What's the one thing motivating most the characters in Tortilla Flat? That's right: wine.
Danny and his friends live from one gallon to the next. They often work a whole day or spend a whole day stealing just to get enough to buy some wine. Food, water, rent, clothing: it's all secondary for these Depression-era wino bros.
The novel takes a sort of lighthearted approach to the alcoholism of its characters, but even though it's presented in a funny way, we get a sense of what a problem it is in these characters' lives and in the community in general. Alcohol helps these people forget their troubles; the fact that they drink so much and so often shows that these problems are big, and they're not going away.
Questions About Drugs and Alcohol
- How do you think the characters' lives would be different if they never had any access to wine?
- Even though alcoholism is presented as a humorous aspect of these characters' lives, where can we see the dark side of the addiction?
- Why do you think the characters are always drinking wine instead of beer, or whiskey, or some other kind of liquor? Does it tell us something about the setting? Does it have any symbolic connotations?
Chew on This
Tortilla Flat promotes drinking as a fun, healthy activity.
Tortilla Flat shows the dangers and consequences of overindulging in alcohol.