Tenement Life In Di Donato

The author’s most successful device in the story is his realistic illustration of the settings in which the Italian-American laborer had to live through. His tone in the novel accurately reflects those of the immigrants-fearful, submissive, and confused. Presenting the readers with the horrific tenement settings that the laborers were forced to live in makes the readers empathize with them. The tenement was a large building in which thousands of immigrants were housed in after they arrived to America. They lived a major part of their life under miserable conditions. Di Donato portrays the declining quality of life through accounts of tenement living laborer. One example that very accurately and vividly displays the current life situation that …show more content…
Many stereotypical and ignorant Americans blamed the conditions in the slums on these new inhabitants. However, the compelling circumstances forced the immigrants to settle down in horrid conditions. These immigrants had no choice but to accept their squalid fate at the time. Through such accurate and descriptive accounts of tenement life, di Donato informs the readers of the poor quality of existence for the …show more content…
The author explains that his father’s death is due to the padrone’s criminal negligence, who sacrificed his laborers’ lives just to save some money on the project by avoiding safety standards. Di Donato traces the cause of Geremio’s death to the fundamental root, which is the dangerous and trampling economic system. The Christian symbolism in this scene depicts great irony. In Christianity, Jesus’s death helped save humanity from sin. Geremio’s death on Good Friday, on the other hand, was not redemptive; it was a worthless sacrifice caused by his inhumane padrones. On the other hand, Paul’s religious crisis happens after Nazone’s death towards the end of the novel. Paul finally realizes the reality of the less fortunate in the world through years of poverty and hardship combined with the shock of Geremio’s and Nazone’s death. After Paul becomes sick on the Sunday after Nazone’s funeral, he has a feeling that something is wrong in his religious faith in Catholicism that his mother has kept throughout the years. After that instance, Paul completely stops attending Mass. Annunizata becomes witness to Paul’s transformation from the innocent and humble paesano look to a mood of harshness. This metamorphosis represents him changing from a socially ignorant man to that of a class-conscious man. He finally comes to the