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?
I feel quotation three gives a deeper message of the chapter. Had Geremio rebel against working for a building he knew was unsafe he would have saved his life. Being a rebel would have caused him his job which is little compare to loosing life.
ReplyDeleteI feel like quotation 1 gives the deeper message. I feel like Geremio knew in his gut that something wasn’t right from the beginning. throughout the chapter he had that same feeling and ignored it to get the job done. had he listened to his instincts he could’ve saved himself and potentially others as well.
ReplyDelete“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.” This quote, in my opinion, helps convey the deeper meaning of the chapter. This is a reflection of every Italian at this time, I think. The bricks are a direct metaphor to how heavy their lives are, and how much of a struggle it is for them. It is definitely a struggle for Geremio, as we see. It ultimately leads to his death.
ReplyDeleteThe quotation, “To rebel is to lose all of very little. To be obedient is to choke”, reflects my own conclusion about the deeper message of this chapter. The workers didn’t have much of a choice, either work and do what they have been told or go against but lose the job. Geremio tried to make a point about the workplace being dangerous and unsafe conditions could lead to accident but he was threatened to lose a job. Being obedient have cost him his and other workers lives.
ReplyDeleteThe third quotation in my view holds a deeper meaning. If Geremio rebelled against the company since he saw the building as unstable and the conditions were poor for them to work in then the worst that can happen would’ve been a loss of jobs. Rather than the loss of lives when the building collapsed. He was obident and left it alone maybe because he needed a job to secure his family but that’s what ultimately led him and others to die so that was the cost (choking).
ReplyDeleteThe quote, "To rebel is to lose all of very little. To be obedient is to choke” I feel gives a deeper meaning to the chapter. I believe this quote does because of the reality and poor conditions that Geremio and many other immigrants felt, they had very little to begin with and if they rebelled against it then they would lost it all. Because many immigrants had families, it would have not been the best option to go against the company in order to stay employed to support his family despite the repercussions with the collapse of the building.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the last quotation mirrors my own conclusion of the chapter because although it would have been best for Geremio too and follow his gut instinct that the environment in which the job was situated was bad for not himself but for all the other men he was responsible for and chose to stay and work because of the family he had that depended upon him and ultimately choked on his choice to stay and work and paid with his life.
ReplyDeleteNumber one had the deepest meaning Geremio felt the end was near as a Christian he felt it in his bones that something terrible was going to happen he knew that if he stayed that no good would come from it but, he second guess and for that, he lost his life.
ReplyDeleteThe quote, "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.” best sums up Geremio's chapter and sets the tone for the rest of the book. After his death, his wife and kids went through hell not only mourning but also remaining faithful. But the literal piles built up on Geremio's bpdy was the result of racism and oppression. Because of this an entire family had to suffer.
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