Alissa WInklers #1 CCQC's

Tortilla Curtain CCQC’s #1

While reading Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle the specifics of Arroyo Blanco Estates way of life and Marin county cultures proved to be very similar. Boyle opens the book with a description of the Estates in all its glory and perfection, full of shiny cars and regulated diets that generalizes the rich, white portion of the America’s upper-middle class. The aspect of the Estates that most reflects Marin is depicted when Boyle is introducing the healthy and specific routine of the Mossbachers, “Delaney was up at seven, as usual, to drip Kyra’s coffee, feed Jordan his fruit, granola and hi-fiber bar and let Osbert and Sacheverell out into the yard to perform their matinal functions”(30). Just by looking at the specific diction and jargon Boyle uses we can tell the societies are well off and even something as simple as breakfast is looked at as a distinct “morning ritual,” complete with the granola, fresh fruit, and coffee you’d see sold abundantly throughout places like Marin. Kyra, the breadwinner of the family, “washes down her 12 separate vitamin and mineral supplements…” (31)  before driving away in her new Lexus, resonating the forward thinking, healthy oriented vibe that many areas Marin encompass. I laughed out loud when I read the pretentious names of the household pets. The recurring theme of this suburban wealth is shown throughout the book by the various descriptions of white adults and their cars, something we also see a lot of in Marin as a common outward display of wealth.

As a powerful member of the community, Jack Jardine represents the self-righteous, hard headed conservative who tries to spread his racist views throughout the Estates. This character is a common day racists that believes people of almost any race except white are reason for all flaws of his community and issues in the United States. Jack tries to back up his discriminatory mind set by driving around in a flashy car, wearing the most up to date styles, all building ethos to convince our more liberal and thoughtful main character Delaney that he knows what is best for Arroyo Blanco. Jack takes advantage of the recent loss of Delaney’s dog and uses it as another excuse for why building a wall around the community would be the appropriate thing to do, even though Jack just wants to keep out the “insubordinate” immigrants away from his utopian society. “- if you don’t stick to the agenda you’ve got chaos, pure and simple. And the gate thing is important, probably the single most important agendum we’ve taken up in my two years as president,” (100). He goes on to tell Delaney of his opinion on border control who replies by telling Jack “that’s racist.” To that Jack retorts, “Not in the least -- "'The ones coming in through the Tortilla Curtain down there, those are the ones that are killing us. They're peasants, my friend. No education, no resources, no skills - all they've got to offer is a strong back, and the irony is we need fewer and fewer strong backs every day because we've got robotics and computers and farm machinery that can do the labor of a hundred men at a fraction of the cost'" (101). Jack is so set in stone and pompous that he refuses to admit he is a racial profiler and racists, stating his opinions as if they are facts.