Author: Nick Sanborn

Borjas went into significant detail to describe the current and historical trajectory of immigration and the types and periods that have occurred in America’s history. Overall, America has had rocky opinions of immigration and especially the different immigrating froups that have entered in separate waves. One specific difference that Borjas has made clear is how immigration before 1990 and after reconstruction was much more restricted and eurocentric then immigration after 1990 which included many groups from outside of the developed world and has had incredibly high rates of illegal immigration. In the first period, racial groups were kept more or less proportional to the existing American population while in the second period the new immigrants were overwhelmingly ethnically different and the vast majority of these immigrants were Hispanic. These two different periods might explain the difference in the success of immigrants in America over these times.

In addition to these separate time periods, Borjas has dipped into the benefits and struggles of managing immigration into the United States of America. One, great benifit that the American nation benefits from is the “best and Brightest” from abroad often come to this country to seek out success and a better future. This allows an influx of well educated and greatly ambitious individuals to come to the nation and benefit the GDP and American economy. Furthermore, the greatest struggle is the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants that have come for the same reasons but often lack the same levels of education and often are not registered in many of the American systems causing burdens on the governmental structure. Borjas offers a very level headed and multifaceted argument.

The story of Bonnie and Clyde is a classic one, these two young and reckless individuals meet by chance and immediately jump into a life of danger, crime, and thrills. It’s obvious to see there blatant attraction for each other, right away every conversation they have lights up their eyes and they are having fun every step of the way. They start small by holding up small inconsequential shops and only brandishing their weapons but eventually, things start ramping up and the loss of human life occurs.

In addition to increasing the want out for their arrest, they increase the size of their gang on step at a time. They quickly meet a mechanic who joins so that they can have someone to help with all the cars they steal and their getaways. Next, they join Clyde’s brother who is no novice to crime and his brother’s wife who is a preacher’s daughter and really is hesitant to every action that they take. As the size of their gang increases so does the level of their crimes. They start robbing bigger banks and taking much more money.

Eventually, this starts to catch up with them and they begin to build a large notorious reputation, The cops start to become more numerous and pursuing them much faster and with more firepower. Also Bonnie becomes increasingly dangerous and mischievous as time goes on she even goes as far as to kiss the cop that they capture. The movie ends with two shootouts one that results in Clyde’s brother’s eventual death and the final ambush by the police and the mechanics kin that results in Bonnie and Clyde dying in a storm of bullets. Overall this type of disregard for the law reminds me a lot of the wild west and that period of culture in America and we can see the similarity to all the pretty horses in the culture of an outlaw.

In this section of All The Pretty Horses (31-59), John Grady and Rawlins are beginning there journey down to Mexico. They are really in an adjustment period for the bulk of this chapter, this can be seen by Rawlins slight disbelieve that their adventure is actually occurring. They offset the hard miles of travel by taking some solace in the meals that they grab on the way and the occasional smoke that Grady, in particular, seems to very much enjoy. They do have a lot of hope and excitement for the road ahead yet they also do acknowledge the real possibility of danger to themselves the further that they travel. They are a bit paranoid of the following man on a horse who they do not know at first is Jimmy Blevins, and once that the boys meet him they do not give out their trust easily. They are primarily concerned with the ownership of his horse and whether or not that Blevins in on the lamb and in possession of another mans stolen property that may be worth looking for. They initially attempt to scare him away by making crude jokes about shooting Blevins as they did to others before him and actually fighting over who gets to do it. Blevins calls their bluff however and they continued on their way. They have another event with Blevins regarding his firearm and leave it much more impressed with the young kid. Finally in an attempt to rehydrate they end up drinking some cider and getting drunk.

When comparing the three races that clash in the North American Continent, Tocqueville first without question sets the Europeans as the ultimate form of human-based on intelligence, power and enjoyment then lists the native Americans and African Americans as the less capable and flawed lower tiers. This description while understandable at the time period is confusing since he goes on to list the reasons for this “ranking which all are societal and have nothing to do with biological or physical nature.

This makes me wonder if Tocqueville actually believed that these other two ethnicities were truly less than the Europeans or if they could be equal given the right opportunities and rights. It is easy to see that from his writing Tocqueville did not support the societal organization of slavery and the conditions that African Americans were subjected to however His depiction of the Native Americans is almost one that deems them “unsavable” or unchanging in there cultural ways.