Elections are coming up this November and it seems that all anyone can talk about is immigration policies and stances on refugees. People are comparing such refugees to Skittles. If there is a bowl of skittles and five of them are poisonous, would anyone grab a handful and risk eating them? Is it really possible to compare actual human beings to a candy and base an entire argument on the risk? In “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros and “Outlaw” by Jose Antonio Vargas, both authors shed light on what it is like to be an immigrant, whether legal or undocumented, the reality of being an American immigrant means being in a liminal place as a person because of cultural differences.
In both of these stories, we find two characters whom are both immigrants coming to America. The main character of “Woman Hollering Creek” is Cleófilas. She seems to find herself in an almost arranged marriage to a man who lives in Texas. She is excited to start a new life in a new place and home. …show more content…
They both live in America and both had a fear of what it would be like to have to go home again. Cleófilas only feared of what people would think of her if she returned to Mexico with two kids and no husband. America wasn’t really her home and she was unhappy and in danger, so it was time for her to go back to her real home and family. Jose had a different fear that he would not be able to go back because of the life he had already made in America. He had a fear of being found out and kept people away from the real him for almost his entire life. He is stuck between cultures because of this problem. “Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country does not think of me as one of its own.” (CITE 264) This is the liminal space he is stuck in as an immigrant. A label has made him an outcast in America and he has felt as if he is