Faver Aguirre
Professor Schmidt
English 112
21 November 2013
History Recycled in the Works of T.C. Boyle
History's repeating itself is a dominant theme throughout T.C. Boyle's short stories and novels. If people do not learn from past mistakes, they are likely to fail again. By revisiting history, the author teaches the importance of awareness and caution in an ever-changing society. In “The Tortilla Curtain” published in 1995 a specific migrant problem in the 1930s is modified to fit contemporary immigration. Candido and America's battle for survival after immigrating to the United States repeats a similar event depicted in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Boyle's twisted short stories in the “If the River Was Whiskey” mirror events in history in the light of modern times. The similarities between the Van Brunts and the Van Warts in “The World's End “contribute to identical generations, separated by three hundred years. In his writing Boyle attacks modern society's conceited, self-absorbed attitude, and he discourages reiteration of the past.
In “The Tortilla Curtain” Boyle recycles a past dilemma as he writes of a problem similar to the "Dust Bowl" migration of the 1930s. Candido Rincon and his wife America travel from Mexico to live here in America through the "Tortilla Curtain" searching for work while constantly trying to achieve the American Dream. In this journey, the Rincons encounter several racist obstacles including a pack of white men who beat and rape America during her pregnancy leaving her to die. Constantly searching for work and money takes Candido mentally and physically away from his wife.
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High in the Arroyo Blanco Estates lives the Mossbacher family which dwells in the temple of American materialism. Delaney and his wife, Kyra live the typical modern American Dream: two parents, upper-middle class status, a child, and a Lexus. The fantasy that Candido and America desperately want; a white picket fence, a refrigerator, and a dishwasher were all extravagant luxuries that seem so common now. Candido summarizes the typical middle class: white faces, high heels business suits, the greedy eyes, and ravenous mouths. They lived in their glass palaces, with their gates and fences and security systems, they left half- eaten lobsters and beefsteaks on their plates when the rest of the world was starving, spent enough to feed and clothe an entire country on their exercise equipment, their swimming pools, and tennis courts, jogging shoes, and all of them even the poorest had two cars. Where was the justice in that? (200)
The Rincons and the Mossbachers collide in "an accident in a world of accidents, the collision of opposing forces" (197). Delaney then begins his spiral toward toward hatred for immigrants and foreigners in general when he hits Candido with his car. The Mossbacher's story of immigrant resentment and high society moves side by side with the Rincons effort to learn the American way of life. Boyle writes the stories concomitantly to show the increasing tension between the two families. Boyle writes stories accordingly to show the increasing tension between the two families. The story climaxes when Candido saves Delaney’s life at the end. The wall that surrounds the Arroyo Blanco Estates is the key to unlocking Boyle's purpose in the book. This wall was built to isolate the community and segregate its neighborhood from the immigrant influx. The wall built around the neighborhood is similar to the Berlin Wall built in 1961. The Arroyo Estate's fortress and the Berlin Wall were subjected to the same graffiti polluted barriers. The street art represents a rebellion against the constraint of the walls. Society
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avoids aiding the less fortunate by building walls and pretending that problems do not exist. Boyle implies that society does not heal the wounds that fester within the system. These plagues, these lesions that feed off the hate and the nativism of the nation are no more evolved or humane now than they were fifty or one hundred years ago.
Published in 1989, If the River was Whiskey shows the danger of modern society's misguided values. In the story the "Human Fly," Zoltan Mindszenty attempts to rekindle society's dare devil stunts and death defying feats. He is a modern day Don Quixote who clings to the dying hope that risking his life will make him famous, much as it did for Harry Houdini in the early 20th century:
It was a heady moment, transcendent, the cameras whirring, the passengers cheering,
Zoltan's greatness a part of us all. This was an event, a once-in-a-lifetime thing, like watching Hank Aaron stoke his seven hundred fifteenth homer or Neil Armstrong walking out onto the surface of the moon. (314)
In "The Ape Lady in Retirement" history not only repeats itself but it moves in a circular path. Beatrice Umbo is burdened with the responsibility of caring for a two-hundred pound chimpanzee named Konrad. The chimpanzee has been raised learning human manners such as eating with cutlery, wearing trousers, and mastering American Sign Language. Konrad began his life as a simple chimp. His steps toward becoming more evolved which included smoking and watching television, only made him more human but not necessarily more evolved. Beatrice asserts that, "She wouldn't have it, one of her chimps indulging a filthy human habit" (402). Ironically Beatrice wants to turn the chimp that has become more human back to his primitive instinct. Performing human tasks was the primary goal in the first place. Boyle implies that humans are just as primitive as chimps when we eat junk food, smoke cigarettes, and watch
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television. At the end of the story, Konrad returns to his animal instincts and defends himself by beating Howie Kantner, a fan of Beatrice's work, to death.
World's End, jumps from generation to generation to show the repetition throughout history. The story revolves around the life of a twenty-two year old disillusioned, drug addicted, Cornell graduate named Walter Van Brunt who stumbles through the book searching for the truth about his father. On certain instances history searches for Walter. Several ghosts, Walter's father, Walter's mother, and Walter's grandmother visit Walter returning him to past memories, "The first ghost, the ghost of the pancakes, was conjured by the deft culinary hand of Lola Solovay, his adoptive mother" (3). These memories help spark Walter's desire to discover his past and find a purpose in life. "Walter's investigation into the life and present whereabouts of his father begins when he crashes his motorcycle into a historical marker honoring the spot where a group of rebels was hanged, betrayed to the authorities by another Van Brunt" (20.). This "run in with history" snowballs into a complete aligning of events past and present that will ultimately unveil Walter's true destiny in life.
Boyle's narrative of Walter's trek into the past suggests that people in modern society strolls through life not understanding that the mistakes they make today were made in the past and will most likely be made again. We as a community do not learn from our faults. Even when Walter realizes that his fate was to become a traitor, a nomad, and a washout, he does nothing to try to avoid the inevitable. World's End is a wake up call to the Generation X youth who seem as hopeless as Walter. Boyle's writings are an omen of past events returning to haunt us, as metaphorically suggested in the reappearance of Walter's ghosts in World's End. Society misunderstands past blunders as something to emulate instead of something to avoid, and the choices made in the
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present affect future generations. As civilization moves into a new millenium, it is time to clean the slate. Society must face the future with confidence instead of nostalgia. The youth of the present will hopefully learn from his parent's mistakes, and he will contribute to the world ideas and revelations that his parents failed to realize.
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Works Cited
Boyle, T.C. T.C Boyle Stories. New York: Penguin, 1998.
Batchelor, John C. "Hudson River Frolic." Book World in Washington Post, November 1, 1987, p.4. Rpt. Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 55. Detroit: Gale, 1988. 92 vols.
DeMott, Benjamin. "Ghost Ships on the Hudson." New York Times Book Review September 27, 1987, pp. 1,52-53. Rpt. Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 55. Detroit: Gale, 1988. 92 vols.
Kakutani, Michiko. "Review of World's End." New York Times, September 23, 1987, p. C27. Rpt. Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 55. Detroit: Gale, 1988. Vol 92
Book Review of The Human Fly. Sept. 3 1995, p.3. Rpt. Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 90. Detroit: Gale, 1995. 92 vols.
