Discussion 18: The Godfather (July 11)

We saw in L'emigrante that the most promising path to success for an Italian was to work for Mafia.

The other Italian immigrants of that period, Pascal, Beppo, Geremio and Paul, can be hardly call successful the way Peppino was.

 

Now, with Don Vito and Michael, we see people who have really achieved "American" success.

 

Don Vito explains it clearly and explicitly: society didn't let people like us become powerful and respectable. They kept us at the margin. And we became powerful the only way we could, and we enjoy respectability among people like us.

 

What is wrong with this "philosophy?"

 

Or, maybe there is nothing wrong.

 

COMMENT and REPLY

 

Discussion 17: The Godfather (July 11)

Is Don Corleone your new hero?

Despite the fact that he is a murderer who will not stop at anything to get what he wants, namely power and more power?

Despite the fact that he lies and cheats (he cheats even Johnny Fontaine) and is OK with his daughter getting beat up by her husband?

 

COMMENT and REPLY

Discussion 16: about discussion 13 (re: 4th of July).

I noticed that most of you responded to the notion of the secret of PERSONAL SUCCESS in America.

Maybe I should have been more explicit:
I meant to question whether AMERICA'S SUCCESS is the result of the transformation that Pascal experienced, the transformation that led him ("taught him?") to have faith in himself, and the dominant attitude of all immigrants who make it.

Is this the secret of America's success?
Will it still be the case for the foreseeable future?

Discussion 15: "Christ in Concrete" July 6

Direct quotations from the first chapter:

 

1) “Pushing the job is all right (when has it been otherwise in my life?), but this job frightens me. I feel the building wants to tell me something just as one Christian to another.  Or perhaps the Easter week is making of me a spirit-seeing pregnant woman. I don’t like this.” 

 

2) “The language of worn oppression and the despair of realizing that his life had been left on brick piles. And always, there had been hunger and her bastard, the fear of hunger.” 

3) “To rebel is to lose all of very little. To be obedient is to choke” (13)

 

COMMENT:  Geremio's drama is his awareness of his condition as a prisoner of work and life obligations.

Which one of the quotations above best mirrors your own conclusions about the deeper message of this chapter?

Discussion 14: "Christ in Concrete" due July 5

Watch the video lecture and start reading the first chapter.

COMMENT: How hard is the book? Did the suggestions in the video help at all? What else should be mentioned to help readers approaching this text?

REPLY: what suggestion in the comments do you agree or disagree with?

Discussion 13: Perfect for the 4th of July

A comment from your classmate Chelsea Ramos about SON:
 

Just a side note: I wanted to say thank you for such a great novel selection with Son of Italy. I enjoyed reading about Pascal's experience and how closely I can relate to trying to remain optimistic when all seems to be going wrong.  One quote that resonated with me the most was:

"I had faith in myself. Without realizing it, I had learned the greatest 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. I was sure of it. But how much I had to suffer until change came! What a thorny heartbreaking road it was!"

 

COMMENT and REPLY to a comment:

 

This is what America does to immigrants: it leads people to learn to have faith in themselves. I wouldn't say "it teaches."

Is this the 'secret' of America's success?
Will it still be the case for the foreseeable future?