Tortilla Flat: The Rationalizations of Desperate Paisanos

A detailed Summary of Tortilla Flat: The Rationalizations of Desperate Paisanos

Throughout the book Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck, there are several cases where the paisanos rationalize the things they do to make them seem better to themselves, and to make other people see things their way. The rationalizations vary, but most are made by Pilon, and are used in some way to benefit Danny, or seem to.

The rationalizations come in very early in the book. Pilon finds himself in need of food for himself and Danny. He therefore goes to the neighbor's yard and looks at some chickens, to which he gives an explanation, and rationalization, of what he is about to do. "Poor little bare fowl. How cold it must be for you in the early morning, when the dew falls, and the air grows cold with the dawn...Life is too hard for you, little bird"(15). He then kills the chicken for food. He did, however, feel it necessary to justify the death of the chicken. In his eyes he showed the chicken that it was better off dying for a person's food, than suffering in life. This is an obvious rationalization

It is clear that rationalization is a commonly used tool for the paisanos. They use it daily to help them feel better about things they are about to do, good or bad. Pilon seems to be the instigator of most of the rationalizations, merely because of his deductive reasoning and careful attention to all details.

Further on in the book, Danny finds himself in a bit of trouble, or so his friends make it seem. Earlier on Danny had bought a vacuum cleaner for a girl who had no electricity. Pilon decided Danny had made a mistake and that they needed more money for wine, so he told Danny that the girl expected Danny to have electricity put into her house. Danny, knowing he didn't have the money for this panicked, but fortunately his friend already had a plan. They's simply steal the vacuum from the girl and sell it, then buy wine with the precedes and give some to her to make up for it. "If that lady did not have the sweeping-machine, she would not want those wires...Therefore the thing to do is to remove

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 678
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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