Abstract
This paper discusses the symbolism of the barriers in T.C. Boyle's 1995 novel, "Tortilla Curtain". It examines physical and invisible barriers, presents a summary of the story and looks at the parallels between the gated community of Arroyo Blaco and U.S. immigration policy.

From the Paper
"One of the most difficult things in the world to do is to try to see the world from someone else's perspective. In order to truly understand the decisions other people make and the actions that they carry out however a person needs to see the world from ..."

Tags:Tortilla Curtain, T. C. Boyle, novel, symbolism, immigration

Abstract
The paper highlights the contrast between the two couples in "The Tortilla Curtain;" the Mossbachers who are shining examples of how the American Dream is supposed to work and the Rincons, illegal immigrants who show how elusive that dream can be. The paper provides a synopsis of the novel and explores the history of illegal immigration in southern California. The paper presents the thesis that current concern over immigration is not really that different from the attitudes of earlier times and shows how the story told in "The Tortilla Curtain" is timely on many levels.

Outline:
Introduction
Synopsis of the Novel
Illegal Immigration in southern California
Thesis
Analysis

From the Paper
"In this year's presidential campaign, the issue of illegal immigration is being used as a way to assert how dedicated a candidate is to protecting the public from terrorists, though the issue has much more to do with economic questions and changes in society than it does with terrorism. Some portray the illegal immigrant population as an invading horde and imply a nefarious purpose in their coming here, while others recognize that illegal immigrants are coming across the border, largely the southern border, looking for better economic conditions than they can find in their home country and not because they are terrorists. The issue is not as simple as much of this candidate posturing would make it seem. The immigrant experience can be analyzed in many ways, such as by looking to studies made by scholars, considering government statistics, reading news accounts of the issue, or reading a novel that delves into this territory and provides a fresh perspective. One such novel is The tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle."

Tags:borders, American, Dream, Mossbachers, Rincons, Mexico, southern, California

Abstract
This paper discusses and analyzes Winston Churchill's famous 1946 speech referring to Russia's power and the Iron Curtain. The paper then goes on to analyze the Marshall Plan of 1947, in which George Marshall's primary intent (on behalf of Harry Truman) was economic in nature with the focus being on the restructuring and rebuilding of Europe by means of financial aid and assistance. The paper compares and contrasts the intent and outcome of the two speeches.

Table of Contents:
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech, 1946
The Marshall Plan, 1947
Analysis and Contrast

From the Paper
"Many analysts have viewed the Iron Curtain speech of Winston Churchill during post war era as an evident form of warmongering. He made assumptions and pre-conclusive statements about a cold war that might happen between the US and its allies against communist Russia and it did. Even at the time when he was no longer the Prime minister of the UK, Churchill is still being revered by nations as an influential figure in the post war era. His thoughts and presumptions were in his accustomed ruthless statement of reality. The "Iron Curtain" speech gave Stalin a pretext for mobilizing the Soviet people against their former allies (Vladislov Suvok, Inside Kremlin's Cold War). Churchill's statements in the Iron Curtain speech speaks of his influence among nations and must have preceded policies integrated in US' Marshall Plan in accordance to the containment of Russian power and Communism in Europe. Analyzing both circumstances, should there have been no Iron Curtain Speech lay the possibility that Russian people would still be induced to the idea that the US and other European countries, beyond the borders of communist ideology would still be considered an ally of Russia. And that the US with its initial reluctance to believe the conclusion of Churchill might still consider other means in resolving issues of power containment of Russia in Europe."

Tags:Russia, European, economy

Abstract
This essay compares and contrasts Candido and his wife America with the Mossbacher family in T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel "The Tortilla Curtain." The comparison and contrast focuses on the implications for U.S. society of the differences in lifestyle between each family. Boyle further illustrates these in the section entitled "Arroyo Blanco."

From the Paper
"In his review of T. Coraghessan Boyle's 'Tortilla Curtain' John Skow labels his criticism of the book 'Snobs and Wetbacks.' This is significant because in the Arroyo Blanco section of Boyle's novel we are provided with two distinct realities; that of the white, upper-middle-class yuppies living in developed estates and the illegal Mexicans who provide a ready source of inexpensive labor. A line is drawn between Arroyo Blanco Estates and the immigrant compound outside its fences."

Tags:Marxist, capitalism, illegal immigrants, Mexican border, labor, privilege, American Dream, coyote, predator, ethnocentrism, exploitation

Abstract
This paper explains that T.C. Boyle's novel "The Tortilla Curtain" examines the current, increasingly present moral issue about illegal Mexican immigration into the United States; however, he refuses to moralize, allowing the reader to make his own judgment on this important ethical dilemma. Next, the author reviews the plot, which projects the American citizens as holding a particularly deprecatory view of Mexicans; whereas ,the Mexican illegal immigrants have an optimistic view about the prospects of living in America. The paper underscores that, throughout the novel, both Delaney the American and Candido the Mexican convey their frustration with their situations and their hatred of the "other" society and its inhabitants.

From the Paper
"The gate and the wall that are erected to protect Arroyo Blanco are microcosms for and are symbolic of a larger fence - the "Tortilla Curtain" - that serves as the border between Mexico and the U.S. Were the borders strictly controlled, i.e. were they as solid as the Arroyo Blanco wall, Americans could feel safe in their homes. Should the borders continue to be left open, however, there would be no security from the illegal immigrants and their backwards ways. This is how the typical argument by the Americans in the novel goes.
"Like Delaney and the other American citizens in the story, who fear the "illegals", the Mexican illegal immigrants also fear the Americans - both the average gringo that gives them harsh looks, and also La Migra, whose purpose is to catch them and send them back to Mexico. The major difference in attitudes between the Mexicans and Americans, however, is that the latter's fear is generally mixed with a loathing and disgust for Mexicans, whereas the former not only desire a chance to live in America, but they also tend to idealize the country and what it means to be an American. Delaney and Kyra, for example, would never view Mexico as a "land of opportunity"."

Tags:suspicion fence, hardened realist, dreamlike country, vendetta

Abstract
The paper illustrates how Boyle's narrative, "The Tortilla Curtain", breaks down the geography of race by personalizing the conflicts that occur from the repeated encounters between two couples; Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, a white couple, and Candido and America Rincon, an immigrant couple. The paper describes the Mossbachers' white enclave of Arroyo Blanco as the idealized and densely boundaried world of the American dream. The paper highlights how Boyle consistently represents his white characters as requiring a sense of control over their own bodies and their self-contained "white" environment that is seen as under attack from the Mexican immigrants. The paper notes the irony that these same immigrants are eventually hired as the laborers to construct a wall that is designed to exclude them and also analyzes the fire as a natural and ultimate threat to a community that was almost paranoiac in its protection of space and building of walls.

From the Paper
"First published in 1992, The Tortilla Curtain is T. Coraghesan Boyle's ambitious attempt to map the destructive though neatly hidden tensions between upper-middle-class Southern Californians and the illegal Mexican immigrants flooding into the Los Angeles area, most often through well-organized (and extremely dangerous) "holes" along the under-patrolled border south of San Diego. Like Paul Haggis's recent film Crash (2004), Boyle's novel explores the geocultural assumptions territoriality (that is, the ownership of place and space) as they come to intersect with the dominant pseudo-liberal politics informing the (in)tolerances within a racially-diverse community that tends to collapse the conditions of racial or ethnic "otherness" into an easily imaginable collective identity. Put another way, this is a novel that explores characters who attempt to contain the concept of otherness into a knowable schema that ultimately allows the characters to deal with racial differences by considering them normal or part of the landscape both literally and metaphorically."

Tags:class, immigrants, Mexicans, coyotes, borders, walls, otherness

Abstract
The paper describes "Tortilla Curtain" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, as a late 20th century novel that embodies many of the cultural conflicts occurring in 21st century America today between Caucasians and Hispanics. The paper then relates that these conflicts are embodied in the experience of two couples in the novel, Delaney Mossbacher and Kyra Menaker-Mossbacher, and Candido and America Rincon. The paper also relates that Boyle's novel conveys the hypocrisies of a nation that defines 'American' in a narrow way and claims to hate illegal immigration even while it depends upon the labor of Hispanic individuals, especially in the affluent yet economically and culturally divided California local where the novel is set.

From the Paper
"The novel suggests that cultural interaction is impossible to avoid. The novel exposes liberal as well as conservative hypocrisies, particularly in the way that it shows that Delaney's supposed concern and compassion for the environment does not always translate into compassion for humanity, when he accidentally hits Candido with his car in Part I of the novel. By depicting the lives of two very different couples, living in close proximity to one another, Boyle's novel shows the great gulfs of prosperity that exist side-by side in America."

Tags:illegal, immigration, Hispanics, affluence, poverty, borders

Abstract
This paper introduces and discusses T.C. Boyle's "The Tortilla Curtain", a novel on the struggles of two couples as they try to achieve the American Dream; one already handed the chance on a silver platter and the other daring the impossible by crossing illegally into America. The paper shows that while Boyle shows off the endless possibilities of the cliched American Dream, his novel impresses on his readers only the futility of attempting to live it, rather than the success that countless of immigrants and Americans have found while fulfilling their dreams and destinies. The paper explores Boyle's use of imagery, including the image of the coyote which is present throughout the book.

From the Paper
"There is a lot of emphasis on materialism in the idea of the American Dream, and the Mossbachers seem to be the epitome of both. Contrastingly, the Rincons are desperate to achieve this materialism, which forms the basis of their American Dream. Where there should be a stronger urge for freedom, the Rincons seek fortune in America.
Through materialism, Boyle shows another feature of the American Dream greed. Though it is not obvious, the people in Southern California may be driven by their desire for more as a reason to keep illegal immigrants out, knowing that they too are driven by a strong desire."

Tags:Delaney, Candido, Mossbachers, coyote

Abstract
The paper discusses how Boyle's novel "Tortilla Curtain" evolves in a series of juxtapositions between two couples, one white, affluent, and jaded about the rewards of success (the Mossbachers) and the other poor, Spanish-speaking, yet filled with hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds (the Rincons). The paper analyzes the symbolism and irony present in the book and the focus on the American dream that turns out to be a lie. The paper comments that this work is both persuasive and sadly relevant to current immigration debates in America today.

From the Paper
"T. Coraghessan Boyle's 1995 novel Tortilla Curtain depicts the growing embitterment of the protagonist Delaney Mossbacher with illegal immigrants and Mexicans over the course of three clearly divided sections with the Spanish names, "Arroyo Blanco", "El Tenksgeeve", and "Socorro." The novel begins with Mossbacher hitting an illegal immigrant named Candido. At first, Delaney thinks that Candido is a wild animal, a coyote. Then he realizes that Candido is a man."

Tags:illegal, immigration, symbolism, irony

Abstract
This paper discusses how both the movie "Crash" and the novel "The Tortilla Curtain" deal with issues of racism and tolerance/intolerance. It looks at how both the film and the book show the lives of different individuals of different ethnicity and how their lives were intertwined with each other due to a specific incident at the start of the story. It also discusses how both are stories that deal with racism and racial prejudices and how both have a theme of cultural intersection and show how each race prejudices the other.

From the Paper
"In the movie "Crash", the interweaving of the lives of the characters started when two African-American males decided to car nap an SUV owned by a white woman. Crash is a movie that depicts the lives of 8 main characters that get their lives intertwined with each other in different parts of the movie. To name a few characters, there is this white lady, Jean Cabot, who got her SUV stolen in the first part of the scene. Jean Cabot is afraid of people who are not of the same race as she is and has prejudices on all other races and became more paranoid because of the car napping incident. She had her locks replaced in their home but had them redone when she found out that the locksmith was Hispanic. There are the two African-Americans who talk about being stereotyped as criminals when in fact they really are criminals."

Tags:cultural, intersection, prejudice, race