The Tortilla Curtain,
by T.C. Boyle, was a well-written, easy-reading page-turner about tough topics
that made the reader stop and think, even amid the exciting episodes in the
story. The story centers around illegal immigrants from Mexico and Americans, living
and crossing paths in the hills, forests and suburbs in California. The story
opens when a main character, American Delaney, hits another main character, Mexican
Candido, with his car. Morna also opened our discussion with this scene, asking
us how we might feel if we hit a Mexican and whether we would feel differently if
we hit an American. In the story, Delaney did stop and offer help, but Candido
gathered himself, asked for money only, and ran off with the $20 Delaney gave
him. Our brief discussion indicated that both the readers in our group and
Delaney figured out that Candido refused help because he was afraid of
deportation. Most of us seemed to agree that the mixture of anxiety and fear
and finally anger and frustration about the situation that Delaney experienced
would have been similar if we were in Delaney’s shoes. It seemed difficult to
differentiate how one might have felt had it been an American who suddenly appeared
from the woods and seemed to be trying to be run over.
Morna next asked us whether we had sympathy for the main
characters, Candido and Delaney and their wives. Dennis spoke up to say that he
didn’t like any of the characters. He said the coyote was his favorite
character, giving us all a laugh but also provoking thought as to the characters
of the characters. Quick on the draw, Morna asked what the coyote in the story
represented. A brief Google search on this topic indicates that the coyote symbolized
the Mexican illegal immigrants. The best answer I saw said that both the coyote
and the illegal immigrants hide in the forests and scavenge the edges of
populated and legally civilized areas; the coyote for food and the Mexicans for
food and work.
Feelings toward the immigrants that were attributed to the Americans
living in the subdivision called “White Canyon” that sat at the edge of the
forest were a major theme of the book. We discussed why the Mexicans chose the
dangers and difficulties of living in the USA illegally. The homeowners of
White Canyon voted for and proceeded to build a wall around their neighborhood
during the story. Clearly, the author created themes for thought by showing the
Americans building a wall to keep the immigrants out and then hiring the same
immigrants and inviting them in to build the wall.
In discussing the very problematic situation of Candido and
his wife and all the illegal immigrants who arrive in the USA in poverty, Amy
said it is part of the human condition, that people are born into the extreme
poverty. Marilyn said that some of the misadventures in the story were also
caused by bad decisions. In many cases, aspects of poverty can be caused by bad
decisions, one being when the Mexicans pay liars and crooks for help crossing
the border and then are robbed in Mexico before they cross. Pam asked why these
Mexicans were in the USA, and Marilyn said they were desperate and had hope to
better their lives by immigrating. Linda H. said that the USA had a reputation
for being good to immigrants.
We steered away from in-depth discussion of the current
political situation, as it had no influence on this book, which was published
in 1995.
Toward the end of our discussion, Joyce said that she had
noticed that the story indicated a lot of crime that Mexicans committed against
Mexicans. She thought the Mexicans might have had fewer misadventures had they
bonded together as a community and helped each other more, in their shared
experience of deprivation. Amy said the kind of lives we were reading about involved
individuals focused on themselves; thus, no room for establishing community. Further
illustrating the point that community is lacking, Dennis gave the example that American
contractors sometimes break into the homes where they have been paid to work,
as the immigrants did at White Canyon. Carla mentioned the man who organized
the job-distributing in the parking lot in the story, saying this showed that this
was an example of characters in the book, and people in general, have good and
bad traits and behaviors.
We discussed the ending of the book, which left it to the
reader to guess at the futures of the characters.
The Tortilla Curtain was exciting but essentially a story about a sad situation.
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