In The Beast we learned the story of various migrant women who are now working in bars and brothels in Southern Mexico. They work as bartenders, exotic dancers and prostitutes. They even entice younger women to join in what they call "the Trade."
What do their stories tell us about the role of gender and race in migration? About consent, coercion and exploitation? About human trafficking? About the society that tolerates this "Trade"?
In The Beast we encounter a society dominated by the Zetas, a powerful organized crime synidcate. According to an uncover agent, "[W]however wants a job, any kind of job has to work for the Zetas. They control everything, every institution"(117).
How does this level of organized crime impact the migrant's experience? How does it affect society? Howis similar or different from the corruption in police and business in the Grapes of Wrath?
In Grapes of Wrath we saw tractors destroy homes and fields and gerry-rigged trucks as delivery to a promised land. Now in The Beast we have trains that can both quickly transport migrants but also can kill and maim as well as trap them to be robbed or kidnapped.
What is the Beast telling us about technology and machines? Good, bad or a little of both?
