Will Nash CCQCs 1

The American dream has been rigged since the founding of this country. Foreigners are made to believe that they can come here with absolutely nothing and make a fortune for themselves and their families. The harsh reality is that it is near impossible to even get a low paying job without a work permit. The American dream was mostly based off the insane capitol earned by a few individuals. Almost all of the wealthiest people in the United States were born into privilege and had the best schooling and tutors throughout their life. In Tortilla Curtain, the classes are kept separate, a quote about Delany says, "There were days when he worked himself into such a state he could barely lift his fingers to the keys, but fortunately the good days outnumbered them, the days when he celebrated his afternoon hikes through the chaparral and the ravines of the mist-hung mountains, and that was what people wanted--celebration, not lectures, not the strident call to ecologic arms, not the death knell and the weeping and gnashing of environmental teeth."(32). This tends to be the life of many middle class citizens, having many good days while still providing for their family. While Kyra wants an even bigger house, Cándido and América would gladly settle for much less. Their perception of the American dream is simply to have “just four walls and a roof” (29). Even with the drastically different views of the “American dream” that exist, it is very hard to obtain much at all without certain privileges received at birth.

I found there to be many parallels between the community of Arroyo Blanco in Tortilla Curtain and our society in Marin. Some of the most prominent parallels were the middle/upper class lifestyle and the isolation of the society. The book describes an average morning in the Mosbacher household, “Kyra sipped her coffee and washed down her twelve separate vitamin and mineral supplements with half a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice”(31). It goes on to say that she drove her Lexus to her realty job at which she is very successful. To me, this represents a typical morning for a family living in Marin. Kyra has the time and recourses to take twelve vitamin and mineral supplements. Candido could never afford this type of luxury. He was just concerned with his survival and the survival of his family. Tortilla Curtain does a good job of telling both sides of the story and creating sympathy for the situation that many Mexican immigrants are currently in. Much of the population of Marin takes their privilege for granted and could never imagine what it would be like to have to get across the US border just to try to provide for their family. Arroyo Blanco was described as a “private community, comprising a golf course, ten tennis courts, a community center and some two hundred and fifty homes...”(30) Marin is similar in the sense that it is cut off from many of the harsh realities that exist in the world. There is pain and suffering not far from here that we are oblivious to, not unlike the situation in Arroyo Blanco.