Comparative Literary Analysis: Tortilla Flat

Old versus Modern — a comparison of literary styles and content

The purpose of this assignment is to compare two books of the same genre. One book published before the 1950s, and one book published around this century. I have chosen to read two fiction books, the first one being Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. It was published 1935, and it is about a Mexican American man named Danny Alvarez who inherited two houses from his grandfather. Alvarez offers his friends to stay with him, and the story follows their lives after the end of the First World War. The writing style was unsuprisingly very old-fashioned. In the introduction, they stated that Steinbeck was heavily influenced by the Arthurian saga, which can be noted in the way that he

One strange detail that is worth noting is that all of the characters would every so often use a lot of old-fashioned english words like thee or thou whilst they spoke. That is quite unusual for the time period that they were in. The story took place in a district called Tortilla Flat, and back in the day a person was well- respected if they owned a property or had a lot of money. An example of that kind of person was Alvarez’s grandfather as he was rich, and owned two properties. If we compare this to how society currently works it is very similar. Nowadays, having a lot of money still equals higher popularity and higher power. When Alvarez found out that he inherited the two houses from his grandfather, he felt burdened by the responsibility that came with it. He did not identify with having a high status like his grandfather did. That is why, when one of his houses happened to burn down, he instead felt relieved as this meant that he would lose some of his status in the community. This could be interpreted as Alvarez finding it more important to keep his integrity than being perceived as wealthy. If we compare it to current times, I think that it would be the other way around for the majority of people. Unfortunately, society is more concerned with getting a higher rank in society, and becoming more successful, than keeping their