Who are the Real Immigrants?

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle is full of great metaphors. This is a book that concentrates on the lives of two families. Delaney and Kyra are two liberals that live in a gated community while Candido and America are two immigrants that live day by day with no financial security. One day, Delaney was distracted and ran over Candido and their worlds just began to collide. Delaney began to think outside of his comfort zone and Candido had to learn how to depend on his wife for a while. I enjoy reading this book because it speaks about the problems that there are about the whole immigration injustice.

I believe that the most valuable part of this story is when Delaney begins to question many things through one of his blog entrees. In the second part, Chapter 5, Delaney begins to explore his own thoughts and I believe we can now tell that his character is becoming less of an ass. In this chapter he speaks about how immigrants have been treated and whether or not it is right, he obviously addresses them as coyotes. One of the quotes I really like about this chapter is when he says, “The coyote is not to blame - he is only trying to survive, to make a living, to take advantage of the opportunities available to him.” I believe it is here where he justifies all the immigrants. People are trying to survive and have that American dream where they find stability and get to live a life of no secrecy.

Although that is a meaningful quote, it is not the most important. I strongly believe that the most important part of this chapter is when he says, "If we invade his territory, then why indeed should we be surprised when he invades ours?" I understand that some agreement or settlement happened and that the Native Americans gave away the territory, but why should there even be a territory to sell or give away? I know I may sound like a hippie when I say that the world should be united as one and not divided into seven continents or fifty states. I believe the Earth belongs to no one and therefore we can't claim any piece of dirt as our own. Like Ricardo Arjona says in one of his songs, "If the universal visa extends the day we are born and expires in death, why are they still chasing you if the consul of the heavens already gave you permission." I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing and I'm sure I went off topic, but this is what this chapter really made me do. It made me analyze and really think about what being an immigrant really is. If there were no territories, wouldn't we all be the same and not be labeled as an "illegal?" To be completely honest, I haven't finished reading the book, but I can't help wonder if this was going through Delaney's head as well.

A Child Called It Soundtrack

I’ve read Dave Pelzer’s struggle with child abuse in his autobiography A Child Called It. I recently came across a song by Rise Against. The first time I heard it I became obsessed with it because of the beat and the subject it focuses on. I can see how this song could reflect the experience of a child being oppressed.

Rise Against is known for their advocacy of progressivism. They confront political and personal injustice and they are not really the ones to hold back. Prayer of the Refugee is a melodic hardcore song that talks about the injustice toward refugees. The song begins with a conversation between a refugee and his son where he remembers the good life they once had, but no longer do. In the chorus, the refugee is calling out saying not to help him, as carrying himself is really all he has left. He says that all those people who have tried to “help” them in the past always let him down time after time. The next verse is about how all the refugees are trying to change the world in subtle ways. In the final verse, he tells his son to go out and change the world for the better.

David Pelzer was a young boy who was starved, beaten, and tortured by his mother. He was not a refugee, but he was a boy that was trapped inside a house and had no power. He was a caring and loving boy that had to learn how to survive on his own. Dave always tried remembering his mother as the woman who “glowed with love for her children.” Dave was forced to sleep in the garage and is treated like a peasant. He wears the same clothes to school every day and starts stealing food to make up for the fact that his mother is starving him. One day, she “accidentally” stabs him and refuses to take him to a hospital. This boy already knew that his father and brothers could no longer help him, he learned to become helpless. Later on, Dave goes to the school nurse’s office where he is inspected and questioned. The police was notified and Dave was taken away from his mother and placed in an orphanage. Dave used his faith, positive attitude, and determination to create himself a better world.

I am convinced that Prayer of the Refugee is one of the best options for A Child Called It’s soundtrack. Dave, like the refugees, have been let down so many times. They have been ignored and abused. They were both “the hungry, and the cold” and “the ones who kept quiet and always did what we were told.” In the end, they both left their situation and made themselves a better world.

Book of the Past

I found this book back when I was in De Anza Jr. High School. Before starting our first class, we had to read and take quizzes about the books we had read. I would take hours in the library trying to find a good book.I loved reading a series of books called, “The Magic Tree House.” One day, I was tired, the book I wanted wasn’t available, and I just picked a random book without even looking at it. I didn’t plan on taking the quiz for it, I just wanted it to make my teacher think I was reading something and not get in trouble. To my surprise, I fell in love with the book and it is one of my favorite books. “A Child Called It,” is the story of Dave Pelzer. He was brutally beaten and starved by his alcoholic mother. She would often play tortuous games on him and he had to learn how to play them in order for him to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but an it. Nobody knew about his living nightmare. The only thing that kept him going was his dreams of one day being loved by someone and being called a son. I remember this book because I was a naive girl that didn’t know what abuse was and it opened my eyes. “A Child Called It,” was also the first book to ever made me cry from the first chapter. It made me experience emotions that I didn’t know where possible. It opened something in me and I also feel like it made me grow as a person. When someone asks me if I have a book to recommend I mention this book. I think this book should be read by everyone because it is such an incredible book and is extremely vivid. The detail on this book was just amazing and the whole story was just so emotional that I couldn’t stop reading. All I wanted was to find out if he had a happy ending. I don’t think people would be disappointed with this book.

Girl, Interrupted MVP

The book “Girl, Interrupted,” by Susanna Kaysen describes how chaotic her life has been while she was locked up in a mental hospital because of her borderline personality disorder. In one of the chapters, she describes what was going through her mind while she tried committing suicide. The way she describes it is like being able to go into a person’s mind and seeing what they feel like. She claims that committing suicide takes time and planning, that it doesn’t just happen from day to night. I think this whole chapter is the most valuable part because, in a way, it raises awareness. We live in a society where we think that being suicidal is being weak. In reality, suicide takes more strength than people realize. Although many people may attempt to commit suicide, there is also people that in reality just want to be saved. For instance, Krysten took fifty aspirins to attempt suicide, but as soon as she took them, she went to a public place where everyone would be able to see her when she passed out. Krysten, just as any other person wants to be found and wants people to care for her. Krysten compares herself to a piece of meat that was in the store by saying, “The meat was bruised, bleeding, and imprisoned in a tight wrapping. And, though I had a six-month respite from thinking about it, so was I.” Just by reading this quote, we can tell how a person feels and some of us can even relate to it. After all, we are all slowly dying in a place where we feel trapped. We are all hurt in some way and it is a matter of time before we all begin to bleed. Her suicide led her to where she is right now. Without this whole chapter, we wouldn’t be able to understand what was really happening to her, what was really going through her head.

Marshall Mather's Road to Addiction - Early Life

Marshall Mather III, also known as Eminem, had a very tormented childhood and career that eventually lead him to drug addiction and alcoholism. The fact that he was abandoned by his father when he was just a child really affected him. As a result, he was raised by his mother. In his songs, he would often complain about the way she raised him. It is known that this lifestyle left a large impact on his personality. Friends and family remember Eminem as a happy child, but a bit of a loner who was often bullied. When he was a teenager, he tried to reach out to his father by constantly writing letters to him; which according to his mother, all came back marked as "return to sender." Later, when his uncle Ronnie committed suicide, Eminem stopped speaking for days and did not attend his funeral. It is said that after the tragedy, he often fought with his mother, who was described by a social worker as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality." By the age of seventeen, Marshall started dating a runaway by the name of Kim and had a daughter with her in 1995. He later married her in 1999 and divorced her a year later. Marshall got introduced to Vicodin in 2001 when he was filming "8 Mile" and had very exhausting schedule and a lot of pressure on him. By the year of 2006, he had remarried Kim and got a divorce several months later. They began a very ugly and public custody dispute over their daughter Haylie. Meanwhile, Eminem became and an alcoholic and an addict for sleeping pills and prescription pain killers. In December 2007, he overdosed and nearly died. "If I would've got to the hospital two hours later, that would've been it," he said.This was a huge turning point for Marshall and realized that he needed help. He went to rehab and was sober for two weeks, but he relapsed a week after being home. He had a hard time writing his lyrics for two years. He finally got rid of his addictions in 2008, and he returned to recording music again. But everything he wrote was never really good enough for him, he claimed that it didn't meet his standards. Marshall writes about his experiences in his rhymes. He released is new album Recovery in 2010, an album that talks about his attempt to overcome his addictions and experiences with rehab. This album had a softer tone to it compared with his previous albums. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I do feel like that if I can help people that have been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?" I am a fan of Marshall because of the success he had even though he had such a rough childhood. When I listen to his music, I can see how mad he was and how he felt at the moment, which not something everyone can do. Also, the fact that he writes his own lyrics is something I truly admire and respect. He is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed rappers in history. Eminem has the respect of many people, including mine.

Don't Let the Needle Control You - Visual Analysis

Everywhere, drug addicts are fighting a war against themselves. In fact, studies show that these people – drug addicts – are afraid of asking for help because they don’t want their families or friends to stop loving them. Instead, they decide to live a life of torment and deception.  Eventually,  their lives become a routine where they mainly focus on hiding their addictions. In the picture above,  it shows the struggles of an addict.​ Although there isn’t a lot of color in this picture, it is mainly all dark. This would represent how the person feels. There is only darkness in his mind; darkness is dominating the person and there is only so little light left. We can also observe how the end of the person’s hand has a sense of warmth, yet the rest of his hands are pale.  Clearly,  the drugs are killing him slowly. ​Here, the person has a pair of handcuffs around his wrists, where one of his hands is pulling the other hand away from the drugs and the other hand is reaching out to grab them.  As you could also notice,  the hand is sorrounded by fourteen needles which could signify a lot of things. For instance, they could represent the age of the person, how long they’ve had the addiction, or simply the struggles they have been through since they became addicted. Also, the background appears to be pavement with a whole in the middle, probably trying to show that the person has now hit rock bottom. ​There is more than just visual in this picture. This picture says, “DON’T BE AFRAID TO CRY FOR HELP.”  I honestly don’t think there is any meaning to it other than what it already says.  But although it doesn’t have a deeper meaning, I think it is a very important message. The intended audience are all those people that are struggling with their drug addiction and are too afraid to admit what they are going through.  They shouldn’t,  everyone should know that they are not alone and that their loved ones will be there for them and with them. This is a war that shouldn’t have to be fought alone, and we should try to understand what it is that is going through their head instead of judging them.  We should stand together, instead of against each other and help those that are silently asking for our help.

The Road to Addiction

Drug addiction is a complex disorder characterized by compulsive drug use. Contrary to belief, drug abuse is not a habit; it's a life ending illness. The difference is that a habit is an option, but an addiction is not (Nordqvist). In formal terms, drug addiction is also called substance abuse disorder. People with this illness do not have control over their own minds. They are addicts, and they are lost. Their addiction takes control over their lives and their whole world revolves around it. Eminem became an addict in 2001 due to his high pressure schedule. He became addicted to many painkillers like Vicodin, Valium, Seroquel, and Ambien because he felt lonely and scared. Drug addiction is becoming an epidemic; an epidemic that can be treated before it’s too late.

How and why people become addicted to certain drugs is hard to understand. It is known that addiction can be caused and influenced by the individual's biology, social environment, and age or stage of development. If the person has a lot of risk factors, the chance of becoming an addict is greater. For example, a person’s vulnerability to addiction could be based on the genes they are born with. Gender, ethnicity, and the fact that the person might have other mental illnesses could increase the risk of drug abuse. Also, the environment is one of the biggest influence, everything from family to pressure can contribute to the problem. On the other hand, although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, the earlier the drug use begins, the more likely it is for the person to suffer from this illness. Adolescents are at higher risk since they tend to be more reckless and their brains are still in development. Drugs contain chemicals that affects the brain’s communication system and changes the way cells normally process information. There are two ways of how a person becomes addicted: imitation and overstimulation. For example, marijuana and heroin “fool” the brain by acting similar to neurotransmitters, which are produced by the brain naturally. This activates the nerve cells to send abnormal messages. Also, drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine that releases an enormous amount of dopamine which is known to cause pleasure. This usually “teaches” the person to repeat the behavior of using drugs. However, no single factor can predict whether a person will become addicted to drugs. Drug addiction does not only affect the brain, it also affects the emotional aspects of a person (DrugFacts). While drug addicts may not have control over their thoughts, they are well aware of what is happening to them. It is really hard for an addict to reach out to others and tell them the struggles they are facing because they are afraid that the their family or friends could stop loving and be ashamed of them (Redmond). This leads addicts to lie and hide their addictions, and try day-by-day to hide it all. Eventually, their lives become a routine where all they can think of is hiding the truth.

The article “Eminem” by Bio, describes how Marshall Mathers III, also known as Eminem, had a very tormented childhood and career that eventually lead him to drug addiction and alcoholism. The fact that he was abandoned by his father when he was just a child really affected him. As a result, he was raised by his mother who would frequently abuse him physically and emotionally. His mother is one of the biggest influence in Marshall’s addiction. In his songs, he would often complain about the way she raised him. Friends and family remember Eminem as a happy child, but a bit of a loner who was often bullied. Marshall got introduced to Vicodin in 2001 when he was filming "8 Mile" and had a very exhausting schedule. Throughout his day, he took around ninety prescription pills (Vasey). Eminem became an alcoholic and an addict for sleeping pills and prescription painkillers. When the first six songs of his album Encore got leaked, he had to come up with some more songs in order for the album to be replaced. He told himself, “ ‘Oh well. Songs leaked. Screw it. I’m just going to take a bunch of pills and go in there and have a party with myself.’ I’m sure the more pills I took, the goofier I got (Welch).” Marshall joined rehab in 2007, but he could never be comfortable and the other patients would often steal from him and focus more on his rehab process because he is Eminem - it was chaos. At the time, he wasn’t ready to get sober. He says that people often told him that if he wasn’t ready then nothing would make him stop. Eminem was only there because his family wanted him to get help. He lasted two weeks in rehab and a week after being home, he overdosed and nearly died (Welch). "If I would have got to the hospital two hours later, that would've been it" he said. This was a huge turning point for Marshall and he realized that he needed help. He finally got rid of his addictions in 2008, and he returned to recording music again. Marshall writes about his experiences in his rhymes. He released his new album Recovery in 2010, an album that talks about his attempt to overcome his addiction and experiences with rehab. This album had a softer tone to it compared with his previous albums. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I do feel like that if I can help people that have been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?"  He says that even though he doesn’t pop pills anymore, he feels that at any moment he could be back at it. He doesn’t believe that there is a cure for it. When I listen to his music, I can see how mad he was and how he felt at the moment, which is not something everyone can communicate. He is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed rappers in history. Marshall Mathers is an extraordinary example of how drug addiction can be treated, yet not completely cured.

There are various treatments that are being offered daily. The article of “DrugFacts: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction” proves how scientific research explains that treatment can help patients discontinue the use of drugs, avoid relapse, and successfully get their lives back together. Some of the treatments include detoxification, medications, behavioral treatment, psychotherapy, and self-help groups. The goal of a detox is to enable the person to stop abusing drugs as quickly and safely as possible; however, this is not an actual treatment, but it is just the first step in the treatment process (MayoClinic). Not everyone is able to complete the detox, therefore, some may need to be admitted to a hospital or residential treatment center. Normally, what they do in a detox is reduce the dose of the drug that the patient consumed, or they simply substitute it with other substances that do not risk a person becoming addicted. There is also the option of medication, that often helps the patient’s brain functions go back to normal and it helps prevent a relapse. Currently, they have different types of medications for: opioids, nicotine, stimulants, and cannabis addiction. Most patients are addicted to more than just one drug; therefore, they require treatment for all the different substances that they abused. “Medication and counseling, especially when combined, are important elements of an overall therapeutic process that often begins with detoxification, followed by treatment and relapse prevention (MayoClinic).” Another effective treatment is “AA” and “NA” meetings, also known as, Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. This are known to be self-help groups. This types of groups are known to be efficient since the patients are surrounded by people that are going through the same situation. They feel better because they know that they do not have to go through all the detoxification alone. “The self-help support group message is that addiction is a chronic disorder with a danger of relapse.” Self-help groups can decrease the sense of shame and isolation that could lead to relapse (MayoClinic). One treatment may not be effective to someone, but other could. Just because a treatment didn’t work in the first time, it doesn’t mean that there is no hope for recovery.

Drug addiction is an illness that affects many people around the world. Some addicts are able to recover and live a normal life, while others have a life of torment and deception. In a recent interview with the GQ magazine, Eminem spoke about the extent that his drug addiction reached while recording Encore. He claims that what he learned most about his drug addiction is the way he is wired. He has realized that his thought process is so different from others. Eminem said, “I’ve realized that the way I am helps with the music. Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in less than an hour. But sometimes it sucks, and I wish I was wired like a regular person and could go have a drink. But that’s the biggest thing about addiction: When you realize that you cannot mess around with nothing ever again. I never understood when people would say it’s a disease. Like, ‘Stop it. It’s not a disease!’ But I finally realized, damn, man - it really is.” I truly believe that society labels this illness as such a bad thing that no one could recover from. We become prejudice when a person tells us that they were drug addicts and went to rehab. What I mainly believe is that instead of judging them and turning against them, we should try to help them out and help them win a war against their demons. Instead of criticising them and making feel like less, we should lend them a helping hand and stand beside them with their struggles.  

Resources

Nordqvist, Christian. “What is Addiction? What Causes Addiction?”  Medical News
Today. 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 11 July 2015.

Vasey, Mark. “Eminem Opens Up More About His Drug Addiction.” Mental Health
Realities. Blogger, 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 9 July 2015.

“DrugFacts: Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction.” National Institute on Drug
Abuse. 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 July 2015.

Redmond, Jodee. “Five Ways to Tell if Someone Is an Addict.” Love to Know. Web. 15
July 2015.

“Eminem.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 15 July 2015.

“DrugFacts: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction.” National Institute on Drug
Abuse. Sept. 2009. Web. 13 July 2015.

“Drug Addiction Symptoms.” Mayo Clinic. (n.d.).

Welch, Will. “The Survivors: Eminem.” GQ 2011. Print.