Catholicism played a big part in the lives of early
twentieth century Italian-American immigrants and DiDonato's novel powerfully depicts
this religious dimension. The novel thematizes the contrast between the Old World ways
of the parents' generation and the assimilationist tendencies of the children by showing
their contrasting attitudes towards religion. While his mother is deeply religious,
Paul progressively loses his Catholic faith. This loss starts when his father dies on
Good Friday, a death that has a Christ-like resonance for the day on which it occurs.
American capitalism has other gods and tellingly the narrative contrasts the Lord of
Catholic believers with the allegorical characters of Job and Boss, the divinities and
oppressors of workers.
Christ in Concrete
shows how for Italian immigrants Catholicism could easily mix with
superstition and paganism (see the episode of "the Cripple", a woman who claims to be
able to enter into contact with the world of the dead and the spirits). For Italian
peasants, official religion and dogma also have an obscure and dubiously mystical
quality.
Although Christ in Concrete
has often been described as the novel that introduced the Italian American
experience onto the American literary scene, I personally find Stud Terkel's remarks in
his introduction to the Signet Edition interesting and challenging. Terkel does
recognize the novel as based on the Italian American experience. Yet, he also finds in
it elements common to other immigrant groups. "Pietro di Donato's story," writes
Terkel,"is the story of so many immigrant peoples whose dreams and realities were in
conflict".
You can read the introduction following this
link:
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