Tortilla Flat (1935) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Danny: Following Steinbeck's Knights of the Round Table analogy, Danny would be king Arthur. He is the protagonist of Tortilla Flat and the leader and father figure of the group of paisanos that the story focuses on. Being the owner of their house, he feels more responsibility then the rest for the well being of the group. He is twenty-five years old when he leaves for World War II.
• Jesus Maria Corcoran: Among the ruffians of Tortilla Flat, one would not expect to find a humanitarian, but that is just what Jesus Maria is. Not only is he constantly doing all that he can to help those less fortunate than himself, but he has a knack for finding situations where his humanity can be put to use.
• Pablo: Though he is not a smart or righteous man, Pablo demonstrates a keen insight for the messages that life tries to teach. He understands when to speak and when not to, and always seems to do the right thing, whether he understands it or not.
• Mr. Torrelli: As the bootlegger and tradesman of Tortilla flat, it is only natural that Torrelli be the target for a lot of the paisanos frustration. He is a wealthy man, and being the holder of the town's wine supply, he is probably also the most powerful man in town.
• Mrs. Morales: Danny's neighbor who is in her 50's and he may be trying to romance
• Big Joe Portugee: Resident who spends much of his time in jail and eventually ends up in Danny's house
• The Pirate: Solitary man who lives with five dogs in a chicken house and sells firewood daily and buries the money from it
• Tito Ralph: Whenever the paisanos of Tortilla Flat go a little to far in their mischief, they are put in the hands of Tito Ralph, the jailor. He was made jailor because as a youth he had been a guest in the prison so often that he knew how it was supposed to be run better than any other man. He is not part of the inner circle of Danny's friends, but a good friend nonetheless.
• The Caporol: One of the few people who teaches the group a lesson as he tells them his story of running away with his baby after his wife leaves him
• Cornelia Ruiz: Tortilla Flat's primary source of gossip, Cornelia is a very restless girl. She goes through husbands almost as quickly as the paisanos go through gallons of wine. When Danny's friends talk, they often find fault in Cornelia's activities, but they would all be more than willing to get involved with her.
• Gracie: Petey's wife in Jesus Maria's story
• Tia Ignacia: A forty-five year old widow of mostly Indian blood, Tia Ignacia is not afraid to ask for what she wants. She is not the least bit subtle in her romantic pursuits of Big Joe.
• Teresina Cortez: Mother of nine with another on the way, Cornelia is one of those people with a propensity for the "distillation of children." With her mother, Cornelia has a tough time maintaining her ever-growing household. To get by, she feeds the children an unwavering diet of tortillas and beans.
• Dolores 'Sweets' Ramirez: A woman who pursues Danny
• Father Ramon: Priest who buys the gold candlestick for the Pirate
• Angelica Cortez: Teresina's mother who looks after the many children and gleans beans with them
• Senor Alec Thompson: One of the Pirate's dogs
• Johnny Pom-pom: Another paisano who helps Danny out throughout the book
• Emilio: The suitor who gives Cornelia the pig and causes her house to be destroyed by it
• Mrs. Torelli: Mr. Torelli's wife who is not always faithful and gets tricked occasionally by Danny's friends
• Saint Francis: Saint who the Pirate thinks that he and the dogs have seen
• Manuel: The caparol's baby
• Alfredo: One of the Pirate's five dogs
• Pilon: The idea man or thinker of the group in Danny's house
• Tall Bob Smoke: An unsuccessful dog catcher who always fails when he attempts something grand and manages to shoot his nose off when attempting to gain attention
• Petey: A man in Jesus Maria's story who falls in love with Gracie and hangs himself to attract her attention
• 'Tonia: Gracie's sister who Petey's father tries to pursue
• Rosa Martin: A woman that Danny's friends are worried he is seeing
• Arabella: A girl who Jesus Maria tries to see and gets beaten by her and four men over

Quotes edit see section history

• “One cry of pain escaped him before he left for all time his old and simply existence. "Pilon," he said sadly, "I wished you owned it and I could come live with you."”

  This quote is Danny's only spoken utterance of remorse for having the burden of the houses placed on him. It takes place at the beginning of chapter two, when Danny and Pilon take up inhabitance of the inherited houses.

• “Our Father is in the evening. These birds are flying across the forehead of the father. Dear birds, dear sea gulls, how I love you all.”

  Pilon utters these thoughts to no one but himself on the walk to Danny's house in the evening. He had worked the entire day cleaning squids so that he would have some rent to give to Danny.

• “I will go out to The One who can fight. I will find The Enemy who is worthy of Danny.”

  These are Danny's last words. He speaks them, table leg brandished overhead, at his party after challenging everyone in the world to fight him, if they dared. No one responds, and with these words, Danny rushes out of the house and into the gulch to his death.

• “To think, all those years I lay in that chicken house, and I did not know any pleasure. But now, oh, now I am very happy.”

  After the Pirate turns his money over to Danny and Pilon in Chapter 7, he expresses the joy that he feels for having friends with this quote.

• “The paisanos are free of commercialism, free of the complicated systems of American business, and, having nothing that can be stolen, exploited or mortgaged, that system has not attacked them very vigorously.”

  In the Preface, the narrator of Tortilla Flat makes these comments about the paisanos. It explains not what they lack, but what Steinbeck finds beautiful about them. He sees the advances in American business and technology as corrupting influences on freedom loving people.

• “If there was one rule of conduct more strong than any other to Pilon, it was this: Never under any circumstances bring feathers, head or feet home, for without these a chicken cannot be identified.”

  Narrator commenting on Pilon's methods for preventing accusations of chicken thievery.

• “In a little while Danny assaulted her virtue with true gallantry and vigor.”

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• Spiritually the jugs may be graduated thus: Just below the shoulder of the first bottle, serious and concentrated conversation. Two inches farther down, sweetly sad memory. Three inches more, thoughts of old and satisfactory loves. An inch, thoughts of bitter loves. Bottom of the first jug, general and undirected sadness. Shoulder of the second jug, black, unholy despondency. Two fingers down, a song of death or longing. A thumb, every other song each one knows. The graduations stop here, for the trail splits and there is no certainty. From this point on anything can happen.

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• “Things that happen are of no importance,” he said. “But from everything that happens, there is a lesson to be learned. By this we learn that a present, especially to a lady, should have no quality that will require a further present. Also we learn that it is sinful to give presents of too great value, for they may excite greed.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Monterey
• Tortilla Flat
• Alvarado Street
• Castile

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Spirituality: Though one might expect characters like the paisano to be jaded in their spiritual beliefs by the freedoms of their lifestyle, this is not true of the inhabitants of Tortilla Flat. They are an extremely God fearing and reverential people. They are strong believers in miracles and guidance from above. Whenever there is a little extra money (not enough to buy wine or food with) it is spent on candles to be burned for San Francisco or other saints. The myth of St. Andrew's Eve is not something that a few superstitious children believe in; it is a town wide event.Though the paisanos reverence for very few things, they will not enter the church or go to Danny's funeral in poor clothing. Also, as seen on St. Andrew's Eve, and on the eve of Danny's party, whenever something suspected of being supernatural is encountered, the natural reaction of thepaisano is to say a Hail Mary or an Our Father. The depth of the spirituality of Steinbeck's paisano characters is another way of showing what redeeming characters they are. They all have strong consciences brought on most likely by their beliefs in God and the afterlife. Danny's death is a very spiritual ordeal, conducted in private with Father Ramon. It can be imagined that inside the door, which Steinbeck leaves closed, Danny confesses his sins, and makes preparations for meeting his God.
• The Beauty of Simple Things: An overarching theme of most of John Steinbeck's literature, not just Tortilla Flat, is the intrinsic yet underestimated beauty and goodness of simple things. This is the reason why Steinbeck chooses the paisano of Monterey as the topic of the book. They are not cultured or worldly people, but in their ignorance of modern technologies and ways of thinking, there is something enigmatic and appealing about them. They are truly free in ways that societal influences prevent other people from being.The Pirate is another example of how a simple thing, in this case a mind, is shown to be far from worthless. He is a huge man with the mind of a child, and when Danny's friends catch on to the fact that he is hoarding money, he is defenseless against their manipulations. He is saved however by the simple innocence and sincerity of his intentions for the money, and also by the fact that he is ignorant to what the friends, led by Pilon, were doing to him. Instead of leading the friends to the money so that they could eventually take it, he comes out and simply gives the money to them, thinking that it would be safer with them. When they see this and hear the conviction in his story about San Francisco and the sick dog, the friends completely reverse their purposes. They help him to reach his goal of a thousand quarters and the money becomes a physical representation of their friendship.Steinbeck supports the theme of simplicity by introducing modern conveniences into Tortilla Flat and showing what problems they become. The vacuum cleaner that Danny gives to Sweats Ramirez is a perfect example of this. She likes it because it is sleek and shiny, even though it has no usefulness whatsoever. When the vacuum is later traded to Torrelli, a scandal is created by the fact that it has no motor, symbolizing the emptiness of conveniences like the vacuum. Similarly, the friends come across a machine gun in the flotsam from a downed coastguard ship. Whereas Danny is very business savvy in everything else, he has no idea of the use and value of such an object and so he sells it at a low price with the rest of the junk that they find.
• Landscape: Steinbeck spends a lot of time during the adventures of the paisanodescribing the landscape around them. This is not just a story about a group of friends; it is also about a community. Because Monterey plays such a large part in the characters of Danny and his friends, Steinbeck must give the town life and color so we can understand them better. Though they are not characters in the book, Steinbeck constantly refers to how the fisherman who believe that fish bite more in the morning were replaced by those who think they bite more in the afternoon, and then dusk, and then night. There is the tailor who puts the, "Back in ten minutes," sign in his window no matter how long he was going to be gone for, the drunkards in the ditches, and the houses of ill-repute with their girls hanging out the window. All of these seemingly needless details help us understand the way of life in Monterey, which can then be applied to Danny and his friends.There is also the fact that Monterey is one of the most ruggedly beautiful pieces of landscape in all of America. It's character, with its lazy hills, warm sun, spectacular shoreline, and colorful plant and animal life closely matches the paisanos themselves. Often Danny and his friends spend entire days just staring at it and enjoying its splendor. Pilon, in particular, is often halted in his tracks by the almost spiritual beauty of the place. It is also worth noting that the weather in Monterey coincidentally aligns itself with the spirits of the characters in many places. When all the bonding and adventuring is going on, it is warm, sunny, and pleasant, but when Danny begins feeling down, it is nothing but gray.
• Helping others: Though a good number of their exploits were aimed at supporting and bettering themselves, the paisanos also endeavored to help the less fortunate whenever an opportunity arrived. In this way they were truly like the Knights of the Round Table. Though it is probably true that Pilon wanted some of the Pirate's money for himself, it is also reasonable to think that with his conscience, he would have done all that he could with the money to improve the Pirate's standard of living. In the end, they end up giving the Pirate something even more valuable—human companionship. Later, with the caporal and Teresina Cortez's children, the friends show their true selfless natures.
• Wine drinking: There is nothing that the paisanos of Monterey like more than a little wine to ease the pain of life. In Tortilla Flat, the practice is more of a science than a recreational activity. Steinbeck describes the spiritual graduation in detail near the end of chapter three, going from serious conversation at the handle of the first gallon to songs of death near the bottom of the second. Drinking was not a time killer to the paisanos, nor a means of escape from reality or anything crude like that. It was a social activity and a show of camaraderie, for every cup was distributed equally among the friends. With the wine they could talk, sing, and fight as equals and through the stories told in the haziness, they would become better friends.
• Justifying Crime: Yes, Danny and his paisano friends are thieves, but they never commit a crime because they find it pleasurable to be doing something wrong or out of spite for someone. They only commit crimes when they can justify them to their admittedly loose moral system. They steal the picnic foods, for example, because it was cruel of the picnickers to show off their luxury in such a way, and because they needed something to smooth the way in talking to Danny about his house that they burned down. Most of their crimes are victimless, and the rest fit into the 'rob the rich to feed the poor' mentality reminiscent of Robin Hood. The pompous restaurant owners who would have thrown food out anyway, the railroad tycoons who could afford to lose a few nails and who were destroying their precious landscape anyway, and the miser Torrelli, who had so much wine and money that whatever they took meant nothing to him anyway, are a few examples. The greatest thrill for the paisanos is when they can steal for a truly good purpose, as is the case when they raid the warehouse in order to save Teresina Cortez's children.
• The Machine Gun: It is very easy to miss, but the machine gun that Danny and his friends discover on the beach after the sinking of the coast guard cutter is an important symbol. It is an invasion of the town of Monterey by a modern technology, and no one realizes its use or value. Though the gun alone must be worth well over five dollars, Danny includes it with all the other junk that they find for just that amount. It is part of Steinbeck's commentary on the innocence of the paisano that they have no idea of the value of such an object, and no idea or desire for its destructive powers.
• The Pirate's stash: After the Pirate turns over his sack of coins to Danny for safekeeping, it becomes representative of the bond between the friends. It is a lot of money in the sack, but it none of the friends take it because their friendship is worth more. The Danny and his friends, the coins cease to exist as currency that they could exchange for wine or food. It becomes simply a part of their daily ritual. When Big Joe forgets his place and takes coins from the bag, the reaction of the friends is so harsh because it is not merely a theft of money; it is an attack on their friendship.
• The Black Bird: Whether or not the story is true or not, the fact that Pablo claims to see a supernatural huge black bird hovering over Danny on the dock is very important. The bird represents death. Even in his wild month of crime and sleeping in the forest, Danny realizes that he cannot get away from it, that there is no way to regain his use. On the night of Danny's party, death is very close to him indeed.
• Intertextuality: This book is a retelling of the popular Arthurian tales, updated to Monterey, CA during the interwar period.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. John Steinbeck (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• California Book Award (1935: General Literature, Silver)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3537.T3234 T652
• Dewey: 813.52

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Classics › Steinbeck, John
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S ) › Steinbeck, John
• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Classics by Age

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Wikipedia Article: Tortilla Flat (1935) is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success. The book portrays with great sympathy and humor a group of paisanos - literally, countrymen - a small band of errant friends enjoying life and wine in the days after the end of the First World War. The central character Danny inherits two houses from his grandfather where he and his friends go to live. Danny's house, and Danny's friends, Steinbeck compares to the Round Table, and the Knights of the Round Table. Most of the action is set in the time of Steinbeck's own late teenage and young adult years.

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Tortilla Flat (1942) (IMDb): Staring Spencer Tracy, John Garfield, and Hedy Lamarr

More Books Like This edit see section history