Answer/discuss the main points at the end of each in 5 or more sentences.
What are “push” and “pull” factors that cause people to move from one country to another?
What are major historical events that encouraged Asian Immigrations to the U.S.?
Can you describe the major immigration reforms in 1965 and 1986?
What is the estimate of the percentage of Asian Americans who are undocumented?
Which countries are the largest number from?
What are the most common ways that undocumented Asian immigrants come to the U.S.?
What leads to the invisibility of undocumented Asian immigrants?
What kinds of conditions and barriers do undocumented persons face?
Can you describe the key differences between what pro- and anti-immigration forces are proposing to fix
America’s broken immigration system?
What was the Obama administration’s stance on immigration enforcement?
What were President Trump’s campaign promises about immigration policy and what he does during his
time in office?
What have been the highlights of Biden’s immigration policies during his first two years in office?
During the 1980s, how did the perceptions of Asian Americans as:
•The model minority
•An Asian invasion
set the stage for resentment of Asian immigrants in Monterey Park and the larger San Gabriel Valley?
What are examples of each?
How did negative views of Japan influence attitudes and perceptions of Asian Americans?
Who were the immigrant newcomers who arrived in large numbers to Monterey Park in the 1980s?
How did they differ from other groups of immigrants arriving during the same period?
Who were the immigrant newcomers who arrived in large numbers to Monterey Park in the 1980s?
How did they differ from other groups of immigrants arriving during the same period?
With the arrival of new immigrants, what were examples of changes that made the long-time residents uncomfortable or resentful? In response to the Asian newcomers, what was the meaning of the concepts: “Slow-growth” “English-only” What were some of the warning shots in the battle over language in Monterey Park?
What happened to the composition of the Monterey Park City Council during the election of 1986?
Among white, Latino, and long-term Asian residents of Monterey Park, who had the greatest tolerance towards the 1980s Asian newcomers?
What is meant by a “Model Minority” group?
Why did this stereotype emerge in the 1960s?
How was it used to discredit and undermine the civil rights movement?
What’s problematic with labeling a group like Asian Americans a “model minority?”
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
