Anderson- Part 1

      The American dream is a comfortable lifestyle which many people attempt to achieve through hard work and determination. The foundation of this dream can be dated back to the founding fathers, saying that anyone can achieve this goal no matter the color of your skin, or the family you come from. In The Tortilla Curtain, this ideal is put to the test. As shown in the novel so far, Delaney, Kyra, and Jordan, a white family living in Arroyo Blanco Estates have already achieved this dream. Although not directly mentioned, one can read through the lines, and see the privileged life they live. For example, "he skated across the tile floor to the dishwasher, flung open the cabinets, rocketed the plates and cutlery on the big oak table... All while juicing the oranges he plucked from the tree in the courtyard"(31). On the dramatically opposite side of the spectrum, the reader is shown the life of América and Cándido. Ironically, the couple moved from their comfortable life in Mexico to chase the American dream, and in fact found only the opposite. Both search helplessly for work that pays no more than $3 per hour. As society and the reality of hardship sink in, the couple comes to see that the polished idea known as the American Dream is in reality placed on a pedestal too high for most people to ever reach. As América exclaimed to her husband, "A clean white one made of lumber that smells like the mountains...a little yard so you can plant a garden and make a place for chickens. That's what you promised me, didn't you?... Didn't you?"(29). The contrast between the life in which the Mossbachers live versus the life the Rincóns struggle trough really brings the truth to the American Dream. How can something be considered a dream when few people achieve it, and others die miserably trying. 

      The values and morals shown in the Arroyo Blanco Estates community very closely mirror those of Marin County. For our entire lives, children of Marin are conditioned to believe that only organic food is acceptable, hybrid cars are a must, and that private schools costing as much as Harvard are the social norm. Children are placed in a bubble, blissfully unaware of the turmoil that occurs just outside its boarders. Life in the Arroyo based community depicted in there novel proves to be very similar. Simply the morning routine of Delaney's family can be viewed as very "Marin". For example, "he would dash around gathering Jordan's homework... While Kyra sipped her coffee and washed down her 12 separate vitamin and mineral supplements with fresh squeezed orange juice... Then applied her makeup... And propelled her Lexus over the crest of the canyon hills"(31). Weather we like it or not, anyone from Marin could most likely relate to some part of this passage. In a high school parking lot lined with BMWs, Mustangs, and Teslas, it's no surprise that this lifestyle is familiar to us. The novel later described Kyra's strict diet for her son, strictly granola, fruits, etc. She later goes on to pull the 'Some one else is hungry out there, and would be glad to eat you food' card. At this point, Jordan fully embodied the bubbled in lifestyle of the upper middle class by saying, "let's give them this". Practically every aspect of life described in the novel thus far regarding the Mossbachers can be related to Marin culture. As stated, " they abhorred clutter. They were joggers, non smokers, social drinkers, and if not full blown vegetarians, people very conscious...In religious matters, they were agnostic"(34). As clearly shown, we are exactly like this family. Weather we like it or not, this can be used as a real eye opener a to how oblivious we are of the troubles that occur just outside our insulated walls.