Jill , Ryan , Briana , Mujtaba , Kaylie

[Jill Ferraguto]

Ben, the author, seems very aggravated with the border patrol so far. I have not finished the story yet, but it seems that he can relate and really understand what the illegal aliens are feeling. By the language he was thinking to himself when the border patrol asked him "Where he's from?", he seemed to take the side of the illegals instead of the border patrol's.

[ryan gallagher]

i agree he seems to get really mad about the boarder patrol constantly stopping him to ask if he is a us citizen. i can see how annoying this can be especially as a us citizen. 

[briana mcloughlin]

i also agree because every time that he has had an interaction with the boarder patrol, his thoughts are wise and he snaps back at them. for example, he said "are you planning on making a social visit?" which gave me the hint that ben was very aggravated with the boarder patrol.

[Mujtaba Khan]

The author does seem disturbed in the story and the readers could see that from his style. Saenz does a good job in expressing his emotions through his words and unique writing. For example, in the beginning of the story he starts off by saying, "...When the sun slowly touched the sky, almost afraid to break it-that morning I looked out my window  and stared at the Juarez Mountains"(20). I believe in this quote the author is referring to the people in the area he's living in especially the ones who look different and look like they are illegal immigrants. The quote also shows how the mood is serious and the author is not excited when he's speaking. In the story, there are many times where the author goes back thinking about the border and a women comes up to him asking him the same questions about his birth and where he's from, which makes him mad.

[briana mcloughlin]

I never thought of the quote "...When the sun slowly touched the sky, almost afraid to break it-that morning i looked out my window and stared at the Juarez Mountains"(20) was referring to the people that live in his area. it makes sense now

[Jill Ferraguto]

The author of the short story had a very short and punchy syntax to
the story. For example, on page 24, while talking to the officer his
sentences were very short. The conversation was:
"Leave me alone."
"Are you a citizen of the United States?"
"Yes."
"Can you prove it?"
"No. No, I can't."

This part of the conversation shows by using this syntax, the author
is trying to show that he is aggravated with the patrol.

[ryan gallagher]

ben seems to be getting fed up with the boarder patrol at the end of
the story. for example on page 27 he says "i will let them arrest me.
i will let them ware house me." this shows how he is sick of doing
what the boarder patrol asks him to do he wants to standup for what he
thinks is right and isnt going to listen to them any longer.

On Sep 13, 8:19 am, Jill Ferraguto <jill.ferraguto.ber...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[ryan gallagher]

cat

[Jill Ferraguto]

The author does seem to get aggravated with the border patrol and acts acrimonious towards them. The type of syntax he uses with the patrol is very short and punchy. For example, when the patrol went to confront him, he said, "Leave me alone." This is showing the reader he is very angry and does not want to be annoyed by the patrol.

[Kaylie Johanns]

I believe that the author seems to be getting annoyed and upset with how the boarder patrol is handled. When the boarder patrol constantly asks him if he is a legal citizen of the US only because of his race, I could understand how he would feel. He says " I noticed that he didn't ask Michael where he was from. But Michael had blue eyes; Michael had white skin. Michael didn't have to tell the man in the uniform where he was from." This shows that the author felt discouraged that there was not equality in this situation. He shows his bias in this situation as well.

[Mujtaba Khan]

The readers could clearly see that the author has a bias in this story where he's mostly supporting the illegal immigrants rather than the officers. The author said, "I saw border patrol throw some men into their van-throw them-as if they were born to be thrown like baseballs..."(22). Through the language one can see that the author isn't pleased with what is going on in his community. Instead of praising the officers, he actually explains how the people are being treated like animals for just being on the other side of the border. This is definitely a bias statement because another party could argue that what the officers are doing are right because the people that are being thrown are illegal and have no right to be on the land where they are not from.

[Mujtaba Khan]

"Juarez Mountains did not seem purple that fall. They no longer burned with color"(24). In this quote, I believe the author is referring to his whole society where there seems to be no emotions or feelings. When the author says no color, I believe he's saying that his community is filled with so much hatred and cruelty that it's not a place where a person would enjoy living anymore. After this quote the author shows the reactions of people when they see someone with a different skin color and how they chase after them like if they are preys. Therefore, the author explains how this society isn't in a condition anymore where every race could live happily together because there's no toleration among the people.

[briana mcloughlin]

i agree with you on saying that the author used a punchy syntax also. he was also using "---" in between sentences instead of describing things in a more descriptive way. for example, on page 22 "breath in--breath out--breath in--breath out--no big deal--you live on a boarder. these things happen-- just one of those things. just a game..."

[Jill Ferraguto]

I also agree with what you are saying. As Mujtaba said before, this creates a very strong author bias. Knowing that Ben lives on the border, this allows the reader to understand why he has such strong feelings and also knowing that Ben is originated from Mexico is evidence towards his bias.

[Jill Ferraguto]

Ben uses a lot of dialogue in his writing. I believe he uses it to show is feelings towards the patrol, and to show the reader how he feels. It is great evidence to show this. For example, Ben also includes dialogue of what he is thinking. Again, this sets up a bias for the story. Using this dialogue was deliberate choice of his and had a very big impact. Without this, the story, and the author's message, would have been thought about differently. 

[briana mcloughlin]

i think that ben used a tone that fit his feelings well. throughout the story, he gives short answers which to me gives it a snippy tone. his snippy tone shows the reader how much of an attitude ben is giving the boarder patrol. without using this type of tone, the reader wouldn't know how he truly felt about being questioned. his tone changed when he saw the boarder patrol taking a man into their custody and almost beating him. ben gave me the feeling that he was upset, worried, confused, and mad. he couldn't believe that the boarder patrol changed their choice of actions toward the person they had when they realized that people were watching. overall,ben's tone really helps the reader out for understanding the feelings of the characters.

[briana mcloughlin]

another style that ben used that i really liked was the mood. the mood was important to me because he made me feel the feelings that he was. he gave the story the sadness, anger,and frustration. i don't think i would've liked the story as much as i did if it didn't have the mood that the author gave it. as a reader it hooked me into the story because i was able to imagine how ben is feeling and ask myself, "what would i do if my life was like that?" i can't answer that question because i wouldn't know how to deal with seeing innocent people being taken away and treated like trash.

[Mujtaba Khan]

I agree, Ben does an excellent job in using the mood to attract the readers to his writing. The language that he uses really impacts what the mood of the story is because first it starts off calm and it slowly gets wild after he observes the disputes among people from each side of the border. I believe that Ben is able to do that because of his background and how he lives near the border in real life. The author is able to set the mood so easily because he writes his emotions of what he thinks about his community. He has experienced many conflicts going on because of the illegal immigrants so it's not hard for him to write about this subject compared to someone who would want to write about this, but haven't seen it happening i front of them. Therefore, through the mood, the author is successful in showing the purpose of the story.

[Mujtaba Khan]

I agree, the dialogues that the author uses is to show who he supports. For example, I think that the author wrote this story in first person point of view so he could influence and create a greater impact on the reader. From this point of view, Ben is able to reflect his personal life, which again leads to the bias of the story. As you can see, he doesn't write the story in another point of view because he really doesn't want to hide his personal bias. He wants to tell the reader of how he feels and him opposing the people who are mistreating other that might have a different skin color, which makes him angry, For example, when he was walking with his friend, he was the one who was questioned because he was darker.