The Tortilla Curtain - Part II
Quellen und Links
Inhalt und Analyse
Chapter 1 - Content
- Delaney buys a new car to replace his stolen one, then meets Kyra for launch
- The clouple also decide to make their backyared fence taller to keep coyotes out
- In the resteraunt car park, Kyra spots a fog left alone in a jeep and gets very upset
- She yells into the resteraunt to find the owner, and when he comes out she confronts him -- but he responds with anger and swearing
- Whie visiting one of her property listings, Kyra sees a group of men szanding outside a 7-11 for day work
- She decides their presence would put off potential buyers and plans to do something about it
- Back home, where the new fence is being built, Kyra notices one of the workers is injured
- She realizes this is the same man Delaney hit with his car
- At the end of the day, Kyra goes to checkon the De Ros house and comes across two men on the property
- She feels threatend, but tells them her husband and brother are inside waiting for her -- the men believe her and leave
- Kyra is left shaken and horrified that people like this are now in the area
Chapter 1 - Analysis
- Just like Delaney, Kyra reaches a turning point in this chapter where she becomes more fearful and hostile toward immigrants
- She is disturbed that homeless campers (who she assumes are immigrants) have made it all the way out to the De Rose property -- both for her safety and because she thinks it will hurt property sales
- There is a stiking contrast in how Kyra reaches to different situations:
- She is outraged when she sees a dog locked in a hot car and feels the need to step in and protect it
- But when she sees men standing outside a petrol station looking for work -- and bothering nobody -- she feels no sympathy at all, only concern for how it affects house prices
- In other words, she shows more compassion for animals that for people (at least immigrants)
- The two men Kyra encounters are almost certainly the same men who raped America -- but Kyra is left unharmed
- This contrast is very IMPORTANT:
- America is innocent, vulnerable, and just trying to survive -- and she is brutally attacked
- Kyra, swho looks down on these men and their very existence, walks away safely
- The difference is that Kyra is a well-dressed white woman, so the men believe her when she says people are waiting for her inside - an atvantage that America does not have --> Makes her a easy target
- This highlights the huge gap in power and privilege betreen the two women
Chapter 2 - Content
- Candido thinks back to a previous time he tried to enter the US and almost got caught by immigration officers
- He escaped by running across an eight-lan highway -- but two of the men with him tried to follow and were hit by cars and likely killed
- After this, a kind farmer took him in, fed him, and got a Spanish-speaking friend to help him
- Eventually Candido finds work with a man called Al Lopez, doing construction and home renovations
- This includes working on the Mossbachers new fence
- He loses the job when the worker he was filling in for (who had been off for hernia surgery) comes back and reclaims his place
- With more money in his pakcet than hes had in a long time, Candido celebrates by getting drunk
- He then turns on America and berates her for being raped
Chapter 2 - Analysis
- Throughout the novel, other characters have hit their breaking point -- and the reader expocts Candido to do the same
- He comes very close when he drunkenly lashes out at America, wanting to hurt her and himself ot of anger and helplessness
- He feels like a complete failure.
- He is stubborn and keeps his will to work and build a better life, even when everything seems hopeless
- The chapter ends with Candido wishing he could die just to escape all the pain -- but even that thought doesnt stop him from working hard to get a better life
- His reason for carrying on? Simply this: "Dead men didnt work either, did they?"
Chapter 3 - Content
- Kyra tells Delaney that her broker Sid Wasserman has dealt with the say labourers outside the 7-11 near her property listing
- She admints she isnt proud of it, but kustifies it by saying there are simply "too many" immigrants overwhelming schools, welfare, prisons, and the streets
- Delaney thinks back to a visit to a neighbours house -- a man named Dominick Flood, who is a client of Jack Jardine and wears a anckle monitor due to some kind of financial crime
- At this gathering, Delaney heares about a local woman named Sunny DiMandia who was raped
- The men at the event discuss what theyvedone to make the neighbourhood safer, including shutting down the colal labour exchange, which they blame for crime in the area
- At the end of the chapter, another coyote manages to climb the new eight-foot fence and runs off with Kyras other dog, Osbert
Chapter 3 - Analysis
- The main theme of this chapter is futility -- the feeling that nothing can be fdone
- Delaneys progressive, open-minded values have now completeley collapsed, even if he hasnt fully admitted it to himself
- He also said nothing when the conversation at Dominick Floods house turned racist and anti-immigrant
- Deep down, Delaney knows that when groups of animals (or people) migrate and complete for the same space, it leads to conflict -- but he does nothing with his knowlage
- The ending of the chapter is deeply symbolic and ironic
- The residents of Arroyo Blanco are furious about Mexican immigrants "overrunning" their area and are taking action to push them out
- But the coyotesa are doing exactly the same thing -- their natural habitat has been taken over by suburdan developments like Arroy Blanco, so they jump the fence to find fool
- Both the migrants and the colotes are imply tring to survive after being pushed out of their territory
- Delaney, who knows enough about nature to understand this parallel, completely misses the irony
- The reader, however, is likely to notice it -- and might find it both darkly funny and deeply sad
Relation Coyotes and Immigrants
The coyotes and "illegal" immigrants relate to each other a lot in the book. The fence beeing built in the residential area to "keep the coyotes out" is a simmilar scenario to the border between the USA and Mexico to keep immigrants "out" of the US
Chapter 4 - Content
- After five days of steady work, Candido is shocked to find the labour exchange has been shut down
- The couple have managed to save $320, but Candido knows its not enough -- he needs more money befor America gives birth so they can afford some kind of housing
- He decides to travel to Canoga Park to look for work
- He wants America to stay behind, but she refuses and insists on coming with him
- When they arrive in Canoga Park, they are surrounded by Spanish speakers for the first time -- this gives America a fresh sense of hope
- The chapter ends with Candido leaving America alone again to go with a man who has promised him the possibilitsy of cheap lodgings
Chapter 4 - Analysis
- The reader can see the real consequences of the labour exchange being shut down -- even if the Mossbachers and their neighbours cannot
- America, who is heavily pregnant and exhausted from weeks of living outdoors, is now forced to walk to a completely new area just to find work
- All Candido wants is to work hard, save money, and find a basic apartment so his child isnt bnorn outside -- but the only place that gave him access to work has been taken away
- The local residents shut it down believing it was linked to crime and the rampe in the area -- but they have NO actual PROOF that any migrant was responsible
- The chapter ends on a tense and worrying note
- Candido goes off with a complete stranger based only on the promise of a cheap room
- After everything that has happened in the story so far, the reader is likely to fear the worst -- that Candido is about to be robbed, beaten, arrested, or worse
- Reader is left feeling uneasy rather than hopefull
Chapter 5 - Content
- This is only a short chapter that reprints one of Delaneys articles
- The article is about the coyote problem in the suburbs of Southern California
- Selaney argues that coyotes are simply moving into the space and oppertunities that humans have created through urban develpment
Chapter 5 - Analysis
- The irony here is very clear -- even if Delaney himself doesnt see it
- In his article Delaney undersands perfectly why coyotes are showing up in suburban areas
- Humans have expanded into nature and accidentally created a gap
- Animals like coyotes simply move in to fill that gap
- But Delaney fails to realize that the exact same thing is happening with migrants like Candido and Merica
- Ameericans have created jobs that they themselves dont want to do -- in farming, construction, cleaning, and so on
- Migrants come to fill those gaps, just like coyotes do
- The hyprocrisy among the characterrs is clear when you look at their actions:
- Neither the Mossbachers nor their neighbours seem to undertand thatt they are part of the reason migrants come to the area in first place
- Delaney can see his own role in the coyote problem -- but he is completely blint to his role in the wider human one
Chapter 6 - Content
- After her scary encounter with the two men at the Sa Ros house and losing her second dog, Kyra supports a plan to build a 7-foot stucco wall arouind the entire Arroyo BLanco neighbourhood
- When she goes back to the Da Ro property and finds offensive graffiti sprayed across the house, she becomes even more determined that the wall is needed
- She starts going door to door to convince her neighbours to vote for the wall at the next HOA meeting
- Meanwhile, Delaney runs into a man nemed Todd Dweet, who is also going door to door -- but to argue AGAINST the wall
- Delaney has already told Kyra he thinks the wall is aboud "exclusion, devision, hate", so he doesnt want to causer more arguments at home
- He decides not to join TOdd in his campaign against the wall
- Shortly after, he sees a Hispanic man walking throungh the neighbourhood and immediately assumes he is up to moething criminal
- It turns out the man is simply dropping of flyers about the upcomming HOA meeting regarding the wall
Chapter 6 - Analysis
- Delaney shows signs that he still understands what the wall really represents !!! -- and that it goes against his values !!
- But he cant bring himself to act those values anymore
- For the first time. he seems aware of how much he has changed, asking himself: "What was happening to him, what was he becomming"
- BUT: He does nothing about it:
- He could have joined Todd Dweet and his wife, who clarly saw him as a potential ally
- But he doesnt -- he just gives up and goes along with things
- In some ways Delaney is the last person in this circle whostill questions what is happening -- but even he has mostly given in to preejudice by this point
- He can no longer control his own snap judgements, and even though he knows this, he cooses not to change
- Should the reader blame him?
- He wants peace at home, and Kyra has what seem like practical reasons for wanting the wall
- But he also knows deep down that the real reason behind the wall is racism -- and he stays silent anyway
Chapter 7 - Content
- Back in the Canoga Park, things go badly for Candido and America
- The man Candido went off with had no cheap room to offer -- instead he beat Candido up and stole all their savings, which Candido had carefully hidden in the cuff of his zrousers
- With no money left at all, the ocuple have no choice but to make the long journey back to their camp in the canyon
- Becuase America is heabily pregnant and cant move easily, thhey have to stop along the way
- With nothing else to eat, Candido digs foot out of a Kentucky Fired Chicken bin to feed America
Chapter 7 - Analysis
- Once again , Candido and America are knocked down just as they were starting to get back on their feet
- The 320$ they had carefully saved is now completely gone
- Things are actually worse now than when the story began:
- The approaching birth makes everything more urgent and more difficult -- not only will there soon be another person to feed, but America will have to give birth outside woth no proper shelter or medical care
Chapter 8 - Content
- There was some disagreement, but the vote for the wall passes
- Delaney is unhappy mainly because he feels cut off from the nature just outside his neighbourhood
- To keep the pease, Kyra buys him a stepladder so he can climb over the wall whenever he wants (joke like)
- The tension in teir marriage eases, and the couple go shoppingg togehter for their Tanksgiving gathering
- Even though they aleready have a turkey, they get a free one for spending $50 at the local sopermarket
- Meanwhile, Candido manages to find work at $8 / hour doing construction with an alcoholic man named Senor Willis
- But America is in a very dark place -- she refuses to leave the shelter, socks back and forth, and chants to herself
- Candido is frightened by how she is acting
- Candido hoes to the local market and is given a free turkey y a group of young man who dont want it
- When he brings it back, America actually amiles for the first time in a long time
- But while Candido is building a fire to cook the turkey, it gets out of control and starts to spread (starts wildfire)
Chapter 8 - Analysis
- The 2 "turkey moments" highlight the gap between the two couples:
- The Mossbachers already have a turkey but take free one anyway without a secont thought -- it is simply one more thing they dont really need
- Candido could never have afforded a turkey -- he only gets one because a group of young men give it away as an act of charity
- Americas mental state has reached a very low point:
- She was persuaded by Candido to come to America for a better life, but everything has gone wrong
- She has suffered physical violence, sexual violence, andi s now dealing with an ongoing infection from the rape She is young, inexpericenced, and completely overwhelmed -- Shutting down and turing inward is her only way of coping
- The turley, which briefly feels like a symbol of hope, ends up causingyet another disaster when the fire gets out of control
- Just like every other moment of hope in this story, it quickly turns into something much worse