How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
On Tortilla Flat, above Monterey, the routine is changeless too; for there is only a given number of adventures that Cornelia Ruiz can have with her slowly changing procession of sweethearts. She has been known to take again a man long since discarded. (15.2)
Cornelia Ruiz is a famous figure in Tortilla Flat, and her crazy love life is kind of like a calendar for the community. She's an important source of gossip, which brings everyone together, and also the steady rhythm with which she changes "husbands" gives people's lives a sense of moving forward.
Quote #8
The friends had sunk into a routine which might have been monotonous for anyone but a paisano—up in the morning, to sit in the sun and wonder what the Pirate would bring. (15.3)
Steinbeck attempts to make the paisanos seem like their own, special community, unlike any other, but presenting us with the idea that the paisano is the only one in the world who can enjoy the relaxing life of waking up, sitting in the sun, and waiting to be fed. Of course, Danny, the most representative paisano of all, does find the routine pretty monotonous, so we have to question this description.
Quote #9
They reported details of the love life of Tortilla Flat so penetratingly that they would have been of interest to a dissection class. Pilon winnowed the Flat for news and brought home every seedling of interest to Danny [...] (16.4)
The community of Tortilla Flat is made up of the relationships between its inhabitants. The friends think that by bringing Danny news, they'll somehow draw him back into the community, back from his depression. Their work is compared to a dissection class, as though the community were a body being cut up and studied. It's also compared to a field that is being winnowed or harvested for news. Both descriptions make us see the community as a living thing.