“The Devil’s Highway” by Luís Alberto Urrea is a haunting story that gives life to the tragedy of twenty-six men who crossed attempted to cross from Mexico to America through the Arizona desert, with only fourteen surviving the trek. It is a story that I am familiar with, as I had to read the book for introduction to agriculture education last year. It is a book that has haunted me since and until this class I was determined not to ever read it again. This is because the images of charred corpses and the retelling of death by hyperthermia left a knot in my stomach ever since I first read the book. However, rereading it I was able to better examine the elements that left my pained my heart and chilled my soul for greater meaning. By rereading
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This is a theme and a struggle portrayed in so many works of literature and fiction, however this book provides a real-life battle against the two opposing forces. This was a theme I was able to speak about in one of my discussion posts, however, it was the element that struck me most the first and second time I read it. As someone who, thanks to chronic illness, can’t handle any temperature above eighty degrees the battle of man versus nature is one I am already quite familiar with. This is why I had an anxiety attack reading the chapter of the book that breaks down the stages of hyperthermia and how it killed these men. What is even more frightening is that reading that chapter I was able to identify all the early stages of hyperthermia I had experienced and how it had done everything short of hospitalize me, though I got frighteningly close. Reading that particular chapter I felt the most empathy I could ever have for the walkers, because I know what it is like. As I mentioned in my discussion, the desert doesn’t care if you are an illegal immigrant trying to make your way toward America for a better life or a college student working at a summer camp in the middle of the Texas desert, it will be unyielding. Nature is cruel and uncaring, far more so than even the coyotes who should be the rightful antagonist of the story. The empathy I have towards the men who lost against the desert and the survivors will be the most impactful lesson that I will carry with me from this
This is a theme and a struggle portrayed in so many works of literature and fiction, however this book provides a real-life battle against the two opposing forces. This was a theme I was able to speak about in one of my discussion posts, however, it was the element that struck me most the first and second time I read it. As someone who, thanks to chronic illness, can’t handle any temperature above eighty degrees the battle of man versus nature is one I am already quite familiar with. This is why I had an anxiety attack reading the chapter of the book that breaks down the stages of hyperthermia and how it killed these men. What is even more frightening is that reading that chapter I was able to identify all the early stages of hyperthermia I had experienced and how it had done everything short of hospitalize me, though I got frighteningly close. Reading that particular chapter I felt the most empathy I could ever have for the walkers, because I know what it is like. As I mentioned in my discussion, the desert doesn’t care if you are an illegal immigrant trying to make your way toward America for a better life or a college student working at a summer camp in the middle of the Texas desert, it will be unyielding. Nature is cruel and uncaring, far more so than even the coyotes who should be the rightful antagonist of the story. The empathy I have towards the men who lost against the desert and the survivors will be the most impactful lesson that I will carry with me from this