Theme Of Racism In The Tortilla Curtain

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Racism comes from different cultural values, ethnic backgrounds, as well as the physical appearances. The conflict of racism occurs when the majority group of society feels that the different cultures and values of the minority group bring deviance to the society. The novel, set in Topanga Canyon, starts out with an major accident that occurs and involves Delaney Mossbacher, a middle-class working man, and Cándido Rincón, an illegal Mexican immigrant. Delaney accidentally hits Cándido with his car and only pays Cándido twenty dollars for treatment. As the novel progresses, Delaney and his wife accuse the factors that corrupt the society on those illegal immigrants based on their class rank and their backgrounds. In The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle …show more content…

In The Tortilla Curtain, Delaney, one of the main character in the novel, blames the minorities of trashing a trail in Santa Monica. He states “There wasn’t a trail in Santa Monica Mountains that didn’t have…cigarette butts, and it was people like this Mexican or whatever he was who were responsible, thoughtless people, stupid people, people who wanted to turn the whole world into a garbage dump, a little Tijuana” (Boyle 11). This quotation shows that Delaney does not fully believe the ideal of equality between the different social classes in society. This also illustrates the prejudice Delaney has against the Mexicans and how he thinks that the trash left behind on the Santa Monica trail was the doing of the Mexicans. Through that, Boyle is commenting that Delaney is a racist person who blames everything on the Mexicans and that Delaney looks down on Mexicans because they are part of the minority group in …show more content…

Kyra, a realtor who is married to Delaney, claims “It was the Mexicans who 'd done this. Illegals...Sneaking across the border, ruining schools, gutting property values and freeloading on welfare, and as if that wasn 't enough, now they were burning everybody else out too” (311). This quotation reveals the prejudice side of Kyra. It seems like she is blaming everything on the Mexicans instead of her own people. The damages could have been created by her own kind of people, but since the Mexicans are part of the minorities she just put all the responsibility on them. By making them take the blame, Kyra feels a sense of superiority over them and therefore able to keep her social class higher than theirs. Additionally, to be able to be on welfare, they have to be a United States citizen, meaning that those Mexicans on welfare have as much rights as she does. Therefore, Kyra cannot just say that they are freeloading off of

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