Tortilla Flat Essay Research Paper TORTILLA FLAT

Tortilla Flat Essay, Research Paper

TORTILLA FLAT by John Steinbeck

Henry James wrote that the novel is to be experienced–therefore the reader must completely understand what happens in it. You should appropriate comparisons, contrasts, draw analogies of what is in the novel and one’s own experience. While the elements of fiction are important in isolated ways, relating the parts is most important. A novel should show, “a direct, personal impression of life.” The form of the novel is so free, so liable to variation, so open to innovation, that an exact definition is not possible. Different things happen in novels; the situation changes. Each connection becomes the province of the plot. The position from where events in the plot are reported is the point of view. What do the viewing characters perceive in Tortilla Flat. Is there omniscience–an all-seeing, all-knowing narrator. The shifts in point-of-view is also common in Steinbeck’s novel. The theme is the personal and direct impression of life which Steinbeck projects.

The setting in Tortilla Flat shows the story took place in a certain time and place. Setting also reveals character. Symbols, ideas beyond the object itself and images, perceptible to the senses–the novelist’s use of concrete objects and events is most important in letting the reader know what is meant and how the writer wants the reader to feel about what is going on. Tone is the result of style [style recommends certain attitudes or conclusions following technical means of diction, syntax and imagery. Serious style employed to recount ridiculous events often helps establish a comic or satiric tone. Sometimes tone is achieved through contradiction. [Some types of tone are: forward, solemn, formal, informal, intimate, pompous, scholarly, angry, contemptuous, humorous, satirical, melancholy, prudish, flippant, cautious, sentimental etc.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE NOVEL.

1. Literature is a mirror reflecting life.

2. Literature can interpret life for us.

3. Literature can sustain and console us.

4. Literature is a source of moral guidance, and spiritual inspiration.

5. Literature is the probable successor of philosophy and religion (Matthew Arnold).

6. According to Aristotle and Horace - literature can foster virtue.

7. Since the creators of fiction are teachers and artists, they can corrupt morals and undermine religion (Plato).

STRENGTHS of the novel: WEAKNESSES of the novel:

How the novel is framed, Steinbeck's self-consciousness,

Uses of names and initials Ultimate terror of death lurks

have meaning, at the edge, [175]

More profound than ‘knights of Portrayal and treatment of

the roundtable: paisanos women, [96, 98, 175]

are children of Mother Church, Anticultural inuendo:

They recognize distinction “Oh Jew,…” [95, 174],

between temporal (value Italians [42, 181],

money), and eternal (value of Chinese [179],

friendship), Blacks [27, 194],

Excellent characterizations: Stereotyping of paisanos and

appear humanly paradoxical, women. Women appear to be

complex and flexible control automatically inferior as

determines their actions. do the paisanos.

Parallels to Malory’s “Morte de Can a non-Latino produce an

Arthur and the Knights of honest depiction of this

the Roundtable. culture.

CLASSIFYING POSSIBLE THEMES IN THIS NOVEL

TORTILLA FLAT

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

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| RELIGION | POLITICAL | ARCHETYPAL |

| | | |

| SOCIOLOGICAL ETHNIC MINORITY |

| PSYCHOLOGICAL

MORALETHICAL TEACHING

THEMES:

1. [MORALS] Responsibility-subsistence

Stealing From Those Who Have Much

Sexual Encounters

2. [RELIGION] Temptations of This World

Religious Prejudices

Biblical Parallels/Adam and Pilon

Mysticism/The holy vision

Death and Afterlife/Bad Omens

3. [SOCIOLOGICAL] Poverty

Burning Houses/Futility

Comitatus/The Individual vs. The Community

4. [POLITICAL] Society Robs Paisanos of Liberty

and Self-Indulgence-Dangers of Capitalism [Pirate]

Greed and Possessiveness [Big Joe-nemesis]

Oppression of Latinos

Resistance to Capitalism

5. [ETHNIC] Celebrating Friendship

The Good Life

Economic Slavery and Human Freedom

Stereotypes of Paisanos–’Put-Downs’ Social Injustice

6. [ARCHETYPAL] The unfaithful wife, femme fatale, the

temptress, the witchmother…(negative women)

No Great Mothers, American Princesses, Eves, New Woman

America = The New World Garden of Eden

Talisman, likened to a sword and a shield, a talisman maybe

defined as an object which has been magically endowed with

the power of attracting good fortune, while an amulet is

something which naturally possesses protective properties.

Legend Centered on Mystic Sorrow [Steinbeck and Malory]

RISE–> FLOWER –> FALL [Danny, the Hero or Anti-Hero.]

Pilon = Pharoah’s daughter taking baby or Moses in Bulrushes

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