Throughout the book, each of the characters face her or his own unique problems, or setbacks. Boyle carefully picks these problems out in order to create a growing sense of confusion, vulnerability, and powerlessness among each character, that continues to grow along with the story. When things progressively start to look better, something suddenly happens for the worst, or throws the character off course. ‘“They hit me with something,” he said, his voice so pinched and hoarse she thought at first he’d been strangled. “A baseball bat, I think. Right here.” He lifted a hand to his hairline and touched the place where the blood was blackest. “They got everything. Every penny”(234). When Cándido and América’s lives appeared to be heading in the right direction, it was all suddenly destroyed, and it forced them to go back to their previous home in a devastated state. Boyle uses scenes like these to portray how vulnerable and powerless Cándido and América are, and all other immigrants struggling to find work and a place to live.
Boyle also shows how not just the poor are confused and vulnerable, but also the wealthy like Kyra and Delaney. “He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it. Despite his headlong rush, despite the quickness of his feet and the hard - honed sinewy strength of his legs, despite his rage and determination and the chorus of howls from his wife and son, he was impotent. The coyote scaled the fence, rung by rung, as if it were a ladder, and flew from the eight foot bar at the top...” (194). While this situation isn't as severe as Cándido’s, it is a prime example of how Delaney and Kyra’s fenced off house isn't enough, and they too are powerless, and left in disbelief.
One of Boyle’s biggest arguments in Tortilla Curtain is that American citizens have a luxurious lifestyle compared to illegal immigrants, and their problems are far less critical and serious than they believe them to be. Up in Arroyo Blanco, Delaney worries about what he is going to write about next in his nature column, and complains how other writers across the U.S. have material to write about and that they have it better off. “What was there to recommend in hundred - degree temperatures, zero - percent humidity and winds that forced fine grains of degraded sandstone up your nostrils every time you stepped out the door? Where was the charm in that?” (240). Boyle uses this to show the luxury Delaney has of being able to work at his home, on a low stress subject, yet he still feels he has legitimate problem. In contrast, Cándido is informed that the only place he knows where he can get work has been shut down, “ Cándido felt his jaws clench. What were they going to do now? If there was no work here anymore and La Migra to make sure of it, he and América would have to leave - either that or starve to death” (199). Boyle uses these contrasting situations to illustrate his argument that upper middle class American citizens have it better off, and their problems of, “not knowing what to write about,” are much less critical and unimportant to those who are poorer, and need to find jobs in order so they do not starve to death.
As brooks explains in his first CCQC, each character goes through their own problems throughout the book. No matter who they were, White or Mexican, rich or poor, everybody had problems that they had to deal with no matter what, and I think this translates very realistically into real life. I think that in real life everyone goes through there own problems as well, however they are all different, and sometimes it depends on the situation they are in. For example: Candido and America had the problem of trying to find shelter and putting dinner on the table while Kyra had the problem of not selling the Da Rose house. This shows how people in different situations have different problems. And in some cases, being at a disadvantage or having more problems, can actually be an advantage. I read an eye opening book about this concept called David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.
ReplyDeleteIn your first CCQC, the idea of both couples being thrown into a whirl wind of suffrage and pain is very realistic. Bad things are bound to happen and they do to both Delaney, Kyra. Candido, and America at certain points in the Tortilla Curtain. “He was being walled in, buried alive, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.” (244). He is making an assertion on how corrupt their lives get and how they worsen over time in the book. Those who seem to have everything, get stuck to belongings and when they loose sight of the little things, it can become a big deal. This is what happens with the Mossenbachers. Candido and America come out of nothing and end up with nothing. They loose a lot in these term of events which are juxtaposed to Delaney and Kyra. Each dilemma they go through is parallel to a new problem that they all go through in different ways.
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