L'Italo-Americano

a good oar the five fingers must help one another (Per menare il remo bisogna che le cinque dita s'aiutino l'un l ' a l t r o ) , " t h e p a t r i a r c h Padron N'toni used to say. Or again, "Men are like the f i n g e r s o f t h e h a n d - t h e thumb must be the thumb and the little finger the little f i n g e r , " h e s a y s q u o t i n g another Sicilian proverb. His f a m i l y m e m b e r s w e r e arranged like the fingers of a hand. "First, he came – the t h u m b - w h o o r d e r e d t h e fasts and the feasts (le feste e le quarantore) in the house," t h e n a r r a t o r e x p l a i n s . Padron N'toni was the one to r u n t h e s h o w . H e w o u l d decide the duties of his chil- d r e n a n d g r a n d c h i l d r e n . They had to intertwine, live in harmony, and be respect- f u l o f t h e h i e r a r c h y . H e brought them up to face life: adversity, storms, deaths after shipwrecks, cholera... The heartbreaking novel is a gripping exploration into the endurance of the human s p i r i t . I t i s a v o y a g e i n t o resilience. The character of Padron 'Ntoni prioritizes a strong logic of moral integrity -- symbolic capital --over the logic of money.The code of honorable behavior is one of the most prominent themes in the novel. The novel I Malavoglia f e a t u r e s 1 7 0 S i c i l i a n proverbs that Verga added during the revision process o f t h e m a n u s c r i p t i n t h e summer of 1880. They were selected carefully to have an important impact on the sto- ryline as they changed the features of the novel. They give a formal linguistic col- oring to the characters who conform to the way of life expressed by these old say- ings that almost have the force of law. Proverbs helped people understand things b e t t e r b y p r e s e n t i n g t h e truth. They could also give people advice. Proverbs have some kind of deeper mean- i n g b e h i n d t h e m . P a d r o n 'Ntoni used them because "the sayings of the ancients never lie. Verga studied Giuseppe Pitrè's collection of Sicilian proverbs before completing the novel. Mr. Pitrè was a medical doctor and an eth- nologist who, in 1871, started c o m p i l i n g t h e L i b r a r y o f Sicilian Popular Traditions, a collection of Sicilian oral culture in twenty-five vol- umes. Linear time and cyclical time blend in the novel. The latter depends on the natural rhythms of seasons marked b y f i s h i n g , f a r m i n g , a n d prayer. Before the sun goes down, women must be home t o r e c i t e t h e L a t i n H a i l p r a y e r a n d c o o k d i n n e r . When a son is called to mili- tary service, the mother- in t h i s c a s e , M a r u z z a " L a Longa"- urges him to always w e a r t h e a b i t i n o d e l l a Madonna or scapular of the Madonna on his chest. It is a piece of cloth to hide under the sweater decorated with Madonna effigies. It is a sign o f t h e p a c t b e t w e e n t h e Virgin Mary and the wearer, a sign of salvation, love, and protection from peril. I Malavoglia is a poly- phonic novel with different points of view. Each charac- t e r ' s v o i c e h a s t h e s a m e strength, intensity, and vol- u m e . V e r g a s h o w s t h e thoughts of his characters t h r o u g h n a r r a t e d m o n o - logues that fully reproduce a character's consciousness. "The originality of Verga's narrative technique consists in a narration that is system- atically filtered through a chorus of voices from a folk c o m m u n i t y , " w r o t e L e o Spitzer, a late, extremely i n f l u e n t i a l l i t e r a r y c r i t i c f r o m J o h n H o p k i n s University in Baltimore. But Verga did not look at Sicily as an ideal homeland. His opinion of Sicily was of a modern man. He perused and questioned that reality as an anthropologist. "Verga portrays, with both sympa- thy and scorn, the values and folkways that sustain p e a s a n t s a n d , l a t e r e m i - g r a n t s f r o m t h e M e z z o g i o r n o , " w r i t e s Professor George Guida in the essay Giovanni Verga a n d t h e R o o t s o f I t a l i a n America. "There is a sense of impotence to change their situation: a situation that fosters a typically Sicilian tragic view of life," writes Guida, an American poet of Italian descent who teaches a t N e w Y o r k C i t y C o l l e g e Technology. The old Sicilian environ- ment was static. Nothing ever changed. Life was trou- bled with the various hard- ships that forced so many peasants to emigrate. A n d " t h e e m i g r a n t s ' attachment to their paesi or villages, as oysters to rock, was a spiritual one, and at a distance, they conceived of those paesi as pastorals to which they would happily, must even, return," contin- ues Guida. Emigrants remained true to their birthplace even if it sapped their strength. "Life there, like the familiar folk- tale, was the only story they k n e w : n o t n e c e s s a r i l y a h a p p y o n e , b u t o n e f r o m which they could draw dis- cernible themes and learn p r a c t i c a l l e s s o n s " , G u i d a says. And soon they had to face o t h e r p e r s o n a l t r a u m a s , starting from the journey to the New World. "Given the trauma of their experience, we can easily understand how Italy, the f a m i l i a r , m u s t h a v e returned, again and again, as an ideal society to those who r e m a i n e d i n t h e I t a l i a n colonies of America," says Guida. T h a t ' s w h y S i c i l i a n Americans are all, to varying degrees, still caught up in a quasi-romantic idealization of their ancestral land. It is in their blood; it beats in their veins. They long for that simpler past. I n t h e l a s t c h a p t e r o f V e r g a ' s m a s t e r p i e c e , t h e " r e b e l " y o u n g ' N t o n i becomes the true protago- nist when only the sea grum- bles at him. The night falls from the sky, and the entire v i l l a g e t u r n s b l a c k . T h e moment is timeless. It is an epiphany revealing the sense of his destiny through a firm decision. He got to break away from that way of life. "Goodbye, goodbye, you see that I have to go!", he says. He takes advantage of all that silence and darkness a r o u n d h i m t o l e a v e . H e does not need to play into a deep-seated nostalgia for Aci Trezza anymore. He under- s t a n d s h e h a s n o f u t u r e there. He has to turn the page on his endless misery and take action. He has to move out. "I can't stay," the Young 'Ntoni repeats. Is he emigrating abroad? To America? Or will he be living on the fringe of the forest as a bandit? Will he find his place in the world? T h e e n d i s o p e n . C h o o s e what you like. LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE A high-relief dedicated to Verga's I Malavoglia (Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons License. Author: Giovanni Grasso. License: CC BY-SA 4.0) Continued from page 28 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano

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