Izzy Snow CCQCs Part One

In "Tortilla Curtain", Boyle uses Delaney's blog as a way to show the sheltered life that Delaney leads. Delaney ironically includes apart of the title of the blog in his license plate. "The license plate-PILGRIM-caught the sun as he rose and clapped the grit for his hands.." (5). Although he feels as though he "stood apart from his fellow men and women, that he saw more deeply and felt more passionately-particularly about nature" (33) he has very few qualities that are similar to a pilgrim. Unlike the real pilgrims Candido and America who camp in the canyon, when Delaney interacts with nature he is well-supplied and has his various gadgets with him. "Who am I, manzanita stick in hand and nylon backpack clinging to my shoulders like a furled set of wings.” (76). He brings a plentiful amount of food from his home and a blanket to protect him from the cold “Darkness is coming on a s I spread my blanket on the earth..My fare is humble: an apple, a handful of trail mix, a Swiss cheese sandwich and a long thirsty swallow of aqua pura from the bota bag.” (78).  The brand names Delaney includes in his blog reveals that his audience must be a lot like him, privileged people who enjoy the outdoors. Also, the fact that Delaney refuses to go beyond city limits shows a lack of sense of adventure, a quality necessary in a pilgrim, “I am climbing into the fastness of the Santa Monica Mountains within sight and sound of the second-biggest city in the country (within the city limits for that matter), to spend a solitary night” (76). He is also very familiar with the places he hikes, as if to suggest that he only sticks with the trails he is familiar with to talk about in his blog. Boyle uses the image of his wife dropping him off at a trail to amplify Delaney’s sheltered life “From the moment my wife drops me off at the Trippet Ranch trailhead with a kiss and promises to come for me at nine the next morning, I feel a primeval sense of liberation, release...” (77). When Delaney begins one of his usual hikes by the creek, he encounters a group of hispanic men. “It took him a moment, then he understood: Spanish, they were speaking Spanish. He was already angry with himself, angry even before he turned away and tried to slink of out the reeds like a voyeur, angry before the choice was made. The hike was over, the day ruined” (115). He is so threatened by these men that he feels he must turn around. He responds to the group with fear and immediately begins to turn home. Upon returning to the parking lot, he then finds that his car has been stolen. He is finally the most like a pilgrim he has ever been, no simple route home and surrounded with unfamiliar faces. He is terrified. “For fear of his life he had to hop the guardrail and plow through the brush, but it was slow going and the burrs and seed heads caught in his socks and tore at his naked legs, and all the while his head was pounding and his throat gone dry over the essential question of the day: what had happened to the car?” (119-120).

Delaney’s, Kyra’s and the citizens of “Arroyo Blanco Estates” everyday customs are very similar to those found in the Marin County culture, Every morning, Kyra’s son Jordan has a healthy, nutrient-rich, organic meal. “Kyra insisted on the full nutritional slate for her son every morning-fresh fruit, granola with skim milk and brewer’s yeast, hi-fiber bar. The child needed roughage. Vitamins. Whole grains” (34). Their personalities and liberal-humanist views parallel with the norm beliefs in Marin. “They were joggers, nonsmokers, social drinkers, and if now full-blown vegetarians, people who were conscious of their intake of animal fats. Their memberships included Sierra Club, Save the Children, the National Wildlife Federation and the Democratic Party. They preferred the contemporary look to Early American or kitsc” (34). Marinites share the similar love of hiking with Delaney, “I have a handful of raisins and a blanket: what more could I want? All the world knows I am content” (79). The houses in Santa Monica are similar to those found in Marin. “...the blue-green lawns with their bursts of flowers- flowers everywhere, the very trees on the streets in bloom-and the tall angular house that rose out of the hills behind them, everyone striped and striped again with windows, as if they were expecting an invasion from the sea” (95). The houses are also similarly gated and the also have names in Spanish. “His house sat at the end of Pinon, in a cul-de-sac that marked the last frontier of over development.” (64). Similarly, both residents of Marin and of Delaney’s town have ignorant ideas of immigration. When Delaney runs into his friend Jack at the store, Jack tells him of all the negative effects immigration has on the United States. After Delaney calls Jack racist, he responds:

“...Did you know that the U.S accepted more immigrants last year than all the other countries of the world combined-and that half of them settled in California? And that’s legal immigrants, people with skills, money, education. 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...” (101).

In addition to this, Delaney instantly thinks that Candido is an illegal immigrant because he refuses medical care. Jack addresses this when he says “You want another crazy Mexican throwing himself under your wheels hoping for an insurance payoff? Or worse you want one of them behind the wheel bearing down on you, no insure, no brakes, no nothing?” (102).  These are similar to the racist ideas citizens of Marin grow when they are sheltered from a diverse community.