CCQCs Part Two Izzy Snow

Boyle's skill of show-not-tell is most seen as Boyle develops Kyra, who first appears in the book as Delaney's generic real-estate saleswoman girlfriend. During the second part of the book, Kyra becomes a character that is drowning in confusion and helplessness. Boyle shows the reader circumstances where Kyra reacts with aggression to her helpless feelings. After a coyote takes both of her dogs, Kyra becomes obsessed with building a wall around Arroyo Blanco. "But Kyra-she'd made the wall her mission, putting all her closer's zeal into selling the thing, stuffing envelopes, making phone calls, working cheek by jowl with Jack and Erna to ensure the sanity of the whole community was preserved and that no terrestrial ting, whether it came on two legs or four, could get in without an invitation" (242).  After the death of her dogs, Kyra experiences a normal grief and responds with an intense need to lock up the neighborhood. She responds with aggression when two latino men arrive at a house she is selling. " 'What do you think you are doing here?' she cried, her voice shrill with authority. 'This is private property' She wanted to break for the car, fling open the door and hit the automatic locks before they could get to her; then she could start it up with a roar and swing round in a vicious circle, am the wheel, hit the accelerator" (164). With two strangers approaching her, Kyra felt helpless and reacted with aggression. They respond by covering a side of the house with graffiti directed at her "Pinche Puta", which translates to "Scullion Whore". "She stopped as if she'd been jerked on a leash. She was bewildered at first, then outraged, and finally just plain frightened." (223). This propels her further into her fear and she begins to check for them every time she visits the house, paranoid. When she notices the crowd of latino men that gather outside of the 7-11, she responds by calling a friend that will guarantee them out of her life, even if it means they will loose their lives in the United States. "She was on her way back to the car, thinking she'd drive Mike Bender by here tomorrow and see if he couldn't exert some pressure in the right places, call the INS out here, get the police to crack down, something, anything...That's what she was thinking, not in any heartless or calculating way-everybody had a right to live- but in therms of simple business sense..." (158). Even though she barely visits the 7-11, Kyra feels intimidated by the large group of latino men and reacts with unnecessary intensity. She clings onto the Da Ros place due to a fantasy she has of living there. "There was no one at the Das Ros place, no muggers, no bogeymen, no realtors or buyers. Kyra walked him through the house, as she did every third or fourth night, extolling its virtues as if she were trying to sell it to him, and he asked her point-blank if she shouldn't consider dropping the listing. 'It's been what,' he said, 'nine months now without so much as a nibble?'" (246). To her, the Da Ros place is an escape from her life of threatening coyotes and illegal immigrants. Kyra's sudden aggression is slowly pushing away Delaney, who becomes annoyed by her little habits, such as going to check up on a house every few days. Throughout all of this, Kyra is slowly alienating her husband "She didn't see things the way Delaney did-he was from the East Coast, he didn't understand, he hadn't live with it all his life. Somebody had to do something about these people-they were ubiquitous, prolific as rabbits, and they were death for business" (159). Through these images, the reader learns more about Kyra's character: she is driven by fear and insecurity.

In Tortilla Curtain, Boyle argues that immigration is treated with ignorance in California. As some  Californians are wrapped up win their privileged lives, they only notice to how immigration affects them and then respond selfishly. Kyra does this when she calls her friend Mike after feeling overwhelmed by the number or latino men on the street corner. "'...I suddenly realize there's like fifty or sixty of them out there, all stretched out up and down the block, sitting on the sidewalk, leaning up against the walls, so I said to mike, 'We've got ot do something', and he got on the phone to Sid Wasserman and I don't know what Wasserman did but that street corner is deserted now, I mean deserted.'" (185). She then tries to justify it by saying "'..but theres just so many of them, they've overwhelmed us, the schools, welfare, the prisons and now the streets...'" (185). This is similar to the rationalization and that goes behind the destruction of the labor exchange. "Why should we be providing jobs for these people when we're looking at a ten percent unemployment rate right here in California- and that's for citizens. Furthermore, I'm willing to bet you'll see a big reduction in the crime rate once the thing's closed down. And if that reason isn't enough, I'm sorry, but quite frankly I resent having to wade through them every time I go to the post office." (192). The labor exchange just annoys the members of the community because it gets in the way of their convenience. They destroy it without thinking of how many people it will leave unemployed and starving. When Kyra finds a shopping cart by a property she is selling, she instantly concludes it belongs to an immigrant. "...transients used those carts. Bums. The homeless and displaced. Crazies. Mexicans. Winos...Suddenly the image of a village she'd seen on a tour of the immediacy ruins came back to her in all its immediacy...not here. Not on the Da Ros property. How could you explain something like that to a prospective buyer?" (163). She feels threatened because she jumps to the conclusion that the owner of the cart is latino. She fears that the house will have a less likely chance of being sold. After Delaney gets his car stolen, he buys a similar one. After the buys it, he meet Kyra for lunch and drives up to the valet. He resents the fact that the valet is latino because he believes a latino man stole his car. "There'd been a moment there, handing over the keys to the young Latino, when he felt a deep shameful stab of racist resentment- did they all have to be Mexican?" (149). Delaney is angered at the amount of immigrants in California because it makes him feel less safe about his car. They rationalize excuses against immigration, but Arroyo Blanco residents oppose immigration because it makes them uncomfortable.  Boyle is writing this book to upper/middle class Californians. Boyle connects to his readers through Kyra and Delaney and then shows them American and Candido's life to appeal to pathos.  He uses the layout of one chapter of a middle class family and an illegal immigrant couple so the reader will identify with their choices and then see how if affects others.