Tortila Curtain Quotes

Emotions are powerful forces. Some could argue that the driving force behind human behavior is emotion. In T.C. Boyle’s novel, The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle explores how emotions can be impacted by people’s surroundings, and how those impacted emotions can cloud a person’s judgment. Emotions that fuel racism have come up frequently these past years with the BLM movement and our past president’s views on immigration. Racism has been a charged topic in our society and is discussed a lot throughout this novel. The racism shown throughout the novel heightens the fear and anger characters felt, blocking hope and impacting characters' decisions. In contrast, when racism is removed hope can flourish.
The mental and physical walls shown in this novel

Hope drives the characters, especially Candido and America, to persevere through their hardships. This is seen when America goes to work, “The day sank into her veins like an elixir and she worked in a delirium of fumes, scrubbing statue after statue, her aching hands sealed away from the corrosive in the slim plastic envelope of the gloves. Her eyes watered, her throat was raw, but she concentrated on her work and the substantiality of the twenty-five dollars the patrón would give her…”(135). On the second day of America’s first job, her employer fails to give her protective gloves. Out of fear of reprimand, America does not ask for protective gloves. The chemicals she was working with caused harmful chemical burns in the absence of the gloves. She only puckers up the courage to ask for gloves when she physically can scrub no more. After receiving gloves, America goes back to work, waiting for her pay. The hope America has for her life drives her to work in unsafe conditions. Her optimism is so strong, that she is confident that her situation is temporary– that this will all be “ a funny story, something to tell the grandchildren” (139). As this takes place fairly early in the novel, America is still full of hope for a better life and believes that the hardship she currently faces will all be worth it in the end. She continues to embrace this hope throughout the novel until her child arrives toward the

In the absence of her hope, she begins to breed negativity, and at worst hate. “‘Maybe he tried to hit you the first time too. Maybe he’s a racist. Maybe he’s a pig. Maybe he hates us because we’re Mexican.’ ‘I can’t believe it. How could anybody be that vicious? He gave me twenty dollars, remember?’ ‘Twenty dollars,’ she spat, and she jerked her head so violently she woke the baby. ‘And he sent his son down into the canyon to abuse us, didn’t he?’”(350). After Socorro was born and America loses hope, her temperament begins to change. Candido starts to become the voice of reason in America’s hatred. As shown in the quote above, Candido highlights the good in Delaney while America spews hatred. The only bad thing Candido says about Delaney is that he is frightened by him. We can truly see the power of emotions in this comparison. How a person’s temperament can completely change when fear, anger, and hope are introduced or taken