The Tortilla Curtain Part II Chapters 7 & 8

Question

Chapter 7: 

1. Chapter 7 tragically ends with Candido and America eating out of a garbage dump. What do you think about their current situation and Candido’s decisions thus far? 



Chapter 8: 

2. Initially, Delaney says, “He was being walled in, buried alive, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it” (251). How does Delaney finally reconcile this wall? 

3. “Yes they were desperate. Yes, they’d lost everything. Yes, he was a fool and a liar and he’d failed her yet again. But still they had to make the best of it, had to survive, didn’t she see that” (257)? Explain what is going on with America. Would you feel any differently? Why or why not?   

4. Like earlier with Al Lopez, Candido met Senor Willis and earned money for their apartment. Why wasn’t America jumping for joy?   

5. At the moment Candido provided America the turkey, “he was happy, as happy as he’d ever been, right up the moment the wind plucked the fire out of its bed of coals…” (265). Why do you think Boyle placed the teen boy’s turkey into Candido and America’s hands? How does the fire maintain the theme of bad luck for the couple? Why don’t you think Boyle gives them a little break from their misfortune?

Answer 1

1. I think that the current situation of Candido and America is very frightening and oppressive. It illustrates the plight of impoverished peoples of Mexico living near the border. This is a married couple who love one another, yet their circumstances of being homeless and struggling against the elements and against ill treatment and discrimination are challenging their ability to care for one another and to continue to maintain life and health. They are desperately trying to earn a living despite the difficulties of Candido's untreated injuries and America's pregnancy. At the end of this chapter, they are forced to either starve or eat out of a dumpster because Candido was trying to find a room for the night and food for both of them and was beaten up by a man who offered them shelter. I think this stark and depressing outcome illustrates the suffering that is a part of life, but also that some peoples are forced to endure at much more extreme and painful levels. A man he thought he could trust (with help from some other criminals) beat up Candido and stole his and America's hard-earned money. I don't think that Candido could have predicted this outcome, except for the fact that everyone in the story basically proves untrustworthy at some level. The fact that the man was white and obviously seeking to exploit a pregnant Mexican couple by taking them for as much of their meagre supply of cash as he could might have been an indication that he was up to no good; but Candido was really forced by desperate circumstances to take a gamble -- one that he lost. His own part in increasing his suffering and that of his wife, America, was in in turn not treating her as an equal and listening to her concerns and intuition. He behaved in a sexist controlling manner, ordering her around, not staying with her when she was afraid and pregnant and not leaving earlier together as she wished or at least discussing thoughts and plans together as partners in a relationship. His choice not to see a doctor when a white man ran him over (he said he didn't want to see a "quack" -- in Spanish) may or may not have been a good idea. Yes, he was left with injuries that made him less capable of working, but he might have been correct that a bad doctor could even have made them worse. Or maybe he just constantly made the wrong choices because of the confusion brought about by trauma. The only other thing he did that might have added to his confusion and suffering was becoming drunk, which was described in Part 1 of this book. But it was a little unclear about exactly what happened and whether he was an alcoholic. If so, then I believe it to be a disease that he was incapable of controlling or deciding about rationally in any case. Yet it was certainly an example of selfishness and lack of concern for the feelings of others. All of these actions and decisions of Candido involve America, yet she has very little choice in the situations she participates in with Candido. He is doing the best he can, which is not very good -- but maybe with all of the obstacles they face it is a miracle that they are even still alive. He says they need to eat out of the dumpster because they have no money and America needs to keep up her strength. It is true, because soon she is expecting to give birth. This story illustrates how all humans (especially POC, immigrants, the disabled, women, etc.) suffer, and that we are all also connected in the great chain of being. Suffering and violence creates a ripple effect of oppression that extends to the next generation -- to the future -- the way the hunger of America affects her unborn baby. It poses no answers, though, nor moral certainty.