Waterhouse CCQCs 2

In the novel The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle creates an environment unceasingly filled with confusion, vulnerability and powerlessness through a series of unfortunate events, but also, more effectively, by giving his protagonists a victory only when it’s to be taken away. Boyle does this pattern of take, take, take, give, take, so predictably the reader begins to suspect and fear the consequences of a happy proceeding. For example, Candito and America are living in a dire situation and bad things happen to them one after another, the car accident, the illness from drinking creek water, the kids who vandalize their camp, no work to be had, then as soon as they find work and things look up the tide turns against them once again. America walks to their camp dreaming of a life she can now see in their future, “the picnic basket, one of those portable radios playing, a little boy in short pants and a girl with ribbons in her hair.”(139) At this moment of hope America comes across the man with the backwards hat and when he rapes her it is a foreboding sign of things to come. After this horrific encounter America contracts an STD, the labor exchange closes, and when they venture into town all their money is stolen. This cycle continues with Candito and America but they are not the only ones who are impacted by the cycle: so are Delaney and Kyra. As soon as Delaney and Kyra finally feel safe behind their newly heightened fence, their other dog is taken and they feel “surprise first, then shock, then recognition, and finally horror.”(194). When Delaney has the success of catching a picture of “his Mexican” spray painting the wall the picture shows his friend’s son. Another victory of Delaney’s is snuffed out as soon as it is won, as soon as he finds the person he believes caused all his misfortune, “the light was snuffed out and the faces were gone” and he is swept up in a mudslide.

In the novel The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle uses diction and imagery to give his characters depth and to shape his audience’s perception of his character’s morality. Boyle uses weak diction in regard to his character Delaney Mossbacher, and paints him as emasculated and easily coercible. In the first scene of the book Delaney is rattled after getting in an accident. Boyle uses pitiful diction to describe Delaney already showing him as weak, “Delaney’s hands trembled on the wheel”, “he clung to the side of the car,” Even when Delaney is doing an honorable thing and going to go get help he thinks he will “jog to the lumberyard for help” not run as most do in emergencies, jog. On the other hand, the character Candito is described from the very beginning as strong and masculine. In that same first scene, when he is laying, broken and helpless after being hit by a car, Delaney thinks of him as “ the man with the red-flecked eyes and graying mustache, the daredevil, the suicide.” Throughout the book Candito continues this masculinity in one way by being determined to provide for his family, when his wife wants to work to earn money because he is injured, “ ‘No.’ he said, and his tone was final, clamped around the negative like a set of pliers, ‘I won’t have it.’ ”. In the end Delaney shows himself to be a raving lunatic driven to hunting out Candito in the pouring rain, with a gun. Candito shows what kind of man he is even when he loses everything in a mudslide, including the life of his daughter, even after he’s seen Delaney point a gun at his family, when Delaney reaches out a hand for help, Candito grabs hold and saves his life. Boyle seems to be saying that strong masculine people see things more clearly, strong masculine people are more morally sincere, that weak emasculated people are more selfish, weak emasculated people do not see things as clearly and are not as moral.