Comparison of In a Glass House and Lives of the Saints by Ninno Ricci
Child has been taught from the beginning that the family is sacred, and is the most important thing in the life of every person. Family can give what no one else can give: love, protection, and it shapes a person’s identity from the birth. Very often parents are judged by the way their child behaves, however there is a huge number of disordered families. Lack of a parent or unstopping abuse and arguments can cause a child’s personality to change, in most cases, in a bad way. Children like that are unsocial, lonely, misbehaved and sometimes are full of hatred towards themselves. So does the character from the novels, Lives of the Saints and In a Glass House, written by Nino Ricci. These two extraordinary novels are told by the boy, Vottorio Innocente, about his life in Italy and his life as an immigrant in Canada. His life completely changed once he was brought to Canada. His mother died while giving birth to his half-sister, his father was too busy, working on the farm, to take care of both children. Atmosphere in Innocente’s family, desire to escape from his present life through travel and acceptance are factors that affected Vittorio’s perspective on life as well as they had shaped his perso
Nino Ricci wrote two absolutely unforgettable novels Lives of the Saints, and In a Glass House. He wanted a reader to follow two decades of Vittorio Innocente’s life within Italian community in Italy as well as an immigrant in Canada. He emphasizes on the effect of the family on development of a child and how an atmosphere and relationships inside the family can build a basis for ones life. That’s how relationships among the family members, effort to forget present life, and a wish to fit in, can influence an existence of a person. “One of the most basic issues we face in our lives is the feeling of failure or guilt. I come from a minority group, families where F stood for feedback or flow and not failure. F's on a test meant a failed test and not a failure as a human being. F's helped me find my place in the universe because the family attitude was, "It was meant to be." And now we would see what good would come of this event.” (King Solomon) Acceptance by peers and his view of himself as a person are another important aspects of formation of a character. Most of teenagers were doing crazy things, to show off, to be better than somebody else or to fit in a certain group of people. Some of them were doing sports, participating in some events and being a part of some school comity, but some teens preferred to skip school, smoke and fight. Similar behavior was reflected in Vittorio. Often Vittorio and his friend were skipping school on the mountain, smoking stolen, from friend’s father cigarettes, and getting into fights. It was going on until Vittorio’d friend was taken from school to work on the farm, as a result, Vittorio got lonely and ignored. Later on, Vittorio got into fight with a local gang member. Either it was in order to protect himself or just show off; Vittorio forgot that there was no one to defend him or to help him. It was obvious that he did not fit in. Another rather stupid than brave scene was when Vittorio agreed to go on the mountain with a gang to smoke. Vittorio was so overwhelmed with the idea that he can be one of the members, and blind enough not to see that this was all a set up, he had done something that he should be ashamed of. “To become a member, you have to show us your bird, and then you have to put it in the hole and move it up and down fifty times, and then you are the member.” (Lives of the saints, 125) Fortunately, Fabrizio helped Vittorio, but instead being thankful, Vittorio was full of hatred toward his friend. “ He had ruined my chances now, and I felt myself flush with anger and hate for Fabrizio.” (Lives of the Saints, 127) Some other things happened in Italy, but most of Vittorio’ similar attempts were made in Canada, when he was older. In his university year he got into the wrong crowd, just wanting to fit in one of the hippies group. Their regular ceremony was smoking a joint. Small step at a time Vittorio was a regular customer of a guy in a group, it felt good, because he actually was one of them. “I took a long drag… I felt comforted by being there in the cluttered intimacy of Verne’s room, by his own mute acceptance of me, the sense of having entered somehow into the residence’s secret life.” (In a Glass House, 225, 227) The desire to belong somewhere was probably caused by some past experience that Vittorio hid deep inside of him. The same reason caused him to be afraid of letting someone into his life. In Italy this fear wasn’t really present in comparison to Canada, when he got older, because he had his mother, who loved him and he had his friend. With every year he spent with his father and being alone most of the times, Vittorio isolated himself from everybody, seems like he was scared of being hurt. And even if someone was trying to make a contact with him he was pushing that person away, not caring at all, like there was an empty space inside him. This
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Approximate Word count = 2839
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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