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3.
Delaney Mossbacher’s change in attitude throughout the novel
Delaney
goes through a dramatic change in his attitude towards illegal
immigrants, particularly towards Mexicans. First he is tolerant
towards them, but during the course of the book he turns into a
reactionary racist who is completely blinded by his hatred and
willing to hunt Cándido.
In
this analysis I will show his initial attitude, then examine the
influences which change Delaney. A couple of times he catches
himself with racist ideas, is shocked about that, but ultimately
turns into a racist.
3.1
His initial attitude
In
the beginning he describes himself as a “liberal humanist” (p.
3) who has a tolerant position towards immigrants as shown in the
discussion with his conservative neighbor Jack Jardine who speaks
openly against immigration at several occasions. Jack says a couple
of things against immigrants and thinks that the borders should be
closed down. He formulates some ideas about self-protection from
crime, what immigrants cost in social welfare, education and health
care (cf. p. 101 ff.). He says that “ ‘ […] there is a point
of saturation.’ ” (p. 101) and gives other arguments against
immigration. Here Delaney shows his liberal beliefs he superficially
still has:
“ ‘That’s racist, Jack, and you know it’
” (p. 101). “ ‘Immigrants are the life blood of this country
– we are a nation of immigrants- […]’ ” (p. 101). “
‘Everybody’s an immigrant from somewhere. My grandfather came
from Bremen and my grandmother was Irish – does that make me any
less citizen…?’ ” (p. 102).
“He
wanted to tell Jack that he was wrong, that everyone deserved a
chance in life and that the Mexicans would assimilate just like the
Poles, Italians, Germans, Irish and Chinese and that besides which
we’d stolen California from them in the first place, but he
didn’t get a chance” (p. 102).
We
get another insight of his ideals when we look at the gate issue.
The community, lead by Jack Jardine, wants to set up a gate to keep
strangers out of the settlement. Delaney’s views on that:
“A
gate […] to keep out those very gangbangers, taggers and
carjackers […]. Sure. […] The fools. The idiots” (p. 39).
„[…]
– the gate was an absurdity, intimidating and exclusionary,
antidemocratic even, and he’d spoken against it […]. […] for
the rest of his days he‘d have to feel like a criminal driving
into his own community, excusing himself to some jerk in a
crypto-fascist uniform […]” (p. 41).
Another
important point to understand this character is his love to nature.
Delaney can be called a environmentalist by American standards. He
recycles his trash (cf. p. 3), is aware of his environment: he loves
his daily hikes through nature, they make him forget about his
problems (cf. p. 111). He lives for his daily writing for “Wide
Open Spaces”, a nature magazine (cf. p. 32). A good example for
his liberal ideals is that he is in charge of the household and his
wife is the “chief breadwinner” (p. 35).
This
seems to be his initial, his formal attitude, the one Delaney
believes he has. But in his subconsciousness, I think, he always had
this latent racism (cf. p.11, 15). We see a slight form of this
racism when he actually has contact with Mexicans. First he catches
himself with it, is shocked about that, but later on he will show
his hatred towards aliens openly.
3.2
Turning into a racist
Now
I will follow the events and the dialogues with certain persons
which have an influence on his attitude in a chronological order. I
might have to differ from that order if necessary.
In
my opinion the most important event is the car accident right at the
beginning (p. 3 ff.). He hits Cándido and wants to help him, but
eventually only gives him $20, because Cándido refuses his help. I
believe that his conscious is troubled with this guilt throughout
the novel and ultimately is the reason why Delaney makes Cándido
responsible for all the misfortunes that follow the accident and
result in hatred.
His
guilt is shown right on the first page of the book. He sees images
of Cándido:
“
[…] -they infested his dreams, cut through his waking hours like a
window on another reality. He saw his victim in a book of stamps at
the post office, reflected in the blameless glass panels of the
gently closing twin doors at Jordan’s elementary school, staring
up at him from his omelette aux fines herbes at Emilio’s in the
shank of the evening” (p. 3).
When
Delaney goes to the car dealer to repair his car he lies about the
accident:
“Why was he lying?” (p. 13).
“Because
he was covering himself, that’s why. Because he’d left the poor
son of a bitch there alongside the road, abandoned him, and because
he’d been glad of it, relieved to buy him off with twenty dollars’
blood money. And how did that square with his liberal-humanist
ideals?” (p. 13)
His
feelings about the gate issue are tested when Delaney feels
threatened by a car that seems to be loaded with some bad guys.
“Was it burglars, then? Muggers? Gangbangers?”
(p. 64). He is
afraid and shocked that this happens out there in his own
neighborhood. Maybe the gate was not that bad an idea, he thinks.
Then
he meets Jack Jardine again in the supermarket and once again the
reader gets some impression of Delaney’s “official” feelings
towards immigration. (see above)
Right
after this dialogue, Jack and Delaney become witnesses how Cándido
is attacked by a trucker. Delaney recognizes Cándido as the Mexican
who he ran over, and that picture brought
“[…]
Delaney’s guilt back to the surface, a wound that refused to heal.
His impulse was to intercede, to put an end to it, and yet in some
perverse way he wanted to see this dark alien little man crushed and
obliterated, out of his life forever” (p. 105).
Here
we see Delaney’s guilt and how he makes Cándido responsible and
hates him.
This
becomes even more obvious in a scene that follows the next day.
Delaney is sitting in front of his computer and cannot focus on his
work. Cándido’s image still haunts him. Delaney wonders why he
missed the opportunity to show Jack Jardine that he is blameless:
“[…]
– the man was a nuisance, a bum, a panhandler. If anything Delaney
was the victim, his twenty dollars separated from him through a kind
of extortion, an emotional sleight of his hand that preyed on his
good nature and fellow feeling. He’d read about beggars in India
mutilating themselves and their children so as to present the horror
[…] to the well-fed and guilt-racked tourist. Well, wasn’t this
Mexican cut from the same mold, throwing himself in front of a car
for the thin hope of twenty bucks?” (p. 109).
I
think, this way Delaney tries to suppress his own guilt and convince
himself that it is all Cándido’s fault. This does not work, as I
will show later on. His guilty conscious will never be quiet.
To
this point he only had “negative contact” to one Mexican, Cándido.
Now, there follow some scenes with Mexicans which further influence
his attitude towards immigration negatively:
Delaney
tries to distract himself by making a hike into the mountains. When
he drives along the canyon road by the place where he hit Cándido
he does not even think twice of him. (cf. p. 111) “[…] he felt
blessed and unconquerable” (p. 111).
Then
in the valley he finds a camp. Two sleeping bags a few belongings
and a lot of garbage. Delaney is outraged, his hands begin to shake.
He calls this a desecration. He wants to call the police. “The
image of his Mexican rose up yet again, but this time it was no more
than a flicker, and he fought it down” (p. 113).
Here
we see again a slight emergence of Delaney’s latent racism.
Somebody camps illegally in the canyon and he unconsciously thinks
of a Mexican. This time his guess is right.
As
he moves further along the valley he suddenly hears two voices. His
anger turns into fear: “The sleeping bags behind him, the voices
ahead: these were transients, bums, criminals and there was no law
here” (p. 113).
He
remembers a girl he met in a birding class. She was attacked and
raped during a hike by Mexicans, or maybe Armenians (cf. p. 114 f.).
Now
Delaney faces the Latino José Navidad and his friend. These are the
two who raped América. They claim that they were hiking, too.
Instead of being afraid, all Delaney can think of is the Sheriff
“[…] hustling them right back to wherever they’d come from,
slums, favelas, barrios, whatever they called them. They
didn’t belong here, that was for sure” (p. 117). In my opinion
this does not sound like something which is regarded as humanistic
and liberal ideals!
When
he returns to the canyon road, his already ruined day gets worse: he
finds his car stolen (cf. p.109 ff.). When asked by Kyra:
“Who
stole it?”, Delaney “[…] tried to dredge up all he ever heard
and read about car thieves, about chop shops, counterfeit serial
numbers […], but all he could see was the bruised face and blunted
eyes of his Mexican, the wheel clutched between his hands and the
bumper gobbling up the fragments of the broken yellow line as if the
whole thing were one of those pulse-thumping games in the arcade”
(p.120).
I
think here is a part where we can see that Delaney makes Mexicans
responsible for the calamities which happen to him. Cándido forms
something like a symbol for the Mexicans in general. He becomes a
scapegoat and a release valve for all of Delaney’s frustration and
anger.
For
the reader and also Delaney it is quite clear that Cándido is not
the thief, but yet , by a unconscious reflex, Delaney assumes that
the thief must be a Mexican. This assumption manifests in form of Cándido,
Delaney’s symbol of (a) Mexican.
The
car dealer, Kenny Grissom, fuels his speculations by telling him
that there is a Mexican run organization for stealing cars. Then he
says something about immigrants in general, what they cost and do
and that the US were “under siege” (p. 146). But he is “
‘not blaming it all on the Mexicans, […] it’s everybody -
Salvadorians, I-ranians, Russians, Vietnamese’ ” (p. 147).
Then
he meets with Kyra in an Indian restaurant. Here the reader gets
some insights in his feelings:
“[…]
he felt depressed, disheartened, as if his luck had turned bad and
he was sinking into a imperceptible hole […]. […] He felt like a
victim” (p.149). “There’s been a moment there, handing over
the keys to the young Latino, when he felt a deep shameful stab of
racist resentment – did they all have to be Mexicans? – that
went against everything he’d believed in all his life” (p. 149).
Later
that afternoon Delaney decides to go for a hike. But instead of
doing so, he hides in the bush and watches his car, because he is
afraid that someone might steal it (cf. 155-156).
The
next “negative contact” with Mexicans does not happen to Delaney
himself, but to his wife Kyra. She is threatened by two Mexicans,
José Navidad and his friend. She is very disturbed and afraid (cf.
164 ff.). Later they will find a graffiti saying “Pinche Puta” (fucking
whore) (p. 223) on the wall. Obviously this episode effects
Delaney’s attitude, too, which, I think, is quite understandable,
especially since he experienced something very similar.
Now
there follow some dialogues with Kyra and at Dominick Flood’s
house. Basically that the US are “overwhelmed” by Mexicans,
which is bad for employment rates and welfare, that there is an
increase of crime even in Arroyo Blanco (Sunny) and they want to
wall in the community (cf. p. 185, p. 188-192).
Despite
of his already slight negative attitude against Mexicans: “ ‘Mexicans’,
Delaney said, and there was […] no overlay of humanist guilt.
Mexicans, there were Mexicans everywhere” (p. 184), he is still
against the wall and racism (cf. what he says on p. 220 and his
thoughts about the kids’ dialogue on p. 224 f.).
But
when he is asked to support the campaign against the wall, he avoids
being involved (cf. p. 225-227).
3.3 Transformation (nearly)
completed
On
pages 227-229 we can see Delaney’s first outbreak of racism. He
challenges José Navidad, who is distributing flyers. Delaney grabs
his arm with force, he is outraged: “The man was a thief, a liar,
the stinking occupant of a stinking sleeping bag in the state forest,
a trespasser, a polluter, a Mexican” (p. 229). Again Delaney
catches himself with this racism and wonders “[…] what was
happing to him, what was he becoming?” (p. 229).
On
Thanksgiving Cándido sets accidentally the canyon on fire.
Delaney’s community is forced to evacuate. When they see José
Navidad and his friend coming from the direction of the fire, the
crowd turns into a mob, lead by Delaney and Jack Cherrystone. Under
the influence of alcohol (cf. p. 264, 266, 286 f.) and the fear of
losing all they own, Delaney forgets all his humanist beliefs:
“Amazing, he thought – and he didn’t try to correct himself,
not now, not ever again – amazing how the scum comes to the
surface” (p. 286). “[…] and he felt as much pure hatred as
he’d ever felt in his life”(p. 286 f.) He automatically makes
them responsible: he was “ready to lay the blame where it belonged,
and he could feel the liquor burning in his veins” (p. 287) Then
he lies to the police officer and pretends he saw them where the
fire started. “He was excited now, beyond caring – someone had
to pay for this – […]” (p. 287). “Delaney felt a thrill of
triumph and hate- […]. The son of a bitch. The jerk. The arsonist”
(p. 288). This time Delaney “[…] didn’t feel guilt or pity or
even the slightest tug of common humanity” (p. 289). Then he even
attacks José (cf. p. 289).
When
he is sober again, Delaney’s self-description is changed:
“He
was the hater, he was the redneck, the racist, the abuser. There was
no evidence that those men had a thing to do with the fire […].
[…], would he have felt the same way if the men […] had been
white?” (p.290).
We
see, there is still a part of him that is ashamed of what he did (cf.
p.313f). But then Jack Jardine shows Delaney and Kyra graffiti
sprayed on the wall of Arroyo Blanco that seems to be of Mexican
origin. “There it was again, the hate. It came up on him so fast
it choked him. There was no escape, no refuge – they (Mexicans)
were everywhere” (p. 316).
Delaney,
now literally burning with hate, this time towards José Navidad and
his friend, who he thinks to be responsible for the graffiti,
discovers his “mission” (cf. p. 316ff). From now on Delaney
spends a lot of his energy to catch the suspects in the act. He sets
up cameras which are triggered by movement and he keeps vigil during
the nights. “What it all added up to was Judgment Day for those
sons of bitches” (p. 317). “This was a crusade, a vendetta”
(p. 319). He is literally possessed with the idea of catching these
Mexicans and report them to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization
Service). When he finally has a picture he does not find the faces
he expected. Instead his “wound that refused to heal”, his guilt
is back in his life: “[…], but this was a face come back to
haunt him from his dreams, and how could he ever forget that
silver-flecked mustache, the crushed cheekbone and the blood on a
twenty dollar bill?” (p. 320).
Shortly
afterwards he sees Cándido walking along the road and Delaney just
pulls his new car over, blocking half the road. But he does not care
about this danger “[…] – all he cared about was this Mexican,
the man who’d invaded his life like some unshakable parasite, like
a disease” (p. 332). When his car causes an accident, he does not
care about the trouble, his insurance or anything. He follows Cándido’s
footprints and locates where he lives. On the way he wonders whether
Cándido may be the firebug and thinks “[…] it would have been
better for everyone concerned if he’d just crawled off into the
bushes and died” (p. 340). I do not think that is a real
humanistic thought. At this part of the story we reach its climax.
There
is again scribbling on the wall and again photographic proof on the
film. Delaney goes home to get his gun which he has bought six month
ago. Jack Jardine has talked him into buying it for “ ‘home
protection’ ”(p. 342). Delaney has never wanted that gun, he
does not like guns, he calls them “the tools of murder” (p.
343). He loads it, but
“[…] he knew he would never use the
thing, never fire it, never – but he was going to draw it […]
and hold it there over that vandalizing alien […] till the police
came and put him away where he belonged.” (p. 343).
When
Delaney developed the pictures, there was another surprise. Instead
of Cándido there is Jack Jr. and one of his friends on the picture.
So they are the “graffiti artists”. This realization “[…]
almost stopped him. Almost” (p. 346). But for Delaney Cándido is
guilty of so much more than this (cf. p. 346). So Delaney climbs up
the hill to find him not able to think rationally: ”[…] the
exhilaration that took hold of him was like a drug and the drug shut
out all reason” (p. 347.)
Delaney
finds Cándido’s camp and his wife and daughter. He is surprised.
Before the reader can find out what he would do with them, whether
help them, leave them alone or even kill them, a mudslide carries
all of them away. Socorro gets killed and Delaney is rescued by Cándido.
The reader will never know how far Delaney would go, or if his
attitude would be same after this event.
3.4
Conclusions and comment
Summarizing
we can say that there a few key influences on Delaney’s attitude.
First the car accident and it resulting never ending guilt. As I
expatiated we can find this “wound that refuses to heal”
throughout the whole novel. He is deeply ashamed of his behavior
after the accident. Since there is no one for Delaney to blame but
himself, he looks for a scapegoat. This function is reserved for Cándido.
Delaney tries to convince himself that he caused the accident to get
some money.
Naturally
that does not work very well. So out of his frustration he develops
some kind of hate. This feeling gets intensified by unrelated,
negative events/misfortunes which happen to Delaney. He more or less
unknowingly suspects Mexicans to be involved, although there is no
proof. For example the fire and his stolen car. A sign for the
latent racism which he already has. Again Cándido as the scapegoat
comes into play. For Delaney he is some kind of symbol for
everything which is Mexican. So every time he has the feeling that
he is harmed by Mexicans, he subconsciously makes Cándido
responsible.
The
other key factor are the persons he meets and talks with.
Particularly Jack Jardine has a big influence on him. He is against
migration and is the leader of campaigns which have the aim to
transform the development more and more into a fortress. Delaney
finds his own prejudices confirmed by Jack Jardine and the car
dealer. They also fuel the building of more prejudices.
The
last, but equally important factor are his repeated negative
encounters with José Navidad and his friend. Now the focus for his
hate is concentrated on them for a time and causes his racism and
anger finally to break out. Here Delaney does not see them as
individuals who did harm to him, but before all as Mexicans and he
holds their behavior against all Mexicans.
At
the climax of his crusade, when he is burning with hate against the
two individuals all the sudden Cándido is back in his life again.
Now, to all his anger comes the guilt. Delaney is unable to think
rationally, grabs his gun and hunts Cándido down, to finally end
all of his conflicts.
Because of the events
and persons that influenced him he slowly, but continuously
transformed into a hater, a redneck and a racist (cf. p. 290). He is
against Mexicans and immigration and has no compunction to show this.
Source: Extract from: Wirsik, Norman, Facharbeit "Delaney
Mossbacher’s development throughout the novel and the most
influential incidents or persons triggering off changes.
Looking at the current facts concerning illegal immigration from
Mexico into the US, is Delaney’s final attitude understandable?
" March 2002, Aurich, unpublished
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