Tortilla Flat: The Positive Side of Life

V.S.

Sam Priven

English 3H

P.7 Purdom

Oprah: So, what was the personality of the main character in your book? What was his perspective on the world around him?

Steinbeck: I tried to portray, through the character of Danny, that people are good. I achieved this by having Danny himself be a believer of this perspective. I had the character of Pilon interact with Danny, because Pilon is constantly posing the other opinion on this subject, and this only helps prove Danny’s point further.

Oprah: Ah I see, would an example of this be in the beggining of the book, when Pilon assumes that Danny’s possession of property will lead him to think that he is better than Pilon? Danny instantly opposes this, assuming that people are, and will remain good in most circumstances.

Steinbeck: Yes, that is an excellent example of this positive perspective. Another example of this is simply in the way that many of the events are described throughout the book. For example, fights that many would view as bitter are described as ending in peace, and usually do not have too much weight behind them. The fact that the people are usually drunk adds to the overall lack of severity of many of these fights. (haha from the audience)

Oprah: You have the characters talk in a biblical fashion throughout the novel, using words like “thou” and “art”. Why is this?

Steinbeck: Well I set out to show that people are good, and I believe that speaking in this way ties it to the bible. The people in this novel are generally poor, but they have very good intentions, and in a similar fashion to how some read the bible, I wanted this to be viewed as short stories with little morals sewn together.

Oprah: Oh I see, well thank you for your time and wisdom.

Steinbeck: Thank you, and I would like to take this moment to advertise the upcoming film of this novel, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn3K9tUjGEA&feature=related. Thank you all, and good night.