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 reality and He uses the symbolic coyote to mirror the lives of the illegal immigrants to coyotes.
Boyle portrays the coyote as not a ruthless animal but as an animal that would do anything to stay alive just as an illegal alien would do. For Example when the coyote jumps the fence to kill and eat Delaney's pet terrier Osbert. .
"Just as he was clearing Jordan's things from the table and checking the digital display on the microwave for time-7:32-the morning fell apart. Or no: it was torn apart by a startled breathless shriek that rose up from beyond the windows as if out of some primal dream" (Pg 36).
Delaney also uses another scene in the Novel where Candido takes dog food from a .
bucket in some ones back yard and eats a handful of it.
"He removed the lid and saw the kibbled dog food inside, reddish brown pellets shaped like stars. His stomach rumbled-he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning-and he put a handful of the pellets in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.".
(pg 299-300).
Boyle used this rhetorical device to show the parallelism between the coyotes and illegal immigrants, He showed that they would do what it took to survive whether it be hopping an eight-foot fence in the coyote's case or eating dog food in Candido's case.
A coyote is an adaptable animal, which Boyle makes almost unquestionably certain but he also portrays the same theme in illegal immigrants. In this scene Delaney is describing the coyote in his essay "Pilgrim at Topanga Creek".
"One coyote, who makes his living on the fringes of my community has learned to simply chew his way through the plastic irrigation pipes whenever he wants a drink.