Response To John Steinbeck's 'Tortilla Flat'

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1.10 AS 90854 Reading Log 1 Jack Floyd XJN Title- Tortilla Flat Author- John Steinbeck Date Completed- 20th April Type of Text- Novel The text of Tortilla Flat is about a group of Paisanos who live in an area called Tortilla Flat. The main character in the story is Danny; his house becomes a place where lonely men end up in order looking for friendship and adventure. When I read this text I felt that the theme of loneliness was very clear. I felt this because a lot of the characters are lonely to begin with as they have no sense of belonging, however they want to have friendships and want to feel like they belong. For example the pirate was not so much lonely but he didn’t really have a sense of belonging as he had a mental disorder, “pirate crawled out of the chicken house, and the dogs followed him”, he is not completely alone as he has his dogs for company, but the fact that he lives in a chicken house shows he doesn’t really belong anywhere. I feel that the idea of loneliness and wanting friendship is significant in our world today as humans …show more content…

I feel that in a sense this is human nature to want friends, and for people lives to be better with friends. Friendships can be formed around interests in the same thing. An example of this is when the group of men living in Danny’s house want the pirate’s stash of money, “the bag of money had become the symbolic centre of the friendship”. I connected with the texts main character, Danny, when he became the leader and the delegator to the group of friends. I feel like I can sometimes be like this and delegate occurrences in situations. I feel that the text shows that people should appreciate simple things for what they are. The world today has lost this, some people are hardly pleased by the biggest of things, and have lost the ability to appreciate the simple things, like in the story, the pirate appreciates any food or help he