The Tortilla Curtain

Why does Delaney become a rasist?

Can you explain the process and the different stages of his way to a rasist?

At the beginning he is a liberal humanist why or how could he turn into a rasist who is willing to kill people?

Is Candido, at the end more human than Delany?

Would D. have done the same?

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Last updated by Aslan
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There are too many questions here for this short space. I can give you an overview. Delaney lives with his wife Kyra, her son Jordan, their Siamese cat Dame Edith, and their two dogs, Osbert and Sacheverell. Their home is in the white, middle-class neighborhood of Arroyo Blanco Estates in Los Angeles, California. Delaney is an avid hiker and nature lover, so much so that he writes a column called "Pilgrim at Topanga Creek" for the nature magazine Wide Open Spaces, a column which discusses daily observations from a naturalist's point of view. He strongly values having a strong connection and proximity to nature, which is why he chose Arroyo Blanco to live and and why he so strongly opposes the building of the wall around the neighborhood. He also claims to be in favor of immigrants and immigrants' rights; however, this supposedly strong value of his comes into question and begins to crumble as soon as he hits Cándido with his car. By the end of the novel, this value of his has completely disappeared, to the point where he refuses to believe photographic evidence that a white teenager vandalized the wall, choosing instead to believe that Cándido did it, despite having no proof of that whatsoever.

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