The Tortilla Curtain: Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

The narration shifts to Delaney’s perspective. It is now November and Delaney finds himself missing the East and depressed by the “dismal reality” of autumn in Los Angeles (particularly the dust and the Santa Ana winds). He is at home working on research for a new column when the doorbell rings. A crew of men in hard hats has arrived and needs access to the Mossbachers’ property to continue their work erecting the wall, which is already ninety percent finished. Delaney tries to continue writing while the men work but he has trouble concentrating and feels “as if he were under siege.” He is frustrated by the fact that the wall, which will have no gates, means he will not have direct access to the hills surrounding Arroyo Blanco. “How [can] he work?” he thinks. He feels he is being “buried alive.”

That evening, Delaney accompanies Kyra to the Da Ros place to close it, as he has done every night since “the graffiti incident.” In the car, Delaney fumes, complaining that he “can’t walk out of [his] own yard. Kyra cheerfully shows Delaney a stepladder she bought for him and Delaney realizes that the wall will help keep his neighbors from hiking, too, meaning he will “have the hills to himself.” He is “exhilarated” by the thought, but does not feel like revealing this to Kyra.

On the way home, Delaney and Kyra stop at the supermarket to purchase food for Thanksgiving. Delaney’s spirits begin to lift; he wonders, “How could he have let such a petty thing come between them?” He and Kyra kiss in the middle of the supermarket. Later, at the checkout, an employee informs Delaney and Kyra that their purchase, because it exceeds fifty dollars, entitles them to a free twelve-pound turkey. Though they already have an eighteen-pound turkey at home, Kyra accepts the free one.

The narration shifts to Cándido’s perspective. He and América are again living in the canyon. América has been catatonic for days, having had a breakdown when Cándido forced her to move back to the canyon. Cándido is worried about the upcoming rainy season and “[beginning] to think he hate[s]” his wife. The one piece of good news is that Cándido has found relatively consistent work for a man named Señor Willis. Though Cándido is worried about the future, he is hopeful that he and América are “on the upswing.”

Cándido is on the way to the supermarket to purchase food for Thanksgiving, or “El Tenksgeevee.” In the checkout line, two young men in front of Cándido are offered their free turkey, but instead deposit it in Cándido’s arms; one of them says, “Happy Thanksgiving, dude.” Cándido feels “dazed” by the gift but as he heads back into the canyon he begins to feel elated. América is pleased by the turkey, and as he works at building a fire, Cándido feels “as happy as he’d ever been.” Then the wind “pluck[s] the fire out of its bed of coals and with a roar as loud as all the furnaces of hell set[s] it dancing in the treetops.”