Juvenalian Satire in The Tortilla Curtain

T.C. Boyle Reveals the Flawed Structure of American Culture

Sep 18, 2009

Critics recognize T.C. Boyle's novel, The Tortilla Curtain, as a satire. However, Boyle's confused readers often miss the point.

Many of T.C. Boyle’s readers respond to the novel, The Tortilla Curtain, in anger, outrage, or frustration. The frustrated readers often complain about the negative quality of the novel and how there is nothing redeeming in it. While their complaints are debatable, they have valid points when arguing that the novel is thoroughly negative without a positive spin.

Irate readers often use the words trite, clichéd, and ham fisted when responding to Boyle’s descriptions of the people and cultures involved in the novel. They feel that Boyle relies on clichés and doesn’t understand his subjects. Unfortunately, the irate reader’s response reveals ignorance or the inability to understand the reason for the characters and the underlying themes in the novel.

The Novel is a Satire

When one opens The Tortilla Curtain the first endorsement that one finds is from “The Baltimore Sun.” It compares Boyle to a whole string of satirists. On the back cover of the book, Barbara Kingsolver describes it as comic. Unfortunately, few seem to realize that the satire in this book isn’t comic satire.

Most people are familiar with satire in the form of Horatian satire which according to the Northern Kentucky University (NKU) website is “indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the absurdities and follies of human beings, aiming at producing in the reader not…anger…but a wry smile.”

Juvenalian Satire

However, Boyle’s satire in The Tortilla Curtain is Juvenalian satire, which the NKU website defines as a “Formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation. Juvenalian satire in its realism and its harshness is in strong contrast to Horatian satire.”

A study of Juvenalian satire reveals that the tone of a Juvenalian piece is revealed in ridicule, scorn, and outrage. In order to agitate the emotions of the reader the writer will use irony, sarcasm, and moral outrage to illustrate the characters and plots of the story. People often find little humor in Juvenalian satire, which is pessimistic in tone.

Shallow Characters

Boyle describes all the characters in broad generalities that place them well within the confines of the stereotypes that often define American politics and social norms.

Delaney Mossbacher is a liberal humanist. An independently wealthy man, Delaney finds meaning in his life as a psuedo-naturalist writer. He worries about environmental concerns and his own personal comfort.

Kyra Mossbacher is a driven, successful real-estate agent. She believes that the key to good real-estate sales and good relationships with her clients is good will and the personal touch.

Candido Rincon is a middle-aged Mexican who has been to America to work more than once. In the past he sent all his money home, but when his wife left him for someone who didn’t go to America he sank into alcoholism– until his wife’s little sister befriends him. He takes her to America promising her a better life.

America Rincon is the teenaged pregnant wife of Candido. She came to America with him hoping to realize the American dream. However, all she finds is hard work and danger and she soon finds herself often feeling hatred for her husband.

Reductio Ad Absurdum

By reducing his characters to stereotypes and then revealing their thoughts in a way that seems to the reader as if he were being sympathetic, Boyle allows the story to move into the realm of reductio ad absurdum. A shorthand definition for reductio ad absurdum is “to reduce to the absurd.”

Perhaps the most entertaining use of reductio ad absurdum in The Tortilla Curtain is the contrast between the two men both of whom feel as if the universe were playing a joke on them.

The Universe is Against Me

While both men, Candido Rincon and Delaney Mossbacher have little in common in terms of lifestyle and worldview; they both feel that the universe is out to get them.

Bad things (relatively speaking) happen to Delaney from the outset to the conclusion of the novel. After he hits Candido one of his first thoughts is “Why him? Why did this have to happen to him?” (6) He can’t understand how bad things always happen to him. However, while he is faced with numerous inconveniences (and some of them are major inconveniences), his ability to live and survive is not profoundly effected.

On the contrary, poor Candido’s life seems a comedy of errors. One bad thing happens to him after another. At one point, he thinks, “It was like being haunted by devils, red-haired devils and rubios in eighty-dollar running shoes and sunglasses that cost more than a laboring man could make in a week. What had he done do to deserve such a fate? Candido was a sinner like any man, sure, but no worse.” (121)

Dark Humor

Both men feel truly sorry for themselves. However the reader is likely to find Delaney’s self-pity absurd and over-the-top. He works short hours, stays home, and takes it easy. On the other hand, the reader will either sympathize with Candido or they will become angry with what seems like an unrealistic portrayal by the author of marginalized people. Either way, the reader is forced to question the status quo, which is the point of Juvenalian satire.

The copyright of the article Juvenalian Satire in The Tortilla Curtain in American Fiction is owned by Melissa Howard. Permission to republish Juvenalian Satire in The Tortilla Curtain in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.