Danny

The novel's protagonist, Danny, is a bowlegged, 25-year-old paisano from the Tortilla Flat area of Monterey, CA, at the time the U.S. enters World War I. In a fit of drunken patriotism, Danny enlists with friends, Pilon and Big Joe Portagee, serves as a muleskinner in Oklahoma, and returns home to find he has inherited two houses from his grandfather. With a weakness for wine, Danny gets drunk, jailed, escapes, meets up with Pilon and talks him into renting one of his houses. Danny feels both the pride and burden of being a property owner and landlord. He is spending the night with rich neighbor, Mrs. Morales, when the rental house burns to the ground. After castigating his paisanos properly, Danny accepts Pilon as a guest, along with Pilon's roommates, Pablo Sanchez and Jesus Maria Corcoran. Pilon then befriends the Pirate and brings him into the house...