The Tortilla Curtain - T C Boyle

In the novel The Tortilla Curtain, written by T.C Boyle, Boyle writes about an American family and an illegal immigrant family living and going through the struggles of daily life in America. The novel is based on the cultural, financial, and social differences between the American Mossbachers and the immigrant Rincons. The book alternates between the two couples points of view so the reader can experience the lives of both families. The main characters in the novel are Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, and Candido and America Rincon. Boyle uses themes to symbolize and convey his views on illegal immigration. Although Boyle uses other themes in the novel, the coyote plays a particular role in the book symbolizing the illegal immigrants in the country, and their desperation, determination to live and survive in such a tough economy.

The coyote in The Tortilla Curtain specifically symbolizes illegal immigrants because of how both coyote and illegal immigrants take what they need to survive. For instance when the coyote "eats" the Mossabachers pet and when Candido eats a pet (Tortilla Curtain 194 & 307-308). When the coyote or illegal immigrants are in need of something like food, they find whatever is available and take it so that they can survive. The coyote symbolizes the illegal immigrants because both do what needs to be done to live, even if that means eating some ones pet. Another way the coyote symbolizes illegal immigrants is how walls and boundaries are put up to keep both the up to keep both the coyote and illegal immigrants out. For instance when the residents of the Arroyo Blanco Estates build a gate around the community, they built it to supposedly keep "the intruders, gangbangers and coyotes" out (Curtain 36-47). However in actuality it was meant to keep the illegal immigrants from entering. Also, Kyra raising the fence around the property to also keep the coyotes out symbolizes how the illegal immigrants are not wanted and unwelcomed. To make sure that they are kept away and stopped from entering, walls and boundaries are built.

In the book Delaney comes across conflicts with the coyote. The first incident Delaney's dog Sacheverell is taken for food by a coyote. After the loss of his dog, Delaney turns his anger towards the residents of Arroyo Blanco Estates for being "heedless" of the environment. The next day Delaney writes in his nature column, "The song of the survivor, the Trickster, the four -legged wonder who can find water wherever there is none and eat hearty among the rocks and the waste places" ( Curtain 79). The coyote reflects to illegal immigrants because wherever they can live and survive off the land they use those resources that are free to them and easy to obtain.

Another event that occurs with Delaney and the coyote is after Kyra has the fence raised from a six-foot to an eight-foot fence. The coyote somehow gets over the eight-foot