Spare Parts Thesis Quotes

Improved Essays
The Response Rodger Crawford once said, “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” This quote is quite true in the non-fiction book Spare Parts by; Joshua Davis. Spare Parts is about four low class, undocumented teenagers within America, who beat the world’s best engineering university in a robotics competition. To deepen my thinking of the book, I attended an author presentation at NIACC. Spare Parts focused a great deal on immigration, education, confidence, and teamwork. Although all these components were main points of the book, the one that reached out to me ultimately was immigration. Within our world, we notice that immigration is quite typical within the United States. One instance that tests my thinking within Spare Parts genuinely sparked my attention.” In Phoenix, they were called illegal aliens and pegged as …show more content…
They were alternatively viewed as American, Mexican, or neither. Now, for a moment, they were simply teenagers at a robotics competition by the ocean.” (158). After reading the quote as well as the book my whole outlook on immigration has changed for the better. This quote helped me understand that stereotypes of illegal immigrants are false. One stereotype of illegal immigrants within the quote is being criminals, as you can clearly see, the four boys within the book haven't done anything wrong. My question for people who think illegal immigrants are criminals is, why judge a human being by where they were born? If I was being judged by where I am from I would be angry, because I call Iowa home. If someone disrespects where you’re from, they don’t have respect for you as a person. Before reading Spare Parts, I used to believe

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Handlin and Bodnar highlight different facets of American immigration history from the point of departure to trans-Atlantic crossing, to arrival and the development of ethnic communities in the United States. Authors Lee, Miller, Peiss, Ribak, and Alamillo expand and reconsider the basic story presented by Handlin and Bodnar. In “Uprootedness,” Handlin presents to us that the crossing from Europe to America was “harsh and brutal.” These immigrants were torn from their communities becoming alienated in a new place.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This campus talked about a book written by Jamie Longazel, discousing The Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA). It said how Barlettla’s family were illegal immigrants to Hazleton yet he wants to eliminate illegal immigrants. Most of the immigrants came to Hazleton to live a better life and were getting kicked right out. Barletta said that immigrants are ruining Hazleton and he wants them gone. The book it self shows how Hazleton unfolded after the Illegal Immigration Relief Act.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis is the retelling of the true story of four undocumented teenagers and their journey to compete in the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) underwater robotics competition. Davis does an impressive job at telling this raw and brutally true story of these kids who are here illegally but have lived here more of their lives and had to constantly worry about being found out and deported. The book doesn’t just tell their struggles to even make it to the competition but there personal struggles of being illegal immigrants and how in the following years our country made it harder and harder for them to get an education for being here illegally. Oscar actually deported himself and was banned from the United States for ten years before he even had a chance to try and gain citizenship. Even though these kids won the competition and beat a team from MIT that had plenty of resources, it didn’t do much for them once they graduated from high school.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although I did not necessarily agree with most of the group opinions I still value the group’s responses to the literature. I thought that their personal responses about the short story made me questions my own interpretations. I found this story to be very relatable to my upbringing and childhood. My mother who primarily raised me, was born and raised in Mexico and migrated here when she was 18. Although she was in her 40’s during my childhood she still carried many Mexican beliefs with her that she daily expressed with me throughout my upbringing and even today.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although many values from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics are applicable, the values that are most represented by this policy are the importance of human relationships, dignity and worth of the person, and social justice. The importance of human relationships states that social workers should strive to strengthen relationships between people to, “ promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the wellbeing of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities” (NASW 2008). This is an essential value to this policy because it deals with undocumented individuals, a sensitive subject which every individual takes a different stand on and can create strained relationships in communities and between individuals…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As Americans of all classes begin to feel the growing pressure on national resources and jobs resulting from continued arrival of immigrants, so has there been a growing emergence of literary works that dissent from the view that immigration…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mexican Minority Groups

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughought the history of the United Sates after the colonization period, minority groups have suffered through appalling circumstances mandated by White Americans. They were targeted for discrimination at early ages regardless of gender, and these acumens varied from verbal confrontations to violent deaths. The reasons as to why minority groups had to undergo these preposterous events were only because of the difference of skin color and distinct language. One specific group that agonized during the 1800’s were Mexican Americans. Before taking over California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, this was Mexico’s undisturbed territory (1).…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    We’re not always who you think we are” (Vargas, 9) majority of people think if immigrants as criminals, but they do not know that not every immigrant is evil or that things are being misunderstood. This way, Vargas shows how he did make illegal decisions, but he never acted with bad intention; he is not a criminal. He compels us to try to…

    • 1527 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jose leads on and talks about how “illegal immigrant” and other terms used to label them as a criminal. Many people think of the word criminal when they hear these words, which is not right to the people. The Cornell Daily Sun wrote “No human being is illegal”. Which they also agreed that the term conveyed criminality.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout United States history, there has been debate about immigration. From the bias against Irish immigrants in the 19th century to fear of Syrian refugees in the 2016 presidential debates, nativists have stood resolutely against migrants seeking better lives in a country citizens view as their own. This fear and possessiveness leads to bias and stereotyping of the groups coming into the United States at a particular period of time. In the 21st century, nativists have focused their fears on Latin American migrants, especially those crossing the border from Mexico, creating a “single story” (as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illustrates in her Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”) describing them as lazy, delinquent people who take advantage…

    • 1461 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Immigrants: we get the job done,” This is one of the most loved and perhaps the most hated line from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s broadway hit Hamilton. While the song titled Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down), is talking about the emotions faced by key founding members of our country, they specifically highlight Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a French citizen however, several individuals, (including the state of Maryland) considered him to be a United States citizen, as he shared many of the common values our founding fathers did. While this specifically relates to Marquis de Lafayette, we can see the same debate being applied to illegal immigrants today. This is especially true in Mark Krioriakain’s essay “DREAM on”, where he highlights…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Alan Bialostozky Comm 100C Professor McMurria Spring 2015 Take home exam #3 Leo Chavez article “The Latino Treat Narrative” proposes a well-supported narrative to the nation’s anti-immigration discourse displayed by the media mostly in the USA. In this article, Chavez gives a critical overview and discussion about the images, stereotypes and falsified truths reproduced in society using and crafting recycled myths created by media experts, corrupt politicians, and people who openly hate immigrants from a Latino background. Chavez closely examines how “citizenship” has been seen and discussed through the legal organizations as a form of unity in the country through social and political participation. He claims that just critiquing discourse…

    • 3459 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The racial segregation of Latinos in the public school system is discussed in the film, Lemon Grove Incident, where it examines the 1930’s trial of Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District that ended school segregation of Mexican children in the district of Lemon Grove, California. The trial is known for it’s success to stop the segregation of Mexican children in the public school system. Although, the case allowed for Mexican integration, it only applied to the small district of Lemon Grove, causing little impact on the rest of the state. Furthermore, Mexican children continued to face segregation in public schools until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, that called for the desegregation of all schools…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Immigration Issues Essay

    • 1305 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Issues on Immigration Throughout history, immigration has created serious conflicts in various societies, often leading to chaos and endless controversy. These issues with immigration, including the high unemployment rates, deportation, and the association of immigrants to crimes, continue to present themselves in contemporary society. Thousands of televisions and radio broadcast their diverse opinions on immigration with arguments erupting over what exactly needs to be changed and how to accomplish this. There is one point that everyone seems to agree upon: the necessity that the systems that administer and enforce immigration undergo serious reform.…

    • 1305 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever felt alienated by a person or even a group? Immigrants have to face to the problem of being alienated by a whole country. Americans have conjured up a lot of problems with not one group of immigrants, but most of them. A major case of xenophobia. Immigrants like to migrate to America in search of a new start with great opportunities.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays