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Lomewa
Chelsea Lomewa

English 1

Professor Engelmann

May 8, 2020

“Issue of Prejudice”

In Tortilla Curtain (1995), T. C. Boyle discusses prevalent social and economic issue

that are faced by both sides in the Immigration issue in America, expressing the point of

views and experiences of Americans and Mexican immigrants. Boyle does this by utilizing

two distinctive couples as the main characters of the story. Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher are

defined as an affluent white American couple living in a suburban neighborhood named

Arroyo Blanco while Candido and America Rincon is a Mexican couple who has crossed the

border illegally and lives in a temporary campsite built in a ravine. Candido decides to move

to America with the hope of being able to work and attain a better life for America and the

child that she is pregnant with. Eventually, all of these characters are intertwined and

involved into each other’s lives as they all strive to achieve their own values and ideals of the

“American Dream”. Boyle utilizes nature to depict the great variety between each character’s

perceptions in addition to using wildlife symbolisms in order to depict the reality on the

immigration issue and the relationship between these Mexican immigrants and Americans.

In Tortilla Curtain, Boyle depicts the four main characters as having different

perceptions relating to nature. Delaney, depicted as a naturalist who writes about nature in his

“monthly column for Wide Open Spaces”, views nature as a source that inspires him while

Kyra Mossbacher highlights a materialistic view that focuses on how to take advantage of

nature (41). Candido perceives the natural qualities of Topanga Canyon as raw elements that

will enable him to create a better life for his wife and future child. Lastly, America views

nature as an aspect that liberates and confines her in different aspects. Using Delaney, Kyra,
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and Candido’s mistakes of relating nature to their own aspirations, Boyle expresses how

doing so is a mistake since nature is unaffected by people’s emotions. Delaney and Kyra’s

view of nature is strongly related to the successes that they have achieved in their life as

Delaney uses nature to observe how he has an advantage over others while Kyra sees nature

and imagines the money that she would obtain from developing “a very select private

community of high-end houses” (333). Similar to Delaney and Kyra in regards to their self-

absorbed perception, Candido displays this when he sees a beach and imagines “a sitting

room with big shaded lamp dangling from the ceiling…” (94). This part of the book shows

how although Candido might have a sincere point-of-view, he ultimately sees nature as a way

for him to create newfound luxuries and comfort for his family. With America’s character,

Boyle strongly emphasizes the idea that sometimes nature goes against human’s desires and

changes their perceptions. In the beginning, America views nature as a form of safety that

protected her “the prying eyes and sharp edges of the world” (143). However, after she is

raped by Jose Navidad, America starts to experience fear towards nature as depicted through

how she imagined the canyon as this “dirt heap where she’d been robbed and hurt and

brutalized” (205). Ultimately, Boyle uses the event of the natural disaster to show people the

reality that nature cannot be related to their emotions and minds since nature will carry on its

course without any regards for human’s emotions. This change in perception is shown in

Candido’s response of “going with it” when he realized that his hillside hut was washed away

in the flood (347).

In regards to wildlife symbolisms, Boyle utilizes animal characters in the book in

order to depict the reality on the immigration issue and the relationship between these

Mexican immigrants and Americans. One of the most prominent animal symbolisms in this

book is the coyote. Boyle creates parallelisms between the coyote and illegal Mexican

immigrants in terms of their actions and other characters’ treatments towards them. Boyle
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even goes as far as to use the metaphoric language of the coyote “with a tense white form

clamped in its jaws”, alluding to the insecurity that white people have against these illegal

immigrants. Furthermore, the coyote also represents the change in opinion and emotions that

Delaney experiences against these Mexican immigrants. In the beginning of the story,

Delaney is shown to be an animal lover who supports the existence of coyotes, going as far as

to describe coyotes as “four-legged wonders” with howls that cause Delaney to be “lulled by

its impassioned beauty” (87). However, this point of view changes after Delaney’s dog is

killed by a coyote, which causes Delaney to blame this due to the people feeding the coyote.

Furthermore, Delaney changes his opinion from disagreeing with building the wall and gates

surrounding the community to erecting a higher fence to keep the coyotes away. In fact, at

this point of the story, Delaney describes coyotes as “cunning, versatile, hungry, and

unstoppable” (217). This is a similar case to Delaney’s opinions on illegal immigrants,

beginning from having the belief that illegal immigrants are allowed to be in America if they

decide to do so followed by an increase in rage towards these illegal immigrants as Delaney

endures more misfortunes. There are also other parallel elements between the coyotes and

these illegal immigrants. Another example of this parallelism would be how the coyotes

wandered into the fenced community due to the availability of resource and is willing to

struggle through obstacles such as gates in order to enter restricted areas to scraps that

Americans fed them or other form of necessities. This draws similarities to how the Mexican

immigrants chose to illegally cross the border due to their knowledge regarding America’s

superior resources and how most of these immigrants are able to survive by working scrap

jobs in the labor exchange that is made available by Americans. The way that Delaney and

the other Americans treat coyotes are also parallel to their treatments of these illegal

immigrants, sharing an interest regarding the nature of these coyotes despite loathing their
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existence, which is similar to how these people complain about the negative effects of these

illegal immigrants but are still willing to hire these illegal immigrants.

Ultimately, I think that the use of nature and other wildlife symbolisms helps Boyle to

create a strong foundation to ensure that readers understand how Boyle does not sympathize

with either side of the issue; however, he informs people regarding the dangers of building an

psychological “wall” and a real one which supports inappropriate prejudiced behaviors and

segregation towards certain groups of people. Instead, Boyle influences people to embrace a

form of toleration for one another. As the story ends with the wall around Arroyo Blanco

neighborhood being destroyed in a mudslide, Boyle again uses symbolism to ultimately teach

people that the solution to this problem is to live in a world where people display toleration

and acceptance to each other. This form of acceptance is shown as Candido reaches out and

takes hold of Delaney’s hand, saving him from death. Boyle depicts the idea that at the end of

the story, the wall ultimately serves no purpose and puts both sides in the immigration issue

at a disadvantage. This is shown in the story as the wall is ultimately the barrier that prevents

Candido from obtaining help and other necessities as America is giving birth to Socorro and

restricts Delaney from being able to enjoy the natural view and peace that caused him to

choose to live in Arroyo Blanco in the first place. In terms of prejudiced treatments such as

racism, Boyle also attempts to show how humans become corrupted as they start to practice

such actions. This is shown in how Delaney was so blinded by prejudiced rage towards these

illegal immigrants to the point where he ignored the evidence that Jack Jr. was the one who

committed the crime and directly blaming Candido and using a gun with the intention of

endangering Candido and his family’s lives.

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Works Cited

Boyle, T.C. The Tortilla Curtain. Los Angeles: Penguin, 1995. Print.