"The tortilla curtain", T. C. Boyle

Résumé du document

To begin with, the author's purpose was certainly to show us the life of an immigrant in America. Thanks to their influence all over the world, the USA is very attractive to immigrants who are looking for employment. The USA represents for immigrants, prosperity and success. This conception is confirmed by the name of the main protagonist. She is named America by her poor parents who may have called her that because the US were for them a sort of Promised Land, a land of plenty where they hoped she would one day make a decent life. She fulfils this destiny, and moves to the USA in order to get work. She is seeking a job that will enable her to feed and shelter her baby. In all Northern American films and TV, immigrants are depicted as thinking that everyone can be professionally successful in the USA. People are convicted that the USA is the only place to get work and subsequently money. This then is the motive of America in coming to the USA. She has experienced that it's difficult to obtain a job because she is a single woman, but still harbors faith in the American dream.

Extraits

[...] She has illegally crossed over from Mexico so that she finds a job. In fact, she has come to find a job to make a living for her family. There, América is being looked at because she is the only woman among a crowd of men. And all the men know that, being a woman, it will be impossible for her to get a job. However, she realises that all these men are Mexican, like her, and feels somehow reassured to belong the same community. [...]

[...] América is a woman and moreover she is an immigrant, thus it will be much more difficult for her to find a job. América must then face to the reality: the American's dream was only an illusion. To put it in a nutshell, we have seen how an immigrant woman looks for a work so that she take care of her family. In my opinion, the author's interpretation, about the disillusion of the main character, is fair because nowadays it is difficult to find a job when you are an immigrant. [...]

[...] "The tortilla curtain", T. C. Boyle Basic facts and the main idea What about This excerpt deals with a young Mexican woman. América has illegally crossed over from Mexico in order to try to find work as a domestic in the USA. Where and when So, the scene takes place in the USA and more precisely on the border with Mexico: the heroin is afraid the border police might ask for her green card (l. 31) and Spanish seems to be currently spoken around the place. [...]

[...] She was frightened. What if she didn't get work? What would they eat? What would her baby do for clothes, shelter, and nourishment?” (l.27-28-29). She is ready to do whatever job is offered to her. That's why she shows herself very patient. This is proved by this quotation in line 25: corner she'd occupied now for three hours and more”. Moreover she is the only woman among a crowd of men: thus she has got less luck to find a work. [...]

[...] Throughout the North American films and TV, immigrants think that everyone can be successful professionally in the USA. People are convicted that the USA are the only way to get a work and subsequently money. And that's why América is coming to the USA. She has well seen that it's difficult to obtain a job because she is the only woman. But she has got the faith in the American dream. Then, the writer gives a sticking account of immigration problems: the main character is poor and in desperate need of a job: was bored. [...]