Tooth And Claw Boyle Analysis

“Disguises”

Every character and their relationships between them in “Tooth and Claw” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, disguise themselves in many ways, both consciously and unconsciously, all for different purposes. The author introduces us to four major characters in this story that all interact with each other and have some sort of mask over themselves hiding their true identities and motives.

The main character James Turner Jr. has recently moved to California “So that I could inject a little excitement into my life and mingle with all the college students in the bars…” he lives by himself in an apartment which his aunt pays for even though he has a full time job. This apartment is extremely messy and unorganized. It seems to
“Daria rose and came to me with a look of wonder. ‘Don’t do a thing till I get off, O.K.?’ and in her favor she took hold of my arm. ‘I get off at nine, so you wait, O.K.?’” Daria is falsely identifying herself to James (unconsciously or consciously) she begins to lead him on. James believes she is interested in him but she is really interested, excited and curious about the cat and the moment, she is in for the ride. Daria has her own motives, it seems she does not really care about James. They go shopping together to buy essentials for the cat, Daria in control of the situation and in complete disregard for James. “I watched Daria march up and down the aisles seeking out kitty litter and the biggest cat pan they had…’I’ve only got ten bucks,’ I said…she reached back to slip the band of her ponytail so that her hair fell glistening across her shoulders, a storm of hair, fluid and loose, the ends trailing down her back like liquid in motion. She tossed her head impatiently. ‘You do have a credit card, don’t you?’” Daria is subtly flirting with James; she is leading him on again so that she will get what she wants. She does not care whether he has any money; she is so interested and curious about the animal that she will do anything to get what she
The first day she leaves and says “Take care of our cat now, O.K.?” It seems as though she is implying that they are together and the cat is both of theirs. This seems to confuse James, he doesn’t know exactly what she meant by that. Replying to this he shows another falsehood by not showing exactly how he feels, “I shrugged in a helpless, submissive way, the pain of her leaving as acute as anything I’d ever felt. ‘Sure,’ I said.” She then pulls him in for a kiss and calls him “sweet.” Every time she enters the apartment she goes right to the cat and every time she wakes up she immediately says “We have to feed the cat.” Soon Daria’s ride is over, her interest is lost in the cat and in James (if there was any real interest to begin with) and so is her curiosity. She soon figures out James’s real personality, how he is basically a loser and whatever interest she may have had with him, has been lost. After she has spent the last three days with him she ends up telling him that she has a boyfriend and that she doesn’t want to give him the wrong “impression.” Whether she realizes it or not she leads him on this entire time and already did give him the wrong impression, she was falsely identifying herself and her actions towards