How the Film X-Men Uses Metaphor to Illustrate Immigrants and Minority Groups in the United States

Logan is a mutant with superhuman skills, stronger than ordinary humans have and can produce metallic blades off his knuckles. However, he manages to live like ordinary Americans, fully assimilating himself among them in the guise of a professional limousine driver. Logan also hides two mutants; a seer and the old Professor X in a deserted constructional site. Things go well with him until he meets an ex-nurse, Gabriela Lopez, who asks for his help.

It happens so that the nurse has a mutant girl with whom she had crossed the US-Mexican border into the US, and for whom she is a caregiver. Zander Rice, a doctor, and his team of scientists establish that mutants could be transformed into lethal weapons if trained well. So he collects and contains them in a medical facility. Rice and his team learn of Lauras existence and embark on a pursuit of her. Rice hires mercenaries to hunt Gabriela down and take Laura.

Several times, Gabriela approaches Logan for help and he always dismisses her because he feels she risks exposing him and put the two of his kind whom he is hiding in danger. Gabriela is killed before Logan can get to her. Laura, however, survives.

The film X-Men is an excellent metaphor for the discrimination against minority groups in the United States. The mutants represent immigrants. They also represent minority groups like the black Americans and Muslims. Laura and Gabriella who both come from Mexico are examples. The team of mutants that crosses the border with Canada depicts immigrants who leave US for other countries which are more tolerant to them. Logan represents the hardworking immigrant. Professor X represents genius immigrants just like Steve Jobs whose family emigrated from Syria. All heroes in Logan are immigrants, and all of them are individually struggling with social issues even as they seek a more desirable tomorrow.

The mutants are notably working in the United States with normal people. Laura was born in Mexico. Her guardian, Gabriela Lopez sneaked with her into the US illegally in the attempt to find Lauras father. Laura was hoping that her father would be the one who would lead her to a place of safety that is Eden in Canada. Most importantly, Laura and Gabriela are symbols of the diligent Mexican immigrant who moves to the U.S. to look for a better life. Laura's efforts are thwarted by the powerful syndicate that saw her come of age, Transigen. This cartel, on the other hand, symbolizes the ruined system that compels countless Mexicans to flee their motherland.

The misfortunes of immigrants and the minority groups haunt them everywhere. This symbolism is additionally extended by the branch of Transigen in America owned by an American-based merger, which is a reflection of amalgamated impunity in the international relations in the real world. It is a metaphor of a bad series suggesting immigration problem didnt start without America, but it started within the United States and Lauras single way out from this convolution is by going as far away from it as possible permanently and exiting the nation she initially believed could give her relief. It is a reflection of the latest events whereby the US government issued travel bans against individuals from Muslim states whereas Canadas Premier, Justin Trudeau, swung full Canadas gates to the same people the US was applying travel restrictions to.

The symbolism of immigration and minority groups is extensive and goes beyond Laura. In this movie, all the new mutants were born in Mexico. They only get united after the demise of the Wolverine to establish the house of X-Men afresh. The glory and splendor of the United States is the work of immigrants just like it is the case with the mutants in Logan. For instance, throughout the Second World War, when our courageous soldiers fought for freedom beyond the borders, there was a program branded Bracero which ushered in a lot of Mexican foreigners to work in the United States.

The young mutants represent an energetic lot of immigrants that work hard to build the United States. This symbol comes out when they assemble and establish a new generation of X-Men. The station where they assemble before crossing over to Canada is a symbol of the many state of the art buildings which these minority groups toiled to build up day and night. Notably, this station is built in a far land, on mountains which are full of rocks. When Logan and Laura reach this place, Logan is already passed out. The effort which he is pulled to the top of the cliff represents hard labor as well. As the little boy winds up the pulley system, he is seen struggling a lot. This station represents structure like Apples Space Ship, a building Steve Jobs designed.

These mutants just like immigrants and minority groups are alienated by the rest of the Americans. Before they could escape to their safe haven in Canada, they assemble in a land far away from the typical American citizens. It takes three hours to drive through to that point. The fact that they assemble in a clique in the middle of nowhere is an enough indication that that they feel excluded. Maybe the most appropriate signpost in this film of a subjugated immigrant minority appears when Logan, Professor X, and Laura are hosted by the Munson family, where they are provided with food and overnight accommodation. In this particular scene, the Munson family is a representation of the non-mutant whose hearts are so big that they even assist the despised and alienated mutants despite the fact that they have no allotment in the war against the oppressors of such people. Helping Logans family makes the Munson family be counted with a group whose pleas are scoffed at for showing an act of kindness to those who plead not be discriminated or stigmatized because of their nature and convictions. The Transigens execution of the family of Munson disturbingly parallels the contempt of public empathy (Press kit: Issues)

The mutants are perceived to be evil people from whom the ordinary Americans should be protected. Zander Rice attempts to to master the X gene to protect Americans from them. This act could parallel the presidents travel restrictions to protect the country from the evil people from other countries. Even so, Rice does not realize that not all mutants are harmful. He significantly puts a lot of emphasis on this but otherwise through delirious methods, by coming up with his egocentric ambition of an advanced type of a mutant, programmed as per his instructions.

Generalizing all the mutants as evil people forgoes human virtues. Looking at it with a different perspective, Rice does what is right for the human race. Unfortunately, he foregoes one important virtue: empathy. Even from birth, the X-Men are a representation of the afflicted American immigrants during the Negro American Revolution. Logan perpetuates that narrative a new generation. Today, the President perceives all Muslims as terrorists, black Americans lazy people who have run away from responsibilities in their home countries, and Mexican immigrants, disease and poverty carriers (Discrimination and Immigration).

Sources

Discrimination & Immigration. NIAC, www.niacouncil.org/discrimination-immigration/.

Hundreds protest immigration ban at Logan Airport. Boston News Weather Sports WHDH 7News, 28 Jan. 2017, whdh.com/news/hundreds-protest-immigration-ban-at-logan-airport/.

Press kit: Issues - Migration and Discrimination - World ...www.bing.com/cr?IG=7A4F7E5AD217439BAEC56E7E53058735&CID=323D9CA1BFEE608003579727BE416196&rd=1&h=qaGh183CYDYwgR-100WlOa6LOa6kMaZn1QfIWD0DRnE&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.un.org%2fWCAR%2fe-kit%2fmigration.htm&p=DevEx,5412.1.