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ReplyDeleteOne part that really stuck out for me in Son of Italy was when Pascal writes, "We laborers have to live. We sell our lives, our youth, our health--and what do we get for it? A meager living" (pg 72). This quote is very meaningful because it shows that the dreams of migrants coming to America were not equal to reality. The Italian villagers left Italy for America in hopes of better wages and the prospect of making it big. Pascal's quote shows that this was all an illusion for most of the immigrants (some did make it big though, but very few!)and that the conditions in America were the same, if not worse, than back home. This quote also highlights the idea that laborers will always remain as laborers in America with a very slim chance of being able to rise out of the working class. It is a vicious cycle where the workers sell their lives away for the prospect of someday making it, but in the end they live and die as a low-wage, underpaid laborer.
ReplyDeleteI was amazed by the same paragraph myself. Very deep meaning of the words he uses "All my works are lost, lost forever.....You cannot feel from the cold roads and steel tracks all the pains, the headaches and the anger I felt at the brutality of enforced labor." We observe things as they are now, and will never find out the pain people went thru to pursue "the dream".
DeleteThat passage also struck a cord for me. The condition that these immigrants faced actually made them worse off than in their own country. This brings me back to the movie The Italian, where Annette's father gave him an ultimatum, a house for my daughter or she marries someone with money that can make their lives easier. So I think that for some immigrants, the appeal was not necessarily the American dream, but a chance to have a better life in his own country.
DeleteThat phrase stuck out for me too. Everyone always talks about the "American Dream," yet it seems that this is the fate destined for most immigrants in America. And not just back then, but the same is often true today.
DeleteI guess this is very related to what Joe wrote above. What really stuck out for me was when Pascal gets a nail in his hand, and is laid off until he can work again. This really struck me because essentially the laborers were expendable, and the employers would try to get the most work possible out of these underpaid men. Pascal injures himself with a nail through his hand, but he still feels the need to try and work in order to support himself. I was surprised at the lack of medical facilities and first aid care available to these laborers. In the end after struggling through his injury and returning to work for another foreman as a water-boy while still injured, he ends up not being paid, because the contractors went bankrupt. This is a bitter end for one of Pascals worst hardships and all he can do is laugh at himself and keep going on in search of more work and a better future.
ReplyDeleteI think it was also telling that the foreman (who originally insulted and chastised Pascal for not doing the job) realized that the danger Pascal had warned of was real, and backs down from performing the task himself. But, in order to maintain his image and authority, he knowingly puts Pascal at risk and orders him to complete the task without help or reducing the weight of the wheelbarrow. And, of course, after Pascal is hurt, the foreman tells him that he is useless unless he can do the same work as he did before his injury. The foreman lacked all sympathy because the workers really were expendable, and they could easily be replaced by someone else willing and able to do work .
DeleteI also think its interesting to see how Pascal's relationship with foremen gets stronger as the book goes on (as he integrates into American society). When he's working at the boxcar later in the book, he annoys the foreman by playing the mandolin, but the foreman will not fire him because Pascal is too well respected by his fellow workers. Instead, the foreman buys the mandolin off of Pascal and smashes it! This shows that Pascal was no longer an Italian worker, but now he was an American worker (through speaking the language and integrating into the culture).
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DeleteThe very beginning of the book stuck out to me the most because it was a tiny glimpse into Pascal's childhood. I think one major thing that really grabbed my attention was when he ends up running away after being falsely accused of hurting another boy. This stuck out to me for the simple fact that he feared that if he were caught, the father of the hurt boy would beat him, while his own father wouldn't be able to do anything about it. This was illuminating to me because it gave a sense of how all Italian Americans work together as a family. Throughout his childhood, we see how not only a parent can beat a child, but other parents as well. To me, this tiny detail adds to why Pascal's childhood was rough, yet interesting in a sense. Despite the actual "scary" things that his childhood included, it's also quite scary that he had to fear and literally runaway from other parents besides his own. Ironically, I don't think he even feared his parents as much as this one parent who he had to hide from.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point, everyone in the Italian family assumes a role of caregiver or provider. And certainly, one is quick to receive a smack for acting out, I've been there. As an Italian, you feel an obligation to look out for your own, not necessarily in your immediate family. But what you bring up takes me back to an old saying "it takes a village to raise a child."
DeleteI completely agree with both of you, but not only that, I think that it also shows how tight-knit the communities were that the children had to respect all the adults as if they were their parents and there was no sense of "well that lady isn't my mother so I don't need to listen to her". Somewhere during the immigration process that positive attribute / stereotype of the respectful Italian was lost even though I still see that in many of the families that I know where people treat their aunts, uncles etc. with the same respect as their parents because of the age difference.
DeleteI particularly remember the "witch" and the coinciding illness of the young baby. When the baby became sick, the parents and the other townspeople were quick to turn against the old woman, who they were afraid of, as causing the sickness because she overheard the father insulting her. I think it speaks volumes about our human tendency to turn to superstitions or religion for comfort and meaning in that which we cannot explain. From ancient sacrifices to divine pantheons or oracles to modern psychics and palm readers, humans naturally seek to assign meaning or blame, and to find advice or hope in the face of both good and bad news.
ReplyDeleteThe witch episode is memorable. The amount of detail D'Angelo goes into when explaining the local beliefs and mythology regarding witchcraft was one of the best parts of that chapter.
DeleteThis definitely caught my attention as well. It was interesting how quick they were to run to superstitions, rather than logic or rational thinking.
Delete"Something had grown in me during my stay in America. Something was keeping me in this wonderfull perilous land where I had suffered so much and where I had so much more to suffer", Pascal himself couldnt realize that was that "something" that was keeping him from leaving. I definately can make a connection with myself at the times when I was deciding to stay in America. Of course the times have changed and the work is different, but I more refere to "something" that doesnt let you leave.
ReplyDeleteThe part that stuck out with me in the Son of Italy, is Pascal desire to educate himself on the English language. His interest started with the newspaper then led to him buying a dictionary and actually using those words, there's knowledge that individuals acquire but don't not actually put in use in order for them to retain it. This was a sign of him breaking a barrier,even though things for him are dark he still has a light to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the language barrier is a huge problem for immigrants. I have family that have lived in this country for over four decades and still can barely speak a sentence in English. They have survived mostly by surrounding themselves with people of their own kind, but aren't what I consider true Americans. My parents and my siblings however were all educated in the U.S. and we all speak English. Pascal's desire to learn the language separated him from the regular immigrant laborers and put him in a position to better his life.
DeleteThe primary detail that stands out for me is the quality of the writing. It's extremely descriptive and perfectly illustrates the situations that D'Angelo is portraying. The narrative itself would be just as interesting without it, but the flow of the story is outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI agree the details made the story and kept the flow of the story moving. The details painted a very vivid picture placing the reader in middle of the action.
DeleteI agree. The book is written really well. The details help to illustrate what Pascal is trying to say. Also, he doesn’t include unnecessary details. There is a perfect amount of detail in the perfect amount of instances.
DeleteThe optimism and persistence Pascal kept throughout his entire journey has impacted me deeply . Specifically a line towards the end of the book, "I learned the great lesson of America: I learned to have faith in the future." To be left alone in a foreign country, broke and illiterate, he has every reason to give up and return home, but he never quits. The hardships only drove him to pursuit his dreams harder.
ReplyDeleteYes, he had amazing perseverance towards the end especially when living in that dirty room with no stove, using his overcoat as a blanket when sleeping, eating stale bread and old bananas (and who knows how bad that soup was). On top of that his room gets flooded so he can't even eat his stale bread and goes to sleep hungry. As others and even his father went back to Italy, he decided to stay even then so he showed perseverance even then but I think it grew as his suffering went on. Towards the end he was alone and went through much discouragement and still fought his way through.
DeleteThat was one of my favorite lines of the book "have faith in the future" and that is exactly what Pascal did. He worked vey hard and never gave up.
DeleteIn Chapter 3, we read about a big black cat that came around the sick baby's cradle and everyone swore that it was the witch and that was claimed to be conclusive evidence.The story of the witch is like the media telling us what is and what isn't when representing someone, in this case the media being the people in town constantly talking and making claims against her. Also, when reading this part, I was immediately reminded of our assignment about New Orleans when the eleven Italians were lynched after being found not guilty but the mob of people claimed they were guilty and that was enough evidence for them also. We learn that the witch has then been driven out of town and her home was in ruins.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 7, Pascal describes a woman walking toward him on the streets of New York. He calls her the "incarnation of mankind's vanity" as she was wearing too much make-up, big plumes and had glaring yellow hair. He watched as she passed, but he said no one turned in disgust to watch her, the way did him and his friends . The way I see it, is that Pascal was experiencing all the stereotypes and negative representation towards Italian, and was oblivious to it.
ReplyDeleteI felt that his point was that even though they "looked handsome" and were dressed up, they were experiencing snobbery by those who believed they were better than them because they had money, or were American, regardless of the woman's actual appeal. the snobbery of the culture would not allow someone to recognize a good looking Italian man because he was an immigrant, and an ugly American woman was considered more attractive just because of her nationality.
DeleteYou are describing the stereotype of suburban Italian women (mostly Jersey and Long Island) one century later. At the time Pascal wrote his book the stereotypical Italian woman would have been represented all dressed in black clothes with a kerchief on her head and two or three children in her arms.
ReplyDeleteI found the lines, "Without realizing it, I had learned the great lesson of America: I had learned to have faith in the future. No matter how bad things were, a turn would inevitably come – as long as I did not give up" extremely poignant as I saw them as the turning point in his life. At first I felt that Pascal never fully integrated into American society yet after reading what you posted by Michaud I changed my perspective. I now feel that by Pascal not returning with his father to Italy, by his not heeding his friends who would have held him back and by pursuing his hearts desires until he ultimately succeeded, he evolved into the true American. As Obama would say, “Yes we can!”
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good example of what "keeping an open mind" means. It only took you a little nudge and you decided to open up the window and look what else was out there. It is not illegitimate, by the way, to hold two positions simultaneously. This book is rather ambiguous in many ways. After all, aren't we all ambivalent and of two minds about our own lives?
DeleteI still feel that he didn't completely shed his Italian identity. Otherwise, the book would have not been titled "Son of Italy". I think his integration into American society is symbolized by the fact that he was able to "live the American Dream" by accomplishing his goals and achieving career prosperity before his untimely demise, yet it doesn't have to indicate assimilation.
DeleteThe thing that stuck in my mind the most from this book was something that happened when he first got to America. He said that while the gang was walking/driving around, before they got to their place of residence, he couldn't help but notice how religious people were in NYC/America. He kept seeing "Ave. Ave. Ave." on every street sign. This probably stuck out to me because it was nothing more than a "lost in translation" sort of episode, yet it was important enough to put in this book. I feel that D'Angelo soon realized that NYC/America was not a particularly religious or pious place at all, even if it took him longer to learn what the "Ave." really meant.
ReplyDeleteThat also stuck in my mind for another reason as many who came from Italy couldn't read or write and he was clearly gifted in language in general so I wonder if he spoke Italian and not just his own dialect upon arrival. If he was able to read the street signs I wonder what he picked up where. Either way it is really sad that he passed away so young. I am sure he would have written a lot more had he been around for longer.
DeleteI personally enjoyed the moment that he was struck with uselessness of working and the work that he was doing. He began to discover his soul at that moment and gained enough perspective to do what he was told but not take it seriously enough to beat him down. From that moment on, his mind was free to dream of a better life and hope to fulfill it.
ReplyDeleteA little detail that made me chuckle was when he talked about how religious the United States must be that they have AVE after some street crossing. This reminded me of some of the stories my uncles shared with me when they were learning how to speak English. My uncle once told us, wow this country really wants you to suceeed - there are big sign that says EXITO! EXITO! on almost every door.. needless to say that he thought EXIT meant EXITO means success in Spanish. I think is an experience that every newcomer faces as they try to learn and associate the new with what they know.
ReplyDeleteCute anecdote. Maybe he found it scary too, with all those exhortations to succeed. A little bit like living in North Korea bombarded by propaganda all the time.
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DeleteThanks professor, I actually think he found it inspirational. You'll be surprise how the American dream still lives for many immigrants and particularly in Spanish television (telemundo and univision) that hope is instilled in the viewers. I also think that families that migrate to the United States now, have a much easier time than those first immigrants based on the stories we are reading. Not only has the nature of the jobs they've come to do changed but also there are somwehat better opportunites. The advantage today is that no matter where you are from you will find your tribes and you will not be alone. And as you can see in New York neighborhoods, tribes will stick together. Those first immigrants had nothing and nobody. There alot of more social groups and non-profits that will offer help and in general even if some of these newcommers just work to pay the bills, food and shelter(this applies to more than immigrants in the us) the living conditions are certainly better than those I read in Son of Italy. Of course I'm speaking of legal immigrants, I'm not sure how "illegal" immigrants (which is not just Mexican, as we are all inclined to think) opportunities and conditions have improved. I know one thing they have in common is that their future lies in the hands of their American Children.
DeleteWhen reading Son of Italy I really like the fact that he love music and really wanted to learn it. I also really admired he perseverance to become a writer. That kind of dedication is very impressive he was down to his last cent and still never gave up.
ReplyDeleteIt is, Even when things got to be the worse of the worse.All he needed was to believe that he could accomplish something and he did.
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