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The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle London: Bloomsbury Publishing © 1995; paperback edition 1997 by Clays Limited; 355 pages |
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by Werner Ohly |
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LITERARY CRITICISM |
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"
... His [T. C. Boyle's] new novel, The Tortilla Curtain
(Viking; 355 pages; $23.95), botches a good theme: the shuddering distaste of
California's patio-living Anglos for the Mexican illegals who perform the state's
stoop labor. His pale hero is Delaney, a nature writer who has moved with his wife
Kyra, a real estate shark, to a housing development above Topanga Canyon. Delaney
is not just politically correct, he's politically exquisite, but when a Mexican
man, Candido, blunders in front of his white Acura on a canyon road, his reaction
is angry revulsion: the wounded wetback, to whom he gives a $20 bill, is an
infiltrator. That's true. Candido and his
pregnant 17-year-old wife, decent folk down on their luck, huddle in a makeshift
camp in the canyon and climb out every morning to find work at a labor exchange.
But the sight of hungry Mexicans spooks Kyra's clients, and she sees to it that
the exchange is shut. Delaney's liberal beliefs crumble, and he votes with other
residents to build a wall, with a gate, around their development. The author,
mistrusting his skill and the reader's acuteness, relentlessly flashes irony
alerts. Candido gets work constructing the wall, knowing well enough whom it is
intended to keep out. Coyotes eat the nature writer's lapdogs, Osbert and
Sacheverell. And when a mud slide sweeps Delaney toward mucky death, let there be
no doubt whose brown, work-worn hand reaches to pull him free. This is weak,
obvious stuff, worth a raised eyebrow and a shrug. --J.S." © 1995 Time Inc. All rights
reserved. Time, September 4, 1995,
Vol. 146, No. 10 |
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"A big, bold novel that convincingly renders a once secure society in a state of upheaval ... the author has focused his bountiful skills on a subject worthy of them … With admirable audacity, he has successfully revisited the same moral and geographical turf John Steinbeck worked 60 years ago in the Grapes of Wrath … a memorable portrait of the almost imperceptible slide from decency to intolerance that occurs when ordinary people feel threatened". Esquire |
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...my most controversial novel. Because it dealt with a hot-button socio-political issue - illegal immigration in Southern California - many of the reviewers came into the book with strong prejudices. I took a good deal of abuse, including (my favorite instance) being called "human garbage" on a call-in radio show in San Francisco. As people have had a chance to think about the book more deeply over the course of the past few years, the furor has died down and The Tortilla Curtain has become a modern classic, by far my most popular title, widely read in high schools and universities around the country. T. C. Boyle |
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Planning the project |
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1 What do our students know about Hispanics in the U.S.? 2 In what curricular context do we want to read The Tortilla Curtain? 3 Do we want to read excerpts or the entire novel? 4 What are our objectives when reading the novel or parts of the novel in class? 5 If we read the entire novel, how much time do we give ourselves for the reading process? 6 How do we cope with language problems while reading? 7 What procedures and activities do we choose for extra motivation and understanding? (Cf. A Model for Teaching Literature (German/English) and Creative Reading.) 8 What metalanguage do our students know, what do we want/need to add? 9 How much traditional text analysis do we include? 10 How much extrinsic information do we provide? 11 Will we include samples of Hispanic literature? 12 How many weeks/class-periods can we afford/do we need for the project? |
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Characters |
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Delaney Mossbacher Kyra Jordan Kit Menaker Orbalina
Cándido Rincón América
Jack Jardine
Erna Jardine Jack Jr. Jack Cherrystone Selda Cherrystone Dominick Flood
Jim Shirley Bill Vogel Charlie Tillerman Sunny DiMandia Todd Sweet Kenny Grissom
Candelario Pérez Patrón Mary José Navidad Al Lopez Rigoberto Man Señor Willis |
a "liberal humanist", writes articles for Wide Open Spaces Delaney's second wife, a realtor Kyra's six-year-old son, Delaney's stepson Kyra's mother from San Francisco Jordan's baby-sitter
a Mexican illegal from Tepoztlán, in his mid-thirties Cándido's seventeen-year-old pregnant "bride", younger sister of Cándido's wife
friend, neighbor, adviser and lawyer of the Mossbachers', president of the Arroyo Blanco Estates Property Owners' Association his wife the Jardines' eighteen-year-old "overgrown" son another neighbor and the Association's secretary his wife an Arroyo Blanco resident, on house-arrest for "some unwise investments", escapes during the fire a resident a resident a resident a resident a resident who speaks out against the gate and the wall a car dealer, sells Delaney a new Acura after his old one was stolen
headman at the labor exchange "fat man" who lives at Arroyo Blanco, hires América twice a hippie and an alcoholic, gets hired with América once a Mexican bum, harasses América and rapes her, frightens Kyra a Mexican-American builder at Arroyo Blanco, hires Cándido an Indian who works for Al Lopez in baggy pants with long hair, cheats, assaults and robs Cándido a builder and a drunkard, hires Cándido several times |
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Lesson-Planning > Creative Reading |
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>>>> <<<< |
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Traditional Text Analysis Approaches to the Novel Intrinsic, e.g.: reception process point of view mode of presentation figure or character protagonists, main figures social and cultural identity register character development race relations action: story and plot time space setting and atmosphere rhetorical means, e.g. metaphor image comparison symbol irony rhetorical question Extrinsic, e.g. sociological psychological biographical through genre through history |
A Generative Approach Procedures and Activities telling a friend about the novel sample reading character quiz: who is who? (cf. characters) time-line casting balloon debate stills a scene for a radio play (175 and/or 227) scenes or storyboards for a film: - at the Community Center (39) - at the supermarket (100 and/or 122) - at the labor exchange (80) - Cándido and América after escaping from the inferno (274) - the alleged arsonist's (José's) arrest (286) news in print and on the air: - "Stemming the Tide", Time - "Save the Canyon", Wide Open Spaces - Breaking News: a short radio coverage of the fire on KCB (270) an e-mail to: arroyoblanco@aol.com concerning the wall project (186) Delaney's diary entry, e.g. after the accident or after being "walled" in (15/216/242) hot chair the literary quartet etc. |
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Ohly 2003 |
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Appendix |