Delaney Mossbacher Character Analysis Essay

Joey Baxter
English 1A
Character Analysis Part 1

The character of Delaney Mossbacher is quite intriguing. One may start to form an opinion on such a character and yet still be questioning themselves as they keep reading on. Delaney Mossbacher so far is a good person, but he is a very hypocritical individual. He is really a hypocrite who is completely blind of himself. He tries to be a realist, yet he may pass remarks or think in a derogative way. He does not know himself, who he really is. A lost, naïve soul, who says one thing to please another, but to himself thinks something completely different and out of text. The question then arises, does he know who he really is? Or is he just an obsequious individual living his life
as a lie to himself and others around him?
At the beginning the reader gets to know Delaney‘s totally organized everyday-life. He lives with his second wife Kyra and her son Jordan in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, called “Arroyo Blanco Estates”. His life consists of rituals, he takes breakfast together with his family every morning, writes for his monthly column every day and every evening they drive to one of the houses Kyra is to sell and lock. They are more or less rich or well-to-do because they are able to live in this subdivision. They have two dogs, live healthy and are members of different clubs like for example: Save the children or National Wildlife Federation.
The Mossbachers are a typical prosperous family in Los Angeles including the fact that Kyra is a powerful business lady earns the money while Delaney writes his column called "Wide Open Spaces". Delaney loves nature, he likes going for a walk through the beautiful hills next to his house.it helps him get his mind off things. Apart from that, Delaney cares for everything around him. He cares for his family, his well to do house, his car, which indeed has a personalized license plate, and of course nature. Calling himself a liberal humanist, he defends immigrants, for example in a discussion with his friend Jack, as to be seen on (p. 101), "Immigrants are the live-blood of this country – we’re a nation of immigrants."
But then the car-accident with the Mexican Cándido disrupts his organized daily routine.
He is helpless and confused and because of his guilty conscience he gives the victim money.
From this point on Delaney realizes that there are many Mexicans around him and that makes him nervous. While he is thinking about the man 's life, his guilt turns into anger. This camping Mexican pollutes his beloved nature. In this situation he shows his racist traits for the first time by calling the Mexican a "poor son of the bitch". But here he is still thinking about what he says and asks himself how this shares with his liberal-humanist ideas (p.13). Nevertheless, he tells his wife that he "only" knocked down a Mexican, (p.15). What does this so far tell one about the character of Delaney Mossbacher? Was the man he hit “only” a Mexican immigrant, who could just shake it off and walk away, thinking nothing of it in his struggle to find a better life in
America?
The next thing that disturbs his life is his dog killed by a coyote in his garden.
Delaney is in a way driving crazy: He is running around with the leg of the dog in his jacket and later puts it into the freezer. After calming down he writes his first column called Pilgrim at Topanga Creek describing all the beautiful countryside. Later on page 101 he shows his liberal-humanist ideas again. He approaches Jack, who wants a gated entryway, to be racist. He tries to convince him of the immigrants ' importance for the country by telling him they are the lifeblood and that everybody is an immigrant from somewhere. This can be found on pages 101 and 102. Afterwards there are troubles with a Mexican Male in the parking-lot. Seeing these troubles and recognizing the Mexican individual he knocked down, makes him feel guilty all over again. To calm himself down he drives to the canyon, but instead of beautiful nature he discovers sleeping-bags and gets angry again. He wants the Sherriff to get these people and their garbage out of the canyon and back to the slums as to be seen on page 112. When Delaney gets angry he always forgets about the liberal-humanist ideals and instead of this he reveals a racist attitude. Soon after, “relieving his stress’ he gets back to where he parked his car he must recognize that it has been stolen. The new car he buys hasn’t got a personalized license plate and that makes him feel as if he is losing the complete control of his life. Everywhere he
looks, wherever his sight takes him, he sees Mexicans and that makes him feel bad but as to be seen on (p. 149), he still feels "a deep shameful stab of racist resentment".
All in all, it seems as if the character of Delaney Mossbacher is a deeply confused and lost individual. He defiantly is showing signs that he really wants to change his views and derogative opinions, but when the chances come, he cannot help himself with his own thought process, especially when he encounters a racist remark or statement passed on by others around him. He instantly changes his personality, to go with the flow. In other words, he goes straight back to his own ways. Maybe, he doesn’t like the fact that he makes or thinks of the derogative racist remarks. I think that that’s why he is a trying to a liberal humanist in the first place. I feel as if he may want to change his views and thought process by becoming this humanist. It may lead one to think of the questions like, does he really know what he is doing? Is he aware when he passes such remarks even being a Humanist? But most of all, does he know who he really his? That is the question.

Works Cited

Boyle, T. C. The Tortilla Curtain. New York City: Viking Penguin - Penguin Books, 1995. Print.