex and that we want to sleep in and not go to school, when there are kids that have to work to provide for their families because their parents do not have enough money to provide for every single member in their family. The author wants the reader to make sure that the audience thinks before one judges because not everyone has everything given to them. Not everyone has to cross the border walking all day in 104 degrees without water and food.
In the novel “ The Devil's Highway” by Luis Alberto Urrea, the author has many motivations to write such a dramatic novel one being to express the horrors and challenges of being an immigrant crossing the U.S./Mexican border. The foolishness in believing in someone else's guidance and not following your own gut is what Urrea was exposing to the reader by characters in terrifying detail experiencing the six stages of death by hyperthermia. “The Devil’s Highway” gives the reader an insight on how problems in immigration have continued to get worse and what better way to explain than use a true story.
The author uses details to better reveal to the reader the struggles there come with immigration and the poor fall victim to false dreams of them having a better life. Urrea also uses these characters as a way to take us back to life next to the border and the courageous immigrants that dare look the devil in the eye and seek for their salvation. Many immigrants die crossing the border and would make headlines for the many deaths that the scorching heat of the desert caused. The attempt to cross the border comes with many consequences and risks. The characters knew this but the American Dream does not come true for the majority of these unfortunate people who are not welcomed here in the U.S. The irony for these immigrants not to be welcomed on stolen land is a motivation for Urrea to write the “Devil’s Highway” the injustice in life and what people with nothing would risk just to follow a dead dream. What I can take out of reading this book is how nothing has changed and how immigration has questioned the government if they should increase the amount of security or at least help them settle in and work for a better life.
-Marc Garcia
Summer Avalos:
Luis Alberto Urrea's need for writing this book is for many reasons including a desire to spread awareness of the multiple deaths of immigrants, who can be blamed for their passing, and how we can decrease the overall casualties in The Devil's Highway. The author reveals these reasons using the perspectives of the characters including the immigrants, the Coyotes/smuggling leaders, border patrol, and different governments. By using these different perspectives, Urrea gives the reader a heightened if the fault for these immigrants being deceased really belong to any human and if there is anything we can do to stop them from continuing. Urrea's motivation for creating this text is not only to spread awareness, but to show the reader what really happens in this type of situation from different outlooks while simultaneously encouraging everyone to treat each other with kindness and compassion. The main argument he is building throughout his novel is finding the culprit for all these inhumane immigrant deaths and how to stop future tragedies from occurring. Who the responsibility belonged to really changed in the reader's mind based on who's view they were reading. Urrea also used a tremendous amount of ethos and logos by using the walkers journey in combination with statistics gathered from those incidents to make sure the reader understands how both emotionally and logically important these tragedies are. Nearing the end of the book , Urrea uses a lot of facts and examples from life today to demonstrate that deaths caused from attempting to cross the border still happen but we can do things to change that. For example, something small like voting on certain laws to be passed to help immigrants or something big like providing money for more water towers and shelter. To conclude, the main takeaway from this miraculous novel is small things can help in many ways. The Devil's Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea, enlightens and encourages people to take action in ending inhumane deaths globally.
Luis Alberto Urrea’s exigency for writing “The Devil’s Highway is a multitude of things. Urrea made this book to tell the story of a group of Mexicans attempting to cross the US border to get a better life. As we all know this is a stressful and treacherous journey, but it is one that many people do everyday in order to provide a better life for their family or themselves. This is the exact motivation as to why Urrea wrote this book in the first place. The types of harshness the group endures is something no one would like anyone to be put upon, and that’s why Urrea shared it, for assurance that trying to achieve a better life is no easy feat if you’ve been placed upon bad conditions (being born in Mexico). Urrea’s main argument is that the US border policy is corrupt because it has made millions of Mexicans risk their lives because of the insane repercussions it takes to even be a legal citizen, that they just do it illegally, and it is successful if done right. Urrea doesn't want this pain he endured to go on any longer for anyone else so he is asking that he does not want what he experienced with group to ever happen again in history. As a reader, I take away awareness and caution from this book because the events of what happens in this book is insane and gets me sad thinking this actually happened in real life. Other people also should see that family is important and staying together is basically the number one priority because many bad things can happen if a family gets split apart. This book does a great job at its message and awareness and should speak upon volumes to make everything equal and not unfair.
In the Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, Urrea describes a fatal journey of twenty six immigrants crossing the border between U.S and Mexico. They faced extreme heat and dehydration and their only source of food was cacti and urine. The immigrants were abandoned and deceived by their smuggler whom they thought they could trust and because of this, 14 immigrants whom were only looking for a chance to seek a life they had hoped for in America had passed away in their treacherous journey.This Mexican-American novelist's exigency for writing this book is to address the human cost US immigration policy and to expose the truth of the brutal journey the mexican immigrants have to go through to get to the U.S. Urrera's main argument that he is building is that they should not expect what they hope and Urrera is against illegal immigration because it puts people's lives in danger. No matter how far and prepared an immigrant is there is always a risk of dying. What I would take from this book is to consider knowing both the immigrants and the border patrol agents stories although I do not know a lot about the border process. It might seem that the border patrol agents do not sympathize the immigrants but in the book the border patrol agents were concerned for the immigrants well being and were trying to save as many lives as possible by providing them fresh water and calling paramedics. The border patrol agents managed to save more lives than the paramedics and the paramedics took all of the credit. People would've thought the border patrol agents would discriminate the immigrants but they instead helped them.
-Chelsea Miller
The main argument that Urrea makes for this novel is to expose the harsh realities immigrants go through when crossing the border through the Devil's Highway. The author wants the reader to understand that when it comes to the border, there will be exceptions to every rule like how not every border patrol officer is against immigrants or even how not every immigrant is a drug dealer. The author's argument is to prove how you can't look at things in a superficial way but instead to look deep within them, everything is not what it seems to be. America home of the free obviously has exceptions to who can really be free, government officials pass on stricter immigration laws in fear of drug dealers and any other illegal activities when in reality many immigrants just want honest jobs to provide for their families. Many even settle for the jobs that not many other people don't want. On top of that Urrea seems to drive in the point that we should be thankful for how our lives are going and how many people should be thankful for how they came legally into the US. Nobody would want to go through what these immigrants went through but they didn't have a choice, they're desperate to find better opportunities for their families. However we as the reader and people overall have the choice to educate ourselves and help out in any way that we can.
Urrea's exigency for writing this book is to demonstrate a real case of immigrants dying under the harsh environment with chilling details to make the reader more aware of what they could be arguing for/against instead of making large generalizations about something they're ignorant about. To put it simply, Urrea wants to make people less ignorant about what they're talking about. Urrea's whole motivation is to bring light to issues that people are unaware of and enlighten them about what's going on in the world. Bringing real information about what happens in the border can convince people to be more compassionate of other people's situations.
- Marie Alonso
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