Miller CCQC's 2

In part two of Tortilla Curtain, Delaney's views on Mexicans in the community begin to shift. When Kyra began to talk to him about the labor exchange Delaney pointed out that the men there were Mexicans, "there was no hesitation anymore, no reluctance to identify people by their ethnicity, no overlay of liberal-humanist guilt. Mexicans, there were Mexicans everywhere" (p184). This moment marks a shift in Delaney's views. At the start of the book he resented racism, and believed that all men should have equal opportunities. Although in part two he often corrects himself and still reflects some belief that is was the right of the Mexicans to go to the labor exchange, he is beginning to change his views. This can also be seen when Delaney comes across a Mexican man in his neighborhood and immediately regards him as a threat "The man was a thief,  a liar, the stinking occupant of a stinking sleeping bag in the state forest, a trespasser, a polluter, a Mexican" (p229). Although some of Delaney's worries about this man came from the fact that he recognized the backwards Padres cap he wore, much of it also came from his ethnicity, whether Delaney was proud of it or not. It turned out the man was just delivering fliers, but Delaney had immediately assumed he was trespassing because of his ethnicity.   After that incident, Delaney recognizes the change that is happening to his views. "Delaney took a step back, so devastated he couldn't speak- what was happening to him, what was he becoming?" (p229). Delaney saw his shifting views and realized that he was becoming the type of person he used to condemn. This shift in Delaney echoed the shift in the community, walling out and stereotyping Mexicans as dirty and dangerous. Although it was not something Delaney wanted to admit to, his views on Mexicans were shifting towards more hostile and stereotypical ones.

In part two of Tortilla Curtain, the author created growing senses of vulnerability, and powerlessness as changes occur in the communities and lives of Delaney and Kyra. The sense of powerlessness built around Delaney comes from him, along with the community, being both literally, and figuratively walled in. When the men were building the wall, Delaney felt uncomfortable, "He tried to concentrate but he couldn't. There was a constant undercurrent of noise... He felt as if he were under siege" (p243). Delaney was powerless to the fact that he was being walled in, and, ironically, being walled in by the very sort of men that the wall would keep out. The sense of vulnerability built around Kyra comes in her meeting with two immigrants on one of her properties, and the impression that it left on her. "She saw the look the two exchanged, flickering, electric, a look of instant and absolute accord... She was afraid suddenly, struck deep in the root of her with the primitive, intimate shock of it" (p164). This confrontation was the first moment in the book where Kyra really showed fear or broke her confidence. In this moment and later visits to the house she was shaken and vulnerable, especially after she found graffiti left by the men. She was also left very vulnerable by the death of her second dog. These two situations led her to support the building of a wall around Arroyo Blanco Estates. As the lives of the Mosbachers begin to intertwine more with the lives of immigrants, they become powerless and vulnerable, just like their little white dogs.