My reading of "Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck

Plot	This is the story about the adventures of Danny and his friends. When Danny comes home from the war he finds himself an owner of two small houses, in Tortilla Flat. “Danny became a great man, having a house to rent, and Pilon went up the social scale by renting a house.” So… Danny moves into one of the houses and rents out the other to his friend Pilon. “Pilon, except for his year in the army, had never possessed fifteen dollars in his life. But, he thought, it would be a month before the rent was due, and who could tell what might happen in a month.” This quote shows very well the attitude Both Danny and the friends have when it comes to financial matters. Money is hard to come by and when, or if, they do they tend to spend it on wine and women instead of rents and other worldly things… But as the story unfolds their friendship is questioned and falling apart, since they all start to have a different view on each other, now that one of them is “wealthy” and the others in his debt since they never, ever, are able to hold on to their money long enough to actually pay the rent, but always end up spending it on wine and women, instead – all of which Danny approves as long as he gets his fair share of these things…
Setting	This story is set in the rugged outskirts of Monterey, Tortilla Flat, in the early 1920’s, just after the first great war (WWI). Monterey is quite beautifully sitting on the Californian coastline, watching out over the ever so blue ocean. But Tortilla Flat is a very poor part of the town, inhabited by “paisanos” (people of very mixed origin) and its inhabitants mostly work at the fish cannery or are drifters, working with whatever might be offered to them. Money is something Danny and his friends seldom come by… “A number of months passed. Pilon began again to worry about the rent. And as time went by, the worry grew intolerable. At last in desperation he worked a whole day cleaning squids for Chin Kee and made two dollars.” … and when they do, they spend it… “But on the way he bought two gallons of wine. ‘It is better so’, he thought. ‘If I give him hard money, it does not express how warmly I feel towards my friend”.
Character development	Danny, the "hero" in this wonderful adventure, develops in this story but even if he is quite violent and acts very irresponsibly when we first meet him… “Danny was insulted. He walked back up Alvarado Street, breaking windows as he went, and in the second block a policeman took him in hand. Danny’s great respect for the law caused him to go quietly. If he had not just been discharged from the army after the victory over Germany, he would have been sentenced to six months. As it was, the judge gave him only thirty days.” … I am not really sure that he grows as a person in a positive way. He dies from falling forty feet from the edge of a ravine, down into a dried-out waterbed – totally drunk during the Party of all Parties and trying to pick a fight with anyone who he’s able to challenge. But he becomes a hero of Tortilla Flat: “Wherever Danny went, a magnificent madness followed. It is passionately averred in Tortilla Flat that Danny alone drank three gallons of wine. It must be remembered that Danny is now a god. In a few years it may be thirty gallons. In twenty years it may be plainly remembered that the clouds flamed and spelled DANNY in tremendous letters; that the moon dripped blood; that the wolf of the world bayed prophetically from the mountains of the Milky Way.” This last excerpt does not only show the way Danny was held in awe by the people of Tortilla Flat, but also what a fantastic and hilarious novel this is! A true masterpiece that makes me laugh every time I read it, and believe me - I’ve read it a few times now, over the years.
Theme	One of the main themes for this novel is friendship. “‘It is good to have friends’, said Danny. ‘How   lonely it is in the world if there are no friends to sit with one and to share one’s grappa.’ ‘ Or one’s sandwiches’, Pilon added quickly./…/ Before Danny sank completely under the waves of his friends, he sounded one warning. ‘I want all of you to keep out of my bed’, he ordered. ‘That is one thing I must have to myself’. Although no one had mentioned it, each of the four knew they were all going to live in Danny’s house.” The reason why I chose this extract from the book is because it gives the reader a glimpse of the nature of the friendship between Danny and his comrades. They are not only willing to share what little they have with each other but they also are able to communicate things without actually speaking. There is a mutual understanding that reaches my heart. But this is also a story about how friendship can be a fragile thing. How fellowship can be shattered and broken. When, in the end, Danny dies, and his house is being burnt down, the friends no longer have anything that ties them together… “Among the crowding people of Tortilla Flat Danny’s friends stood entranced and watched until at last the house was a mound of black, steaming cinders. Then the fire trucks turned and coasted away down the hill. The people of the Flat melted into the darkness. Danny’s friends still stood looking at the smoking ruin. They looked at one another strangely, and then back to the burned house. And after a while they turned and walked slowly away, and not two walked together.” This ending of the story leaves you, the reader, wondering whether they, even though they knew each other very well, really were true friends? Or were they just taking advantage of Danny, and each other? That’s a question to ponder…

John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, may not be considered to be a man who wrote funny stories. But he did - and this is the funniest of them all. Even if the ending is a bit sad you finally close it with a huge smile over all over your face!

John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat is one of those novels you can return to over and over, always marvelling and musing over the adventurous Danny and his friends. 

I strongly recommend it! I give it five smileys out of five! :) :) :) :) :)