William Rosenberg CCQCs

William Rosenberg

11/17/14

AP Comp

Tortilla Curtain CCQCs

Boyle included many themes and beliefs of American society in his book.  Whether it be the general mistrust of minorities or the feeling of superiority that many white people carry around, Boyle focuses on subjects that are relevant to difficulties that minorities are faced with today.  Right away, when Delaney hits Candido with his car, Delaney is more worried about his Acura than the life of the man.  Quickly after hitting Candido with his beloved car, Delaney compensates for the accident with a mere 20 dollar bill.  When fixing the impact damage on his car, Delaney called his spouse and explained the situation.  When confronted by his girlfriend, Delaney stated that it didn't matter that he only gave Candido 20 dollars because Candido was Mexican.

“No, listen, Kyra: the guy’s okay.  I mean, he was just…bruised, that was all.  He’s gone, he went away.  I gave him twenty bucks.”

‘Twenty--?’

and then, before the words could turn to ash in his mouth, it was out: “I told you--he was Mexican.” Pg 15

Most people, no matter how hard they try, do have certain unreasonable/irrational biases and prejudices.  Even in typically liberal and humanitarian, like Marin, people have ingrained prejudices against certain groups of people.  Even Delaney, who considers himself a “liberal humanist”, has racist views.

A major symbol in “The Tortilla Curtain” is the wall that encompasses the entirety of the Arroyo Blanco community.  The wall was constructed to keep crime and Mexicans out of the predominantly, if not exclusively white housing development, Arroyo Blanco, in the Los Angeles area.  Even though the wall is initially opposed by a few citizens of Arroyo Blanco, the majority are in favor of creating a racial divide.

“L.A. stinks.  The world stinks.  Why did ourselves?  That’s why we’re here, that’s why we got out.  You want to save the world, go to Calcutta and sign on with Mother Teresa.  I saw that gate is necessary, as vital, essential and un-do-withoutable as the roofs over our heads and the dead bolts on our doors.  Face up to it.” Pg 44

The wall, with strong literal context, also has some figurative context.  Obviously, the wall was put in place to divide the upper middle class whites from the poor minorities and immigrants.  In a non-literal way, the wall represents the social divide and nativist pushes in America.  By designating immigrants to menial labor tasks and instilling a sense of superiority among native born people.  This sense of natural superiority leads to a social divide and sets of prejudices against the lower class of people.  The wall, when paired with the title of the book, “The Tortilla Curtain”, can be interpreted as a reference to the Cold War era divide between East and West.  With the town wall representing the physical barrier of the Berlin wall, that separated the poor, crime ridden communist east and the prosperous and capitalist  Western Germany and the clear reference to the figurative divide of the Iron Curtain; Boyle compares the socio-economic divide between whites and immigrants to that of the Cold war.