Tortilla Curtain Essay

1074 Words5 Pages
The “American Dream” Beginning with the Mayflower, the New World became the land of freedom and possible prosperity and the target of immigrants. As years went by, the U.S. attracted migrants from all across the world, in search of the “American Dream”. To this day the U.S. receives waves of immigrants dreaming of new opportunities. The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle disproves the notion of the “American Dream” by contrasting two couples and using symbolisms such as the coyote, walls, and America Rincon (one of the main characters). Boyle starts the novel with a crash; crashing of the poor who desperately seek the “American Dream” and the rich who desperately try to protect his “American Dream”. The perpetrator is Delaney Mossbacher, a “liberal-humanist” living in the secured estate of Arroyo Blanco with his successful realtor wife and son. The victim of the crash is Candido Rincon, an illegal immigrant living in a canyon in proximity to Arroyo Blanco with his seventeen-year-old pregnant wife, America. As a result of the crash, these two couples become resentful of each other’s stereotypes. Especially Delaney, who becomes racist and uses illegal immigrants, specifically Candido, as scapegoat for his mishaps. Throughout the story, the liberals who are living the “American Dream” prevent the ones like Rincon’s from achieving theirs. Boyle continually draws comparison between the actual coyote and the symbolic coyote. The coyote is encountered when it hops the fence of the Mossbacher’s and snags one of their pet dogs, Sacheverell. After this incident the Mossbachers builds an eight-foot chain linked fence to avoid further intrusion from the coyote. Despite their efforts, the coyote returns: The animal swept across the grass in five quick strides, snatched the dog by the back of the neck and hit the fence on the fly…the coyote scaled the fence, rung by rung, as
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