Literature Analysis

1. The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle is a novel about a man named Candido Rincon and his wife, America, who entered the United States illegally, to achieve the American Dream in California.  However, California life is not treating them so well because they have no home, so they must camp out at a national park. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra live in a gated community. The two couple's met when Delaney hit Candido (accidently.) The two couple's had great influence over one another. However, Candido is feeling shameful because he is unable to get a job and because of an injury he has. His wife is pregnant, and is unable to provide for her. Even America is able to get a job. Delaney’s family has a few problems with the struggle of criminals and illegal aliens. While Candido causes a huge forest fire, America is given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Socorro. The couple is forced to hide in the Delaney's shack where America confesses how she was raped, which might have caused their child to be blind. Delaney is extremely angry and runs towards the shack to attack the couple, however, a landslide hits the shack. The couple survives, but their baby died from drowning in the river. In the end, Candido saves Delaney from drowning, even though the discrimination and racisim he has against the couple.

2. The theme of this novel is racisim and discrimination. Candido is constantly judged and hated against because he is an illegal alien. His wife, America is raped because of her race. The novel proves how good people are good people. They do not have to be white. It is shown when Candido saves Delaney, although Delaney hates Candido because he is a foreigner.

Pg. 101 “Do you realize what you’re saying? Immigrants are the lifeblood of this country—we’re a nation of immigrants—and neither of us would be standing here today if it wasn’t.”
Pg. 127 “She felt a surge of hope: the worst of it was behind them now.”

3. The author’s tone for this novel is very serious and sad. Boyle is a realistic author describing the world because illegal aliens are shut out against. (Not always) He provides a story that can be related to and looked up on.

Pg. 10 “He tried to picture the man’s life—the cramped room, the bag of second-rate oranges on the streetcorner…and the cold mashed beans dug out of the forty-nine-cent can.”

Pg. 16 “His whole life was a headache, his whole stinking worthless pinche vida.”

Pg. 332 “All he cared about was this Mexican, the man who’d invaded his life like some unshakable parasite, like a disease”

4. Boyle had a variety of literary elements and techniqutes to express the message he wanted to send to his audience. He uses diction, symbols, foreshadowing, allegories, and such. Boyle is into detail throughout the novel. The diction/syntax he uses is comprehensive and causes the audience to feel what the characters are going through.

Imagery: “Everywhere he turned he saw those red-flecked eyes, the rictus of the mouth, the rotten teeth and incongruous shock of gray in the heavy black brush of the mustache- they infested his dreams, cut through his waking hours like a window on another reality.”

Diction:“The wind screamed. It screamed for blood, for sacrifice, for Tenksgeevee, and the flames answered it.”

Symbolism: “No education, no resources, and no skills—all they’ve got to offer is a strong back”

Allegory: “And Candido, despite his exhaustion, despite everything, began dragging the big balky sheet of plastic up through the unyielding brush, and as the branches tore at him and his fingers stiffened and the helicopters swooped overhead, he thought of Christ with his cross and his crown of thorns and wondered who had it worse.”

Simile: “All he wanted was work, and this was his fate, this was his stinking pinche luck, a violated wife and a blind baby and a crazy white man with a gun, and even that wasn’t enough to satisfy an insatiable God: no they’ll all had to drown like rats in a bargain.”

CHARACTERIZATION:

1. The author uses indirect and direct characterization so the audience can understand the character's feelings.

Pg. 185 “I agree that everybody’s got a right to work and have a decent standard if living, but there’s just so many of them, they’ve overwhelmed us, the schools, welfare, the prisons and now the streets…”

Pg. 272 “So she sat there, as miserable as she’d ever been in her life, and closed her mind down till the world went from a movie screen to a peephole, and still she wanted to close the peephole too.”

Pg. 352 “Delaney was drawn so much closer to that cold black working heart of the world than he’d ever dreamed possible”

2. The author's diction/syntax changes as it goes character to character. It is based on individuals.

Pg. 29 “She wanted. Of course she wanted… A house, a yard, maybe a TV and a car too”

Pg. 127 “She felt a surge of hope: the worst of it was behind them now.”

3. The protagonist never changes from the beginning to end. Candido is still the same nice, genuine person he is. The antagonist, Delaney changes throughout the novel because he realizes that just because Candido is Mexican, doesn't make him a bad person. In fact, he's a hero.

4. I felt I have the characters before because the novel is so realistic about racisim and discrimination towards Mexicans. Also, in the town I live in, we have illegal aliens.

Pg. 200 “He was a criminal for daring to want it, daring to risk everything for the basic human necessities, and nor even those were to be denied him.”