Tortilla Curtain

In The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle, Candido’s headache is representative of his constant struggle between right and wrong, his inability to act upon his thoughts and opinions, and the guilt that he reminisces at the core of his attention. Candido’s headache impairs his ability to make accurate judgements. Boyle says “He didn’t blame her. But he was drunk and angry and he wanted to hurt her, wanted to hurt himself” alluding to his violent behavior due to the headache in his life (187). Candido is constantly battling to make decisions both for him and his wife America. He is perplexed with making the decisions to drink away his problems and try to ignore them, rather than confronting them and fixing them. He believes that as long as he can stray away from sober, he can erase all of the pain and suffering he is in. However, he makes the wrong decision, because he …show more content…
On the other hand, rather than trying to fix the problem that has arose, he simply shrugs it off and chooses to do nothing about it. Candido’s actions demonstrate his desire for change, but his inability to create that change himself. The headache also creates a hostile and remorseful feeling inside of Candido as he struggles with the past. Boyle intentionally writes “Still the pain never left him” to demonstrate the consistency of hurt and agony that Candido himself is in at this point of his life (24). Candido feels horrible for constantly having to steal or dumpster dive in order to support his family because he wants to provide the most for his wife, but being illegal creates a barrier to achieving this dream of his. Candido’s headache creates a lot of problems for his life such as determining what is right and wrong, acting based upon his thoughts, and feeling remorseful for the things he has done or the things that he wished he had done, therefore showing the pain and dullness of Candido’s Throbbing