Tom Coraghessan Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948 in Peekskill, NY, changed his middle name to Coraghessan at the age of 17. His mother, a secretary, and his father, a bus driver, were both Catholic, his father having been raised in a Catholic orphanage where he was educated until the 8th grade. In his essay, "This Monkey, My Back," he describes himself as being an obedient child until about the age of 15, when the influence of his more affluent, better educated...
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The issue of immigration and American attitudes towards it are the object of satire in T.C Boyle's novel ‘Tortilla Curtain’. Boyle uses sarcasm to attack what he sees as the self-obsessed nature of middle-class America and their naïve view of the...
T. C. Boyle, author of The Tortilla Curtain, stated in defense of his harsh depiction of characters Kyra and Delaney Mossbacher that, "If it's satire, it has to bite somebody, has to have teeth in it, otherwise it's useless" (Penguin Group). This...
A "coyote" is someone who profits from sneaking immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border. It's also an animal stereotyped as a scavenging coward. In The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle draws frequent parallels between coyotes prowling the edges of...
In T.C Boyle’s novel The Tortilla Curtain, the author offers a distorted lens to highlight the differences between two couples from separate cultures brought together through a series of unfortunate events. Candido and America Rincon are illegal...
In the Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, we are introduced to two very different main characters,Cándido Rincón and Delaney Mossbacher. When the novel first begins, Delaney is described as a “liberal humanist” (Boyle 1) who supports immigrants...
In T.C. Boyle’s transcendent short story “Greasy Lake,” the eponymous lake reflects the evolution of the boys from naïve greasers to enlightened, mature teenagers. At the start of the story, the boys relish their bad boy image as they drive up to...
The Vietnam War is arguably one of the most controversial and debated wars in American history. The protests against it sparked a new age of anti-government feelings in the U.S. and contributed to the hippie, peace movement it’s time is known for....
In “She Wasn’t Soft”, T.C. Boyle uses dynamic and static characterization in his portrayal of an unhealthy relationship. Dynamic characters are characters who change throughout a story, the dynamic character in this story being Paula, while static...
In the contemporary novel When the Killing's Done, author T.C. Boyle tells the powerfully relevant story of Alma Boyd Takesue, her antagonist Dave Lajoy, and their attempts to exert dominion over the natural world. Set on the Channel Islands off...
In the contemporary novel When The Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle, the secondary character Anise is an animal-loving singer who is dating the leader of an unethical organization called FPA, Dave LaJoy, she often helps his organization and...
