Tortilla Flat Rules and Order Quotes

The novel starts out with our friends being tamed by the government in various ways. Whether they are in the army or in jail, Danny, Pilon, and Big Joe are all being trained by the government to follow orders and stay in line. The fact that these activities are all mentioned together shows that there are similarities between jail and the army.

The idea that Danny has "great respect for the law" seems contradictory, since we just saw him go up a street breaking windows. But his respect for the law isn't in following it; it's in accepting the consequences of his actions. It's almost like an idea of civil disobedience, but without any cause behind it.

Here's some more evidence of Danny's "respect for the law," and now we can tell that the narrator's tongue is digging pretty far into his cheek. First of all, the fact that there are bedbugs eating Danny alive in the jail shows how little respect the law has for him, and the fact that he names the bugs after the mayor and his associates is obviously disrespectful. But Danny seems to hold policemen in special regard, possibly because he doesn't hold them responsible for what they do.

Hmm… we think we're starting to see where Danny's respect for the law comes from. Tito Ralph, the jailer, sees the inmates as his friends and potential drinking buddies and even takes Danny out for a drink when they get bored. This loosey-goosey jailkeeping shows that jail time is not such a big deal in Tortilla Flat. Tito Ralph reports Danny's escape, but it's almost like a joke: it's his own drunkenness that made it possible for Danny to escape. Hey, if you're Danny, what's not to respect?

The narrator is giving jail and the army the same treatment here. First of all, the narrator says that Big Joe got his "training" in the jail, which really just means that he spent a lot of time there. If going to jail is training for the army, then we can see where the narrator is going with his description of army life. Big Joe compares jail to sleeping, and we can see that the characters who go there do so to rest more than to be punished.

This quote is referring to all the things that Joe was punished for not doing in the army, like shaving or saluting; it shows that the discipline of military life was way too much for Big Joe. He's used to being punished for causing trouble in Monterey, but he's definitely not used to having anything required of him. Joe's reaction to responsibility is pretty much just to shirk it, even if that means going to jail.

Earlier, Joe had compared jail to sleep. Here, he talks about its "ease and companionship." In the army jail, though, he was actually forced to work, and that really wasn't his thing. He sees civilian life as something easy and free from responsibilities, particularly compared to army life.

Big Joe's reaction to being put in jail might not be the reaction you would have. After he trashes a bordello and sets it on fire, the policeman who arrests him is almost a welcome sight for him. It's as though Big Joe has no self-control and is just waiting for the cops to come and put limits on him, like a toddler throwing a tantrum until his mom steps in. And indeed, Joe feels at home when he gets arrested.

We couldn't help but laugh out loud at this one. Big Joe gets back to Monterey six months later than all his friends because of doing time in jail, so he doesn't know they've set up shop in Danny's house. The fact that, for him, the only explanation for them not having been to jail in a while is that they must be dead shows the very low expectations he has for his friends.

Whereas Danny's friends are used to causing a ruckus and getting the law's attention that way, the corporal is being questioned for another reason. He's quietly sitting in the gutter with his sick baby, but because he doesn't speak English and doesn't belong in Tortilla Flat, the police take an interest in him. We can see that it's not all fun and games when it comes to rules and order here, especially for outsiders. Things can get serious when they want to.