The title of this novel, The Tortilla Curtain, by T. Boyle, raises questions about borders, specifically the metaphorical or real walls separating Mexico from the U.S. The Tortilla Curtain, in both real life and this novel, represents an established but vulnerable border, which the lines are crossed. It is a story which uses much more symbolism than true reality.
The book is about a developed neighborhood called Topanga Canyon. This little neighborhood is full of wealthy white liberal Californians who know what is going on in every home on the block, and who looks down on the desperately poor illegal Mexican immigrants who want to come in. Symbolism is found throughout nearly the entire book, it all starts when the talk of fences comes up. Delaney and his wife build a fence to keep the outside out, and when it doesn't work, they just add on to it. Soon after, their neighborhood wants a fence to keep people out, creating boundaries not only for the outside, but a shelter for the inside. .
Delaney builds a fence to keep the coyotes out-he claimed, which could be taken symbolically as any foreign intruder (or in this book, Mexicans). Yet it is very ironic that the people who actually build his fence are the Mexicans, in which he is trying to keep out. Not only Mexicans, but the Mexican that Delaney hit with his car who was Candido. .
The title of this book is talking about a boundary, but more of a boundary that is private and a boundary that is hiding something on the other side of it. This curtain is suggesting the border between Mexico and the United States, which because you can cross this border, is similar to a curtain because it hides what is on either side from each other. .
In the end, it took me a while to get a true grasp of the main message of this book and what this book is about. I noticed that this book lacked an outcome and a solution in the end. I wondered if Boyle chose to do the ending the way he did for the sake of weirdness, or it was some kind of extended metaphor.
T.C. Boyle, a proponent of immigration and advocate of both legal and illegal immigrants. In the novel The Tortilla Curtain Boyle uses the extended-analogy of the coyote to draw parallel lines between the actual coyote and the symbolic coyote. Boyle uses the actual coyote to show how they live in ...
Tortilla Curtain is a very interesting book that has realistic views. It clearly illustrates the real problems that surround the daily life of Americans and illegal immigrants on the Mexican border. It shows the reader the problems the Mexicans and Americans face every day. The novel illustrates to ...
Boyle uses the coyote throughout the novel Tortilla Curtain to draw repeatedly parallels between the actual coyote and the figurative coyote. ... In each of these cases, we see how the coyote plays an important role in The Tortilla Curtain. ...
The Shaping of a Woman's Success The brilliantly written novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle recounts the story of two couples in the United States both pursuing their idea of the American dream. The first couple, Delaney and Kyra are a modern, middle class pair. Candido and America, the...
What does the liberal white suburbanite do when the walls around his community no longer keep out the forces of "nature" with which he is (formally) so much in love? T.C Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain approaches this question from a perspective of irony. The book's central character, Delaney Mossba...
The novel "The Tortilla Curtain- by T. Coraghessan Boyle is about two Mexican immigrants who come to America to be free. One of the Mexican immigrants, Candido, gets hit by the car of a white man. There other immigrant is America, who is the wife Candido. America is a seventeen-year-old Mexican...
The Coyote In The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the author repeatedly draws parallels between the actual coyote and the figurative coyote. Boyle uses the actual coyote to show how the animal actually is. In this novel the coyote acts as a symbol for many things. Boyle parallels the figur...
California's Love/Hate of Immigrants Individuals around the world view California/the United States as the premiere place to raise a family, and to have a nice white house on the corner of some quiet street. They see California as the opportunity to work a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. job in...