The Homeland, Aztland, By Gloria Anzaldua - 4126 Words

In The Homeland, Aztland, Gloria Anzaldua writes, Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them. For centuries, there has been segregation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, in which the two groups vary in culture or race. The dominant group, ‘us’ sees ‘them’ as a weak link and that they are not worthy of what ‘we’ have and deserve. In â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† by Kate Chopin and â€Å"Wisdom of the New† by Sui Sin Far, there is an apparent border between two sets of races. In both pieces, the authors are telling the story to get the point across that these borders, whether figurative or unofficial, are meaningless, and result in tragedy. In Chopin’s piece, ‘us’ is Desiree, her husband Armand and their child. In their time, ‘them’ was the African American race. They were seen as unimportant, and unworthy. The fight between a figurative border begins when their baby begins to change. His skin shows black, insinuating that one of his parents carries the inferior race. Armand goes on to confirm, â€Å"It means, that the child is not white; it means that you are not white† (Chopin, 3). He says this to Desiree, and is immediately jumping to the conclusion that she must be the one with the black background. He is a man, and he can do no wrong. There is no possible way that he is the one who gave that child the dreaded curse of black skin. He now has built this boundary between himself, Desiree and the child. Armand is not one of ‘them’, he is white,