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The Tortilla Curtain - Part I

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Inhalt und Analyse​

Chapter 1 - Content​

  • Delaney wants to drop off his recyclables at the local recivling center
  • Hits Candido (undocumented illegal immigrant) with this car
  • Candido wanted to purchase food at a local store
  • As Candido gets hit, he refuses medical help offers from Delaney
  • Delaney sees this refusal as a proof of his immigration status
  • Delaney finds out Candido lives in the canyon below, which is seen as wilderness by Delaney —° He gets angry on Candido for that because he is polluting the wilderness
  • Delaney realizes he could be sued and that he almost killed Candido
  • gives Candido 20 Dollars, abordones him „poor son of a bitch“

Chapter 1 - Analysis​

  • Delaney takes his care to the Acura dealership to have it repaired (it suffered damager after the accident) —° He tells the car salesman that he hit a DOG
  • After dropping off the car he calls his wife Kyra and tells her what happened (the truth) —° She asks not about the car at first, asks for how he is
  • Krya wants Delaney to call Jack Jardine, the family attorney (and president of the Arroyo Blanco Estates Home Owmners Association) for advice ———————————————————— —° First chapter gives important insights into Delaneys character
  • Has only a basic level of social responsibility (for example he recycles things)
  • Considers the victim only as last after impact (first thought was about car, then insurance rates, only THEN the victim)
  • Delaney recgonizes in some way that what he has done is WRONG —° Even though the man will probaply survive and it will not have any negative consequences for Delaney, he still „couldnt shake the image of him“
  • Delaneys inability to emathize with Candido seems to be because of is defsire to preserve nature and his horror that Candido is camping in the canyon --> Thinks that Candido is littering and running the risk of natural disaster ("since the canyon was a tinderbox this time of the year")
  • BUT: Candido is not actively littering into the environent and is just crossing the road
  • Delaney only thinks that Candido is a criminal who is "turn[ing] th whole world into a garbage dump"
  • --> Delaney rather quickly judges others by simple things
  • It also suggests that Delaney is not actually upset at Candidos presence from an environmental perspective, bit it might be easyer for him to convince himself that Candido is bad --> Less fault would go to him in his world

Chapter 2 - Content​

This chapter describes the World of Candido and America and their campin the canyon

  • Candido is badly hurt (because of the accident)
  • most likely needs attention of a doctor --> impossible due to their circumstances of being "illegal" (undocumented), having no money and not being able to speak English
  • When America returns after spending 2$ on a bus tciekt to check out a possible job for her, which she didnt get (so they "wasted" 2$), the realizes that "she was in the worst trouble of her life"
  • --> She has to care for his injuries, but herself must go down to the labor exchange and present herself as a day laborer to see if she can earn any money / anything
  • Candido finds this emasculating and upsetting (that she must go down to labor exchange) and has no other choice but t allow her to go -- Because they are running out of food and have no money, he is badly injured

Chapter 2 - Analysis​

This intro to the Rincon family provides background into both Candido and America

  • Both had left Mexico in hopes of a better life
  • America had been lured of Candidos promises of "washing machines, vacuum cleaners, the glitter of the North like a second Eden" (she wants to be a traditional house wife")
  • America begins to doubt that things will work out as he has promised
  • Candido is somewhat hardened to the realities of life, America is NOT
  • Candido is at the Age of 32
  • America is at the Age of 17
  • America has most likely never experienced such hardships in life --> Lived in parents house, now is on her own for the first time

Chapter 3 - Content​

  • During breakfast a coyote jumps the fence in the backyard and carries awasy one of Kyras "twin" SDandie Dinmount terriers (one of her Dogs)
  • Delaney immediately springs to actrion and chases the coyote but is unable to save the dog
  • Eventually finds bart of the dogs carcass, brings the mangled dogs leg to the nights HOA meeting
  • That meeting is about whether or not to install a gate to keep out "criminals" and other "undesirables"
  • Delaney states that how his eighbors "feeding" (they just leave out eatables) of coyotes has caused his dogs death
  • HOA members find his outburst and the mangled dogs leg he brought wildly inappropiatee and oay gun kuttke heed -- Their primary concern is the gate resolution which was controversial but does pass
  • After the HOA meeting, Jack Jardine son, who was present when Delaney visited Jack and spoke with him about the accident, questions Delaney about what happend. He seems to want to gain information about whre the suspected undocumented individuals were camping

Chapter 3 - Analysis​

  • Delaney cares about Kyra and her son, but isnt especially attatched to her dogs
  • Still he is very anggry abouzt what happened to Sacheverell (Kyras Dog)
  • He feels the coyote comming onto his property was like a invasion
  • Also believes it vould have been avoided -- if his neighbours hadnt been "feeding" wild aniamls, the dog would be still alive
  • This makes him frustrated, thinks this shows that the neighbours dont understand how to live alongside naturee properly
  • Delaneys chat with Jack Jr. is also important
  • Delaney is still vorried about the hit-and-run accident and whether there will be any consequences
  • He notied that when he visited Jacks home for legal advice (about the accident), Jack didnt take him somewhere privately to talk ---- Jack Jr. likely overheard part of the conversation
  • Delaney assumes Jack Jr. is judging him for what he did (for the accident)
  • (Delaney is wrong about that assumption) -- Jack Jr. tries to find out where the migrant camp is so he can go and attack the people there

Chapter 4 - Content​

  • Candido stays at the camp to recover from his injuries while America goes to find work at the labor exchange
  • At the labour exchange she meets Mary, an American woman also looking for work
  • America waits until the exchange closes atr noon but DOESNT get hired
  • Back at the camp Candido is too hurt to boil water, so he drinks straight from the stream --> gets very bad diarrhea
  • Jack Jr. and his friends show up to Candidos camp and trash it and salso write "Beaners Die" on a rock
  • Because he is so ill he cant do anything
  • The chapter also shares m,ore about Candido and Americas backstory:
    • America is actually Candidos former sister-in-law
    • They got together ater his wife cheated on him and got pregnant by another man while Candido was away working in the US When they (Candido and America) crossed into the US, the person they paid to guide them (called a "coyote") betrayed them and robbed them at the border
    • America also narrowly eescaped being secually assaulted (raped) during the crossing
important

"Coyotes" are people to help illegal immigrants smuggle them across the border into the US. They are in a kind related to the Coyotes (Animals) in the Book, beeing seen as bad etc

Chapter 4 - Analysis​

  • America had never broken the law before crossing the border without papers - that action scared her a lot
  • Even so, she is determined to make a better life and is willing to dodifficuilt or scrry things to achieve it, like going to the labor exchange alone (where mostly men are)
  • Candido worries about America while shes gone -- he is afraid she was caught by immigration officers, o that shell come back and think he abandoned her when she finds him missing
  • Jack Jr. and his friends are shown to be cruel -- even after noticing that a woman lives at the camp, they destroy everything anyway, inclusding the few belongings that clearly show how poor Candido and America are

Chapter 5 - Content​

  • After Sacheverells Death, Kyra is very upset and turns to Delaney for comfort
  • During this time, she asks if he ever found the dog -- he admits he di d, which makes her angry
  • She then discovers whats left of the dog -- a bloody leg Delaney had kept in the freeezer -- and is deeply shaken
  • Despite this, she gets up the next morning and goes back to work as a realor
  • She shows a property to some unenthausiastic buyers
  • She gets annoyed at a broken sprinkler and quietly blames her Hispanic gardener -- a man whose name she cant evene remember
  • On the way home, she starts to wonder if shes spending too much time on work and not enough with her family
  • The chapter ends with a reprint of Delaneys nature column "Pilgrim at Topanga Creek", wich talks about the contrast between nature and urban developments like Arroy Blanco Estates

Chapter 5 - Analysis​

  • Kyra is clearly good at her job - she understands buyers well and knows how to handle them She also seems to be tired of how much of her life work is taking up, asking herself why she only gets an hour and a half a day with her son
  • Delaneys nature column sounds very literaly and thoughtful, but it actually shows he doesnt truly care about nature -- he is more interested in how it makes im look and feel (nature)
  • At the end of his culumn, he writes about feeling at peace while coyotes sing around him -- but its very ironic:
    • His wifes dog was hust killed by a coyote
    • He was recently in a hit-and-run accident
    • Nobody in life is actually doing well
  • --> Despite all the beauty around him, everything in Delaneys world is actually falling apart

Chapter 6 - Content​

  • Its been 5 days since the accident and Candido still cant work --> America goes back to the labor exchange
  • This time she gets HIRED, along with the white woman Mary, to clean Buddha statues for Jim Shirley (a neighbor of the Mossbachers (Family of Delaney and Kyra))
  • The work America has to do is tough and the cleaning chemicals give off fumes that could harm her unborn baby (she is pregnant)
  • America works harder than Mary and even stys past the allotted time, hoping to be asked back the next day (to work for Jim Shirley again)
  • On the ride home, Jim Shirley puts his hand on her lap inappropiately -- but she doesnt ask him to stop (wants to be hired again)
  • Back at the camp, Candido is approached by a Spanish-speaking strange carrying a bedroll
  • Candido is worried the man might rob him, so he pretends to have nothing -- no money, no camp, saying it was all destroyed by wewhite man ("gabachos")

Chapter 6 - Analysis​

  • When America sees Mary being dropped off at her nice house, she is furious - Mary doesnt actually need the work the way America does, yet they are cometing for the same jobs (big "?" in Americas head)
  • America works two extra hours but is never paid for them, and she has no way to complain about it
  • She also doesnt feed able to tell Jim Shirley to remove his hand --> She is afraid she wont get hired anymore when she does, has no power in that situation
  • America notices that a gate has been put up around Arroyo Blanco Estates while she ways working insider the Shirley house
  • This gate is a symbol of the devide between the wealthy residents (Like Delaney and Kyra= and people like Candido and America)
  • But even outside the gated community, the same unfair power synamic exists:
    • Jim Shirley devides whether to pay her fairly or not
    • He decides whether to hire her again
    • He even feels he can ouch her body without her permission
  • --> America has almost no power in any of these situation

Chapter 7 - Content​

  • While making dinner, Delaney reealizes hes out of pasta and goes to the local grocery store to buy some
  • There he runs into his lawyer [Jack Jardine](/docs/Schule/English/The%20Tortilla%20Curtain/Characters/Jack Jardine) and his son
  • Jack says several sacist things, including blaming inmmigrants crossing the border for serious problems in the country
  • Delaney tries to push back and remind Jack that the US was built on immigration, but Jack doesnt listen
  • As Delaney leaves the store, he sees [Jack Jr.](/docs/Schule/English/The%20Tortilla%20Curtain/Characters/Jack Jr.) and his friends bullying and shoving Candido -- but he does nothing to help
  • The story then switches to Kyra, who is showing a huge mansion (the De Ros mansion) to potential buyers
  • She personally loves the property and wishes it were hers, but the buyers devide its not for them
  • The next day, Delaney goes hiking near where Candido and America are camped
  • He finds sleeping bags and rubbish everywhere and gets very angry
  • He runs into two men who say they are hiking which makes him uneasy -- he remembers a story about a woman being attacked while birdwatching
  • When he gets back to his car, he finds it has been stolen

Chapter 7 - Analysis​

  • This chapter is a turning point for Delaney
  • At first he still tries to be the "good liberal" by calling out Kacks racism -- but by the end of the chapter he has fallen into the same way of thinking
  • He blames Mexican immigrants for everything bad thats happened: The rubbish, the damage to nature, and his stolen car
  • When he tells Kyra " they stole my car", the word "they" shows he is now blaming all immigrants as a group (--> Racist)
  • The face he pictures when hes angry is Candidos -- even though theres no real proof Candido or any immigrant did anything wrong
  • The men he met hiking were speaking Spanish, and that alone was enought for Delaney to assmue they were illegal immigrants -- he doesnt consider that they could simply be American hikers
  • Delaney is no longer the open-minded, progressive person he thought he was:
    • He is now thinking just like [Jack Jardine](/docs/Schule/English/The%20Tortilla%20Curtain/Characters/Jack Jardine) (Rasist)
    • He also snt that different from [Jack Jr.](/docs/Schule/English/The%20Tortilla%20Curtain/Characters/Jack Jr.) -- After all, he nearly killed Candido with his car and did nothing to help him, just as [Jack Jr.](/docs/Schule/English/The%20Tortilla%20Curtain/Characters/Jack Jr.) bullied Candido without any reason

Chapter 8 - Content​

  • America goes back to the labor exchange and is hired abain by Jim Shirley
  • This time he forgets to gibe her protective gloves, the chemicals burn her hands
  • When she tells him, he eventuelly gives her gloves -- but does it rudely and without any care
  • After work she goes to the market car park to meet Candido, but he isnt there
  • She worries he may have been arrested by immigration officers-
  • After waiting for a while, she decides to head back to the camp -- where she is attacked and raped by two men

Chapter 8 - Analysis​

  • At the start of the chapter, America is actually feeling hopefull:
    • Candido is getting better
    • She believes they will find an apartment and steady work
    • The American dream feels like in reach
  • But everything continues to go wrong for her.
    • The work she finds is dangerouns and doesnt pay enough to live on
    • Then she is violently attacked and raped
  • The rape is seen as symbolic -- it connectsto the history of colonialism, where the conquest of the Americs also meant the conquest and abuse of native womens bodies by European man
  • This mixing of European and indigenous people created whatis known as "mestizaje"
  • America, like her ancestors, has done nothing wrong -- she is simply trying to survive, working in terrible conditions while pregnant, when her safety and bodily autonomy where taken from her
info

Colonialism is the practice of extending and maintaining political, social, economic, and cultural domination over a territory and its people by another people in pursuit of interests defined in an often distant metropole, who also claim superiority.