Tortilla Curtain Essay

Delia represents the good in the story. She remains calm, level-headed, and spiritually in tune despite her husband‘s determination to make her miserable. Once a "right pretty li'l trick," Delia is now worn and dried out like sugar cane that's been chewed to no end (“Sweat” 43). However her soul remains strong as she turns to her spirituality for comfort and hope. She has smarts although uneducated and the fact that she built her own house and now supports her and her husband by washing white

Even when he does meet the Scholarly Attorney, he does not question him. If he did delve into his past, then he could have found out that Judge Irwin was his real father. This could have prevented Judge Irwin’s death, as Jack may have refused or would have not even been asked to find “dirt” on him (Warren 74). In addition, it is ironic that despite being a historian, Jack believes in the “Great Twitch,” which is that life must be viewed in a “mystic vision,” as life is unpredictable (Warren 473). This allows man to “feel clean and free,” as their actions have no effect (Warren 473). The irony exists in that historian study deep into the past to find the reasons for things, and now, Jack has started to believe that these reasons do not exist.

The only positive statement that I thought Jack made was having a better designed job orientation and socializing program for the new employees. This step would really help the new comers to get involved in various activities in an organization. In this part of the case I found two problems that took place with Jack. The first one was Jack thinking stereotypically about himself. His thinking was more of stereotypical because he thought he was racially discriminated in the organization and so was not given a promotion to the director position. The solution to this problem can be diversity awareness training. This training will help Jack to minimize discriminating thoughts in his mind. He also needs to improve his self-awareness in himself which will let him know what he thinks about himself. The second problem associated with Jack was accusing other employees of the organization, for taking office supplies to their home. This is a very serious offensive issue. To me Jack thinks like this because he is having some internal issues with his fellow employees. This can be fixed from the Johari Window model. It helps to get to a mutual understanding which eventually encourages disclosure of argument. Jack can also have a formal conversation with the organization’s promotion giving team to get to know why he wasn’t selected for the director position; this might really help him to get to know the real facts.

A boy is dragged to the grocery store by his mom. Every aisle he passes he pulls something off the shelf and pleads to his mom, “Can I get this please, please, please, please?” Of course the mom says “no” and ignores the interests of her child. The boy becomes upset that her mom won’t let him get anything he wants and for the rest of the shopping trip, there is tension between the two. Similarly, in the passages Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez and Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, both narrators are having conflict with their parents. Lina and her father don’t see eye to eye; likewise, Izzy and her mother don’t see eye to eye over a problem. In Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, both narrators’ conflicts create tension between themselves and their parents.

A 2009 study by Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at UCL, entitled ‘How long does it take to form a habit’, found that on average it takes 66 days for a habit or thought to become ingrained. This can be from different influences that are seen around and done to people. Us as humans grow mostly from personal experience, for better or for worse. In this case, it is for worse. Delaney Mossbacher, one of the main characters, is an average white male living in a small estate called Arroyo Blanco, where most of the wealthy and middle class live. The fact that he lives there makes it easier for him to have the mindset that he should act and be his social status, which is the “better than everyone” attitude. In the novel, the Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle, Delaney Mossbacher’s point of view shifts from a liberal to a racist due to courses of “unlucky” events. Those events being him hitting Candido Rincon with his car, getting his dog taken

Prejudice was implanted in the American society and still unconsciously remains. Although some Americans pretend that the preconception does not exist in the society anymore, the victims of the prejudice can frequently be found. It, both directly and indirectly, affects people’s way of living. More importantly, prejudice, a complex and unwanted behavior of human being, is influencing the American public policies, especially, an immigration policy. It points out that public policy on immigration need to be reformed.

Firstly, with Jack having a lot of authority, he has become a corrupted and powerful person.  When Jack finally decided to separate from the group, he has gained leadership of a new tribe, and orders a kid to “‘Give me a drink.’  Henry brought him a shell and he drank, watching Piggy and Ralph over the jagged rim.  Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape” (Golding 185).  Jack has decided that instead of using his power sparingly, and for the desires of the people, he has taken his ascendency, and has used it in a dictatorial manner.  Similar to any true dictators, Golding has made the use of violence evident in Jack’s rule.

In the passages from Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, the narrators have points of view different from those of their parents. These different points of view create tension. In the passage Confetti Girl, the narrator’s father ignores her interests. In Tortilla Sun, the narrator’s mother makes decisions without taking any consent from the narrator. Differences in points of view can cause conflict.

We live in a very diverse country when it comes to race and ethnicity. Although we try to get along with those who are not like us in color or race, doing so can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Our country is diverse, yet there is so much prejudice towards certain “types” of people that we shield ourselves from others and create our “perfect” in-group. A group in which only those who are like us can join and share their ideas. There is nothing wrong with forming cliques; however, problems arise when certain cliques look down on different ethnic groups to the point of damaging and hurting others. The Tortilla Curtain, which is written by T.C. Boyle, points out many of the problems that are seen among different ethnic groups. In the book, Boyle demonstrated the difficulties that can develop among individuals when communication is limited, but also when we discriminate against others. In The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle argues that communication is essential for a society to prosper, prejudice can lead to misunderstandings, and that one individual can make their whole ethnic group look bad.

The social commentaries in both The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle and “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden by E.L. Doctorow unveils the true reality of the American Government and the social injustice of the American society. In the Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle took upon an adventure of two illegal immigrants from Mexico who faced the unsettling truth of the social class system of America. But In “Child, Dead, in a Rose Garden” E.L. Doctorow expresses the injustice of the Government and their ability to blindside the public with fraudulent information.

He is unaffected and unchanged by the pain, sufferings, and love from those around him. He moves from his intelligent wife to a younger woman, and adult magazines which he refers to as his “little friends”. He lacks the care, the interest, and the persistence to look deeper into any matter, and finds nothing worthwhile. Neither content nor satisfied by anything the world has to offer him, he mindlessly drifts along, searching for that something to fill up his emptiness. Early in the film, Jack says, “Christ, you know, I remember so clearly it was years ago someone saying, ‘If God didn’t like assholes, he wouldn’t have made so many of them,’ and the person who was saying it looked right at me… ha ha ha”.

The first reason that human nature is best represented by Jack’s character is because people tend to make decisions based on their emotions when they are anonymous or alone. Jack let his true feelings show when his face was painted and when he was hunting in the forest. Once he was disguised or in the privacy of the forest, he acted like a wild animal. The author describes Jack as being a different person when he paints his face. The narrator says, “[h]e capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (Golding 60). This mask acted as a shield protecting Jack from the judgement of others. It made him feel less responsible for his actions, and he disregarded intellect and practicality while choosing his course of action. Instead, he relied on his emotions to make decisions, no matter how bad they were, because the mask took away his sense of responsibility. Many people are like this today. For example, when people robs a bank, they wear masks to make sure no one recognizes them. In some ways, a

No two people on this earth are identically the same. Human variety begins on the molecular level and continues to cause distinctions between humans. Each person has a distinct genetic code that causes disparity of age, gender, race, ethnicity, and many other things within our society. Just as no two people are alike, no two interpretations of literature are alike either. As a reader, past experiences influence the way a person interprets a certain literary piece of merit. Past experiences such as cultural and family history, and childhood development have a huge impact on the way a person interprets and reacts to literature.

For those who miss the days when it was a finely crafted cinematic art to pull back the weathered layers of artic cool from suburban upper class women a la Alfred Hitchcock, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is a welcome remembrance of things past. While the movie doesn’t entirely shake it’s tell tale bookish mustiness as an adaptation of The York Times Bestseller of the same name by British Author Paula Hawkins, it is extremely effective as a post mortem on what it means today for many women to seemingly have it all via the perfect man, the perfect baby and the perfect house, but still to feel utterly lost at sea.

On the other hand, there is a tendency to view Jack through the lens of dominant cultural stereotypes. We can apparently tell that from the way he talks and poses in the scene. In the scene, Jack is so obsessed with the pizza boy and wants to marry him. We can see him as the most frequent humor and identify less with him than with other characters. In this scene, Jack was described as a ‘silly, irresponsible, immature, narcissistic, effeminate, and insulting, childlike unselfconsciousness, the epitome of the negative stereotypical gay male. For example, in the scene, Will and Jack is fighting about who knows Grace better, when Jack wins the situation, he gives a little wired dance to tease Will, and Will is driven beyond forbearance: “Your mother took the straps off your bed about 20 years too early!” Thus, Jack enabling the “gayness” visibility.