COMMENT
Start by reading ALL the comments posted before yours. Don't repeat the aspects already mentioned.
TWO SEPARATE PARAGRAPHS:
1) Mention a small, small detail that most likely only YOU picked up on.
Describe it briefly and explain why it made an impression on YOU. Also explain why this detail contributed to YOUR personal understanding of a bigger aspect of the book: ex. the conditions of poverty, the individual psychology, the relation rich-poor, superstition, beliefs etc.
2) What RELEVANT facts, data, information did you learn from reading the first part of the book? Mention something concrete, not vague like "the poverty of share croppers in Italy."
The book Son of Italy has many interesting aspects based on the first few chapters. Right from the beginning of the first chapter you can understand and notice the direction that the book is going to go in. The book is going to be about the authors memories and many of them are depressing memories. The memories go in chronological order, the very first memory the author mentioned was the death of his grandmother and his living conditions. These memories really stuck out to me because of the depression he had faced from the poverty and the deaths he had to face in his early years of life. The beginning chapters really opened up the book and gave it a story line.
ReplyDeleteThere are many important factors of the first part of Son of Italy. This book is based on life time memories, many of the memories were depressing and sad. The author explained his memories in detail and I felt like he put his heart and mind into his writing.
The book has a depressing outline so far, although I do not know much about the story other than what was in the first few chapters I get a feeling when reading the poems that Pascal will look back on his early life as a growth experience and appreciate what he had in Italy, as poor as he was.
DeleteOne part of the book that stood out to me as kind of a analogy of the whole book and really the time period we are speaking of was the line on page 40 when Pascal is pasturing his animals high in the mountains and sees something dark in the distance and he approaches it cautiously. He says, “Just as I was about five steps away it sprang up throwing out arms enclosed in black rags. With a gasp of horror I stopped short. There in front of me, tall and erect, stood the fearsome witch.” This line felt important to me because in a way it tells the story of this time period. People had little and what they had they worked hard for. The witch could symbolize globalization. She symbolizes change, because to the people in this small town change is evil but it is the way of the world, as is the witch, a phenomenon they cannot explain but must deal with. When I read, “There in front of me, tall and erect, stood the fearsome witch” I instantly thought this is the future to these people. They are scarred to leave there families but out of fear and the will to survive they must run, in this case Pascal is running down the mountain but in the case of their life they are running to the united states.
ReplyDeleteI think the part that stuck with me was something that I just found relatable and a little sad, was when the author was describing his childhood and how he was a little bigger than the rest of the kids and would get picked on and blamed for instances in which he didn't do anything. How he looked like he could be a bully but he was actually really nice.
ReplyDeleteGoing in, I was not aware this was an autobiography, I initially thought it was a work of realistic fiction. However, after watching the professor's video in our lecture, I came to discover that it is in fact a true story of the author's life. I think that itself was the most important fact that I overlooked and has now made reading the book a lot more intriguing.
I was also not aware that this was an autobiography but from the first page of the book we figure that out. This book is very depression and his childhood memories are mostly negative due to his poverty and cluttered living conditions.
DeleteOne thing that I noticed in the book was the lack of detail about the boat ride over to America. Usually in immigration texts, it is a big ordeal, with plenty of anecdotes about people vomiting and the cramped space and the overbearing length of time it took to get across the Atlantic. Here the trip takes about two pages. Perhaps the trip itself didn't matter as much to D'Angelo, only what happened before and what happened after; the passage is insignificant.
ReplyDeleteThe village the author is from seems so archaic. I mention in my notes that reading it reminded me of reading Things Fall Apart by Achebe, because it attempts to present very nonchalantly this village whose residents believe in vampires and wizards and seers; who have never heard of some of the most famous regions in Italy. Their way of life is so foreign to me, but I understand it and normalize it as it is being presented to me.
Excellent point: the most important MISSING element is the statue of Liberty. How come? It is the obligatory reference of every immigrant tale (see the film "The Italian" for instance.)
DeleteA detail from the first paragraphs that I really liked was when the main character and his father first arrive to America and they looked at the street signs and were so confused because the signs just said "Ave" and didn't have a holy word after but it had it before. He thought people were very religious. I liked this part of the book because it showed how different this new world was for the main character and to every foreigner coming to America for the first time. People who are new to a country tend to connect their believes and customs to the new environment that they are in. I imagine that in their village religion was a big part of the community or at least to some families.
ReplyDeleteBy reading the first few chapters of the book I learned that every town or village has different superstitions and believes. The town where the main character lives is very against the woman who they think is a vampire witch. The myth about pouring salt on her head of that this old woman made the baby sick because the baby's parents were talking bad about her. In every country there are stories about mythical creatures or people and in this case a witch was the main superstition.
This detail about the avenue signs stuck out to me as well. I agree with how you interpreted it. It shows how little immigrants know about this country from aspects as small as street signs to as big as the language.
DeleteA small detail I picked up from The Son's of Italy book was that the boy started school at the age of seven, but he had missed several days of school because he was in charge of watching his father's sheep and goats. His father could not afford to hire someone to watch them. His parents could not help him in school either because they did not know how to read or write. This detail contributes to the bigger issue of poverty conditions. Because he was poor, he had to miss school to work for his father.
ReplyDeleteThe relevant information that I learned from the beginning of the book was the real struggles this boy had to face at a very young age. It sad to think that he was afraid of telling the truth to his parents because they wouldn't believe him and just end up beating him. Also having to miss school to help your poor family. Imagine being seven years old and having to work. The most important job for a child his age is to go to school and do his homework.
I also felt bad about the school situation. It's not easy when you are poor.
DeleteOne of the important part of book Son of Italy was in chapter 2. Author describes an event he faced. This event, when author as a young boy and his mother walk through the storm. This event included few themes of this book. Author talks about a wizard and also other people who were helpful. As the author said if the season was good people were politer. Another important thing I understood from this event was the relationship of author and his mother. By reading this chapter I was able to understand that book will talk about author’s experiences whether good or bad and his relationship with his family members.
ReplyDeleteOne of the important factors of first part of the book is that author went to school at age of seven due to many reasons. Author explains that his family owned sheep and his father needed help. Author was not able to attend class often but he said he learned from listening to elders.
Many immigration stories and documents focus mainly on the excitement of coming to a new world with new opportunity, but I really enjoyed the end of Chapter 2, where the protagonist talks about the beauty of the mountains above him when he was a boy the age of 12. The beauty of his home made such an impression on him that he wrote a poem (page 26) that was later published. While we know that so many immigration stories were born out of necessity, it is interesting to see his quiet longing- perhaps not even conscious- for his home.
ReplyDeleteI found the seclusion of his tiny village and their preservation of old world traditions and beliefs, including superstitions, really interesting and relevant to the protagonists development but also foreshadows a bit about how much he and his family will have to adjust when emigrating.
“Then, of a sudden, an overwhelming sense of horror and pain possessed me as I thought that I was leaving my mother.” This moment in Chapter 5 really caught me. The words "Then, of a sudden, an overwhelming sense of horror and pain possessed me..." struck such a chord with me that I stop reading to reflect for a moment. When leaving my family for the first time, I did my best to keep my head above the sea of confused and intense emotions as I prepared for the trip. Pascals description of the moment is exact to how I felt. The excitement and high energy of the moment all but disappeared beneath me as I realized hundreds of miles now separated me from all that I had known. This experience must have given pascal a clearer image as to the magnitude of his life decision. Not only was he leaving his mother and home country for profit and work, but for the love of his mother and brother and their well being. He is leaving for them, and knowing that to help he must leave is a very conflicting and difficult emotion to come to terms with. This moment also gave me insight into the levels of commitment to family present in this time period. I do not think the same sentiments are present today.
ReplyDeleteI did not fully grasp the level of inexperience or naiveté that Pascal would leave for the new world with. The frighteningly stark contrast in the culture of his village with that of Industrial America. I always imagined immigrants coming from a slightly industrialized Europe. The concept of working on a farm, believing in vampires witches and wizard, and knowing everyone in your hamlet simply did not exist in the new world. The distances between these two culture would naturally lead to conflict and being taken advantage of by the savvy individualists of the New York City.
I feel like the psychology between guilt and poverty was a highlight that the first few chapters brought out. The character often felt guilt in moments where they did not need to feel guilt. Therefore is it that when brought up in an environment where things were really difficult push you to feel the pain of something you shouldnt feel pain for? Does this mean poverty creates a form of anxiety based around the culture of it. I found these ideas to be mostly concrete in the first two chapters.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think about how the culture of poverty works. I recently took a sociology class and this self blame thing really proved itself innthe book. The section where the character feels immediate guilt when the boy started crying in the first chapter and he knew he wasnt the cause of the tears but he began to run, it is similar to police brutality and discipline in the united states. Poverty could create a form of guilt that resonates within a being, the need to run, the need to feel like one is not at fault but once theres a possibility that the blame could be put on them they run before it is brought forward.
I feel like the psychology between guilt and poverty was a highlight that the first few chapters brought out. The character often felt guilt in moments where they did not need to feel guilt. Therefore is it that when brought up in an environment where things were really difficult push you to feel the pain of something you shouldnt feel pain for? Does this mean poverty creates a form of anxiety based around the culture of it. I found these ideas to be mostly concrete in the first two chapters.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think about how the culture of poverty works. I recently took a sociology class and this self blame thing really proved itself innthe book. The section where the character feels immediate guilt when the boy started crying in the first chapter and he knew he wasnt the cause of the tears but he began to run, it is similar to police brutality and discipline in the united states. Poverty could create a form of guilt that resonates within a being, the need to run, the need to feel like one is not at fault but once theres a possibility that the blame could be put on them they run before it is brought forward.
I noted the cadence in his constant reference to Monte Majella; maybe it’s some form of foreshadowing. It seemed as if he drew inspiration from this tree and it was a symbol for his strength. Poverty made times hard but his relentless occurrences to gain motivation and show hopefulness, made him a very grounded child.
ReplyDeleteHe is a very mindful child. He thinks ahead of the consequences before the act is carried out. For example, when he was worried that he would get a whooping for striking that mother's child, he thought about the sister beating him and further speaks of getting no protection from his parents if/when they catch him. It makes his character seem more a genuine because any child would be scared of a beating, I know I was.
This book is filled with many vivid details. One small detail that made an impression on me was D’Angelo’s conversation with Saverio in chapter seven. Saverio said, “… I believed they feel ashamed if in a moment of forgetfulness they've turned to look at a flower or a beautiful sunset.” In this statement he is explaining the way Americans live to D’angelo. He said that Americans are cold and live in peculiar ways. Both these two boys grew up being very poor and from this they learned to cherish every aspect of life, including something as little as a beautiful flower. They always had to work for what they had and they were grateful for the few pieces of bread they had for dinner. This statement, made by Saverio, explains how Americans take the little things life offers for granted. They walk right pass a garden of flowers and look straight ahead instead of at a sunset. Most Americans care more about the materialistic things, something these poor boys from Italy did not understand.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of this book is filled with many important facts and details about Pascal D’angelo’s life. From reading the beginning I learned that he is an extremely brave and bold young man. Growing up in poverty turns any boy into a man much sooner than those who live without these conditions. Pascal did not go to school as a child and instead he worked to make money for his family. He chose to go to America with his father at a very young age. He was unaware of what this country would bring and he still decided to go find work there with his father. Pascal D’Angelo is a very mature young man in the beginning of this book and his lifestyle greatly contributed to this.
That part where the D'Angelo was expressing to the grocery owner he needed eggs but he was saying axes. So the owner came out with a dozen axes and he insisted not to come back with the wrong thing so he visually showed him a circle and succeeded with the task. This scene showed me how determine he was to get the job done although he lacked English he found ways to still communicate with the owner.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning part of the book was a depressing one from the living standards, being falsely accused, old witch in town, and leaving school at such an early age to help father financially. D'Angelo had a rough childhood growing up.