Tangerine

The volunteer firefighter on page 15 says, "Muck fires don't go out. They're burning all the time.... Sometimes the rain will damp them down, but they're still smoldering." What is Paul's muck fire that is always burning? What are the muck fires for Paul's parents, for Erik, for Antoine Thomas? At the end of the book, the wind has shifted and the odor and smoke from the muck fire is blowing away from Paul. Is that symbolic of what has happened in Paul's life? On page 244 as he digs in the ground behind his home on the day of Luis's funeral, Paul admits that he is finally seeing things that he has never seen before. What can he now see on page 244? What is the dirt of his life that was "burned, buried, plowed, coated and landscaped?