Realistic Elements When Evaluating the Term Paper

"Tiempos Amargos" (Bitter Times), with its ironic lamentation on the passage of time, criticizes life under the exploitive Mexican president Porfirio Diaz:

These are no longer the times of Porfirio (D'az), when they cried for the master when they'd meet him, they'd shake his hand, and button his pants.

If one day the steward became angry with a worker it was because there was another one closer to the snaps of his pants.

If someone had pretty daughters he'd get a job as a night watchman, or else he'd land a good job, at least as a payroll clerk.

If someone had a pretty wife they didn't let him rest, they'd get them up very early to work just like the oxen.

El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez" tells the tale of a Mexican outlaw who refuses to give up, even when he is cornered at the very end:

And in the county of Kiansis

They cornered him after all;

Though they were more than three hundred

He leaped out of their corral.

Then the Major Sheriff said, As if he was going to cry,

Cortez, hand over your weapons;

We want to take you alive." Then said Gregorio Cortez, And his voice was like a bell, You will never get my weapons Till you put me in a cell." Then said Gregorio Cortez With his pistol in his hand, Ah, so many mounted Rangers Just to take one Mexican!" Both corridos and Crane's story attempt to show the reader the hardships of life through everyday situations and employ irony as a means of highlighting the arbitrariness of fate under conditions that are outside the control of the individual subject. Works Cited Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." Scribner's Magazine 21 (May 1894): 728-740. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA. October 18, 2007 http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=CraOpen.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez." Artsedge. Kennedy Center. October 18, 2007 artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3742/3742_mexCor_cortezCor.pdf> Tiempos Amargos." Artsedge. Kennedy Center. October 18, 2007 .....