Will Sileo's CCQC's

Will Sileo

AP Comp

11/16/14

TORTILLA CURTAIN - FIRST HALF CCQC’s

Boyle uses Irony to great effect to display the contrast of the two realms of American living. As the reader, we can see how quite similar, but at the same time very different, Delany and Candido are. For instance, both react almost the same to the car crash, while still on opposite sides of the accident. Delany reconciles with himself for hitting Candido by telling himself that he was just a Mexican, and it was his fault he had run out into the road. When he calls his wife to tell her what happened, the only explanation for why he let the man leave with just 20 dollars was “I told you - he was Mexican.” (p 15)  Candido does the same telling himself that it was the fault of the stupid gabacho, resenting him because Delaney lives in a well to-do community and Candido squats out in a canyon. “And then that pink faced gabacho ran him down with his flaming gabacho nose and the little lawyer glasses clenched over the bridge of it.” (p17) Both men do this as a way of assigning blame onto the other, making it really hard to tell whose fault it was in the first place. Did Candido run out into the road or was Delany being careless?

Boyle uses the buddha cleaning job as an ironic symbolism. Rubbing the buddhas belly for luck is done quite often in many east asian cultures, and America spends an entire 8 hours scrubbing the bellies of countless buddha statues in the shop of one of Delany’s neighbors. “America didn't care about the fumes or the tired nasal rant of the gringa...all she cared about was pleasing this healthy big bearded fat man who’d given her the chance to earn the money she needed to stay alive” (p93)This being a symbol for luck, it is ironic that the book takes a downward turn from there. While she is hired again by the same man, this and a few other good events are severely put down by the larger amounts of misfortunes brought upon them. Whether this is because of the buddhas or not, Boyle leaves that up to the reader to decide.