4/01

     I believe that in Tortilla Flat the author was trying to show that people don't just value material things. People want to feel that they have other people around them that care about them. That's what they value most. The characters were depicted as thieves and wine lovers (which was true), but they proved to have some sort of moral values through the way they treated others. They  formed friendships that were very thick. I did see that if you didn't have money you didn't have certain advantages but that didn't bother Danny nor Pilon, nor the others who lived in the house.
     At one point everything was centered around money but in the end what mattered was the friendship formed by the men and their will to help others who they saw in the same social position as them. When they were around each other there wasn't any separation with status, it was them being free in society without rules and governing. The American Experience affects me in the same way I described before. I often want to be free from rules and do what I want but society requires that I work and follow instructions in order to "make it". Tortilla Flat depicts that perfectly cause I myself want to help others who are travelling the same road as me.