Jack Jardine Character Analysis in The Tortilla Curtain

President of the Arroyo Blanco Estates Property Owners’ Association, and Delaney and Kyra’s neighbor. A lawyer by trade, Jack Jardine is also openly racist; it is he who uses the phrase “the tortilla curtain.” Initially, Delaney finds Jack off-putting, not only due to his bigoted views, but also because of his manipulative, slightly sleazy personality. However, by the end of the novel, as Delaney descends further into his own state of bigoted paranoia, he comes to think of Jack Jardine as a friend.

Jack Jardine Quotes in The Tortilla Curtain

The The Tortilla Curtain quotes below are all either spoken by Jack Jardine or refer to Jack Jardine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“You heard Jack Cherrystone speak to the issue, and nobody’s credentials can touch Jack’s as far as being liberal is concerned, but this society isn’t what it was—and it won’t be until we get control of the borders.”

The borders. Delaney took an involuntary step backwards, all those dark disordered faces rising up from the streetcorners and freeway onramps to mob his brain, all of them crying out their human wants through mouths full of rotten teeth. “That’s racist, Jack, and you know it.”

Related Characters: Delaney Mossbacher (speaker), Jack Jardine (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 101

Explanation and Analysis:

This is the conversation held between Jack Jardine (the first speaker) and Delaney in the grocery store. Jardine is trying to convince Delaney that his neighbors’ recent vote in favor of a gate for the community was the right decision. This is one of the few moments in the novel where Delaney actually voices a critique of something on the grounds that it is racist. The irony is that he does this while feeling his own mind fill with deeply anti-immigrant images. He thinks of “dark disordered faces” as a “mob” and seems to deride rather than respect their “human Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. In

Jack Jardine Character Timeline in The Tortilla Curtain

The timeline below shows where the character Jack Jardine appears in The Tortilla Curtain. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...his wife, Kyra, and tells her he hit “a Mexican.” Kyra immediately suggests Delaney inform Jack Jardine, the president of their neighborhood property owners’ association, of the accident. Later in the... (full context)

...the people living at Arroyo Blanco Estates. The meeting is a special session convened by Jack Jardine in order for the community to vote on “the gate issue.” Though Delaney privately... (full context)

Belonging and the American Dream Theme Icon

Delaney listens as various community members, including Jim Shirley and Jack Cherrystone, comment on the gate issue. He begins to worry, thinking: “Crime? Up here? Wasn’t... (full context)

...sits outside the community meeting as the vote is held, feeling foolish about his behavior. Jack Jr., Jack Jardine’s son, approaches Delaney and begins chatting with him. Eventually, Jack Jr. asks... (full context)

...the reader knows, is the same store frequented by Cándido and América), Delaney runs into Jack Jardine. The two engage in a heated discussion about the newly-erected gate in Arroyo Blanco.... (full context)

Delaney insists that Jack’s logic is racist, but Jack continues to argue that immigrants “coming in through the Tortilla... (full context)

Before leaving the store, Delaney “concedes” to Jack that he accepts the gate because “none of us want urban crime up here—that’d be... (full context)

...Delaney is still ruminating on the encounter. He wishes he had pointed Cándido out to Jack Jardine as the man whom he hit with his car, identifying Cándido as “a nuisance,... (full context)

...eyes of his Mexican” (Cándido). Delaney ends the phone call by asking Kyra to call Jack Jardine. (full context)

...down into the canyon to violate a poor man’s few pitiful possessions.” (Cándido has mistaken Jack Jr. for Delaney’s, rather than Jack Jardine’s, son. He will continue to operate under this... (full context)

...and he is frustrated that no one seems to be taking his situation seriously. Even Jack Jardine has “used the occasion to deliver a sermon,” telling Delaney: “We’re under siege here—and... (full context)

Kyra’s announcement makes Delaney remember an evening he spent with Jack Jardine two nights prior. Jack Jardine took Delaney to the house of Dominick Flood, a... (full context)

...canvassing Arroyo Blanco Estates about “the wall issue,” along with Erna Jardine and Selda Cherrystone. Jack Jardine had called her two days after Osbert was killed by the coyote and convinced... (full context)

...kid yourself. It’s about Mexicans, it’s about blacks. It’s about exclusion, division, hate. You think Jack gives a damn about coyotes?” Delaney tried to prohibit Kyra from working on the committee... (full context)

...He is outside playing paddleball at the Arroyo Blanco Estates community center when he overhears Jack Jr. and another boy telling racist, misogynistic jokes about Mexican women. He realizes that Jordan... (full context)

...onto his street and sees a man in a backwards baseball cap (José Navidad) crossing Jack Cherrystone’s lawn. Delaney recognizes the man as the “hiker” he encountered in the canyon, and... (full context)

...looks down at the flier in his hand he realizes it is a message from Jack Jardine about the wall. (full context)

...so early in the afternoon, even on a day dedicated to self-indulgence like this one.” Jack Jardine approaches Delaney and chats with him about the angry response letters generated by Delaney’s... (full context)

...walk before dinner to look for Dame Edith. While Delaney and Kyra are out walking, Jack Jardine drives by and tells them, “There’s something I just discovered I thought you might... (full context)

Jack takes Delaney and Kyra to the wall, which has been tagged with spray-painted symbols. Jack... (full context)

...“those sons of bitches who’d spray-painted the wall” and report them to Immigration for deportation. Jack Cherrystone has agreed to let Delaney use his darkroom, as he has in the past... (full context)

...that he has six exposed photos. He then jogs home to fetch his handgun, which Jack Jardine convinced him to purchase six months ago for “home protection.” (full context)

...to use their darkroom. He develops the six new photographs and finds that it is Jack Jr. who graffitied the wall, “the spray can plainly visible in his big white fist.”... (full context)

Jack Jardine Character Analysis

Jack Jardine Quotes in The Tortilla Curtain

Part 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

Jack Jardine Character Timeline in The Tortilla Curtain