Delaney Off the Rails - Crazy Train

You may have heard this: one out of every hundred people you meet is going to be a psychopath. You may stand behind one in line at the 7/11.

You may sit next to one in math class. These are people who don't think or feel the same way you do. Whatever they show you is not going to be their true self. They are manipulative, dishonest, hypocritical. They are charming, seductive and delusional. Whatever they say to you, they think something else. In the novel, The Tortilla Curtain, Delaney Mossbacher Delaney appears to be a man of high integrity. He lives in upper-class suburban community near Los Angeles with his wife and son. He is a loving father. He is a nature lover. He describes himself as a liberal humanist.

He cares! But, on the way to his recycling center in his Japanese import, his world is turned upside down and inside out when he accidently hits an illegal Mexican immigrant walking along the side of the road. He finds the man bleeding and on his back flailing his arms like a rag doll. Delaney tries to help, but the man wants nothing of it. “It was crazy to refuse treatment like that, just crazy,” Delaney thinks. “But he had. And that meant he was illegal – go to the doctor, get deported. There was desperation in that, a gulf of sadness that took Delaney out of himself for a long moment...” (12). But only a moment, or, only like 10-12 chapters. From here on, a gradual change comes over Delaney. He begins to notice more and more Mexicans on the streets. He sees them working. He sees them in the stores. He sees them on the trails he hikes. Although he vehemently distances himself form the racial sentiments of his neighbors, he can’t avoid this feeling like he’s choking on it. He feels under attack. He “was drawn so much closer to the black working heart of the world he’d ever dreamed possible” (352).

By the end of the novel he realizes he has become angry and vindictive. He’s crossed over to the other side. On the last pages, we see Delaney headed down his beloved nature trails, not with a walking stick in hand, but a gun. Deep down, I know he wants to stop what he’s doing, but he can’t. If he wasn’t a racist at the beginning of the book, he is one now. He’s my MVP.   He is out of his bleeping mind!