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Contemporary Literature
Thematic Analysis of The Tortilla Curtain
March 30, 2017
Thematic Analysis of The Tortilla Curtain
People with completely different levels of wealth are correlated together and the forces of nature take hold of them. Delaney, Kyra, Candido and America are the main characters in this novel. They are faced with decisions that result in life or death; and decisions that affect their lifestyles. Humans don’t understand the entire picture of the world. The way that people neglect the entire picture of the world results in an invisible hand delegating the social and financial outcomes of many races and species. Some Americans have substantial amounts of wealth. And some have more money than they think. In the novel “The Tortilla Curtain,” T.C. Boyle uses characterization and symbolism to develop the theme that an invisible hand is governing what happens in nature. Furthermore, he is saying that it is not beneficial for humans to develop a wall of hate towards other people based on race.
Author Boyle uses characterization to show how wealth and race impacts social and financial interactions between humans. Delaney tells Kyra all about the Mexicans that are camping down in the woods, and Kyra responds by being the perfect candidate to restrict the multitude of men from the right to work in the United States (124-128). The antagonist Candido provides conflict because he is the Mexican camper that causes Delaney to feel guilty about their car accident. Both could have been round characters because the author spoke of their thoughts roughly equal. However, Delaney is far more dynamic because Boyle points out that Delaney can open the “complex issue of population control” (212-214). After running into Candido his guilt of the accident and the thought of covering it up built up so much that he seemed to become angrier, says Boyle (10-12). Delaney tried to relax by hiking and writing in his Native Magazine, says Boyle (180-182). However, Delaney lives with his wife Kyra who tries to hide from an increasingly starving coyote and Mexican population. The coyote’s and Mexicans provide conflict in Kyra’s life because coyotes are eating her dogs and the Mexicans may cost a decrease in her property values; they are “death for business”, says Boyle (126-128). Delaney’s family, friends, and neighbors are all white middle class Americans pushing community gatherings to replace fences with walls to restrict the Mexican vandals from taking their right to privacy. Boyle shows a Mexican handing out “flies(fliers)” for the meeting in the white middle class development and Delaney was angry when the language confusion left him racist for no reason (182-184). The novel points out the characters are angry and spew hate unnecessarily when their rights to survival and privacy are taken and they are “forced out of their shells” (228-230). The author uses Candido’s common law wife America to portray an innocent pregnant woman who is raped and trying to take care of herself and her baby; ironically the vandal is a neighbor of white people within the development: an adolescent teenager Jack Jr. (276-278). The author indirectly shows that characters who force population control based on race and may restrict innocent humans from the right to survive.
Boyle uses the weather, walls, and animals to symbolize the inability to control an increasing diverse population. The author shows that the weather is an uncontainable force that shifts the direction of the story. Boyle claims that the winds that caused the fire were driven by the “Santa Ana winds bed of the Topanga Creek wind shift” (216-234) Instead of Candido and America enjoying their gifted thanksgiving turkey; they should run for their life up and out of the canyon, says Boyle (221-223). The curtain symbolizes how to immigrate to the United States by camping in California; Candido and America use this as a temporary curtain to hide from the world, says Boyle (100-102). In opposition, white people think that the curtain symbolizes the “people killing us” (80-83). The author shows that walls correlate with the Curtain because Mexicans hide their camping immigration experience because of deportation fears. (165-167). Delaney finds out coyotes are living in the same environment as Mexicans: in the woods (89-91). The coyotes symbolize the starving Mexican populating. They rush to get food wherever the environment provides adequate supply. According to boyle, a fence will not restrict coyotes because Delaney “testified one jumping over his own fence in five quick strides” (155-156). In a roundabout way, the author shows how Mexicans and coyotes are similar in the aspect they will do anything if they are hungry. The author points out that a wall without visibility of the containments may make people believe that hidden treasures are inside; “the animal has to have a reason to scale the wall” (175-176). After Candido and America’s home caught fire, they are forced out of the canyon and deliver their baby outside, says Boyle (238). The author shows that Candido is not a thief, but he went inside the restricted development nearby as a means of survival to help provide water and nutrients his family needed (239-241). According to Boyle, the natural mudslide that occurred every year swooped Delaney into a river of current and swallowed the baby (282). Boyle shows how the “bleached hills (white people) above L.A. was the force of the invisible hand (194-196). White people dictated the survival outcomes of Mexicans. Therefore, racist humans should be more sensitive to the needs of others because the forces of nature could shift the direction of anybody’s life.
The natural world that surrounds us governs the way other citizens behave around us and it could impact the natural, private, and hidden aspects of our lives. Boyle points out how other people can impact the decisions in our immediate lifestyles. And he also shows how the natural means to survive can change the way we make decisions. Conflict in our own lives should be considered on a broader spectrum because life decisions made to benefit one individual may have an impact on another individual. Some humans in the natural world survive by different means such as camping and people should try to help them out instead of passing racist judgments based on their appearances. According to Boyle, Delaney points out the fact that we live in a Democracy, so, humans can’t justify locking them self from interaction in society (80-83). The United States is a land of immigration and we should welcome those searching for a better life. In the end, during a natural mudslide “the invisible hand appears: the white man’s hand and the Mexican grabs ahold of it” to help him (283-284).
Works Cited
Boyle, T.C. The Tortilla Curtain. Publication Location: Penguin Books. 1996. Google Play Books. Web. 31 March 2017.
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