Jacob Seay’s Reviews > The Tortilla Curtain > Status Update

This has definitely been the most interesting section of the book. We have seen Candido break his morals in order to give food and shelter, rationalizing it by saying that these people can just buy new stuff. Kyra is more upset over the loss of the Da Ros house than the safety of her own, and Delaney puts himself on a mission to catch the people responsible for the fire. Little does he know, it's the person he hit.

The progression of Delaney throughout this story is remarkably strange. He goes from someone who is very liberal, believing that everybody should have a fair chance and be helped along the way, to becoming the person he initially hates, a bigoted racist who wants every illegal deported back to their own country. This transformation when faced with immigrants shows Delaney's true personality.

The gross contrast in which Boyle paints in the differences between the two Thanksgiving, or El Tenksgevee, as Part 2 is titled, is interesting to say the least. While Delaney and Kyra are having a "traditional" feast, which is anything but traditional, we see Cándido and América are having a Thanksgiving with canned vegetables and a roasted turkey that was given to them by the person in line in front of Candido.

This book has been extremely well written. It has been extremely had to put the book down. It is interesting to see the internal conflict that Delaney faces, opposing the stucco wall that would segregate them from the other people and then showing extreme prejudice in his encounter with Candido, assuming that he is a thief just because he is Mexican, and not white.

So far, I have really enjoyed the book. The reader is instantly put into an emotional connection with Candido because his struggles to find success living the American Dream and has trouble with a language barrier. The occasional Spanish word keeps the reader in context with the fact that Candido and America cannot actually speak English. I am interested to see when Delaney and Candido will come in contact again.