Christ in Concrete

Although some time has passed since Geremio’s death, we see the way grief lingers in memory. The brief scene at the cemetery implies that mourning is a two-way street. The dead “electrify God’s earth with desire of their return” while “deeply-shrouded widows with tear-bleeding eyes” ask “from stone and earth what they cannot give” (137).

This section also challenges the notion that labor must always be subservient to the corporation, as Fausta—a bricklayer himself—takes away laborers from the corporation by paying the men more than the corporation can afford on his new job site. But even Fausta cannot resist pushing workers more and more to make money. He relishes being a foreman and his place as a figure who can order others around. The idea of Job providing some sort of American dream for the impoverished masses is slowly being chipped away. In earlier chapters when he is first starting to work, Paul perceives Job as a source of freedom because it means he can take care of his family. But in this chapter, Louis challenges that notion when he tells Paul that books and the mind are the true way to freedom. 

Competing ideas also challenge the idea of faith when Paul says: “That was the spirit of God” that toppled the Czar, and Louis replies: “That was the spirit of my brother’s ideals” (139). Faith versus reason comes out in a big force in this chapter, with Paul representing faith and Louis representing reason. Louis questions Paul as to whether he has seen God, and this question serves as the catalyst that may undo Paul’s faith. Job continues to loom over the workers, even in death, when Paul wonders whether the ghosts of the dead will continue to pull scaffold on Job as spirits. Job’s all-consuming hold over the laborer is compared to the metaphor of a “labyrinth that would suck him in deeper and deeper, and there would be no going back” (143).

Throughout this book, di Donato draws reference to bodily fluids like blood and sweat that represent human toil which mingles with the smells of bricks to become a building. It is this combination of human and earth, or “blood and stone [,] that would go on creating the World” (143). Di Donato’s skill lies in taking a small job that seems menial and cruel to the workers and shows how they build cities and, ultimately, build the world they see around them through their hands.

Although di Donato notes that no poets will document their work, the poor laborers are more than essential to society. One could say they are almost akin to God in how they create the human landscape. Metaphor is also deployed to convey the passage of time to summer, which “came from afar as soft call of shepherd’s horn over long hill” (143). With the summer’s heat comes the laborers’ desire for women, which takes the form of a simile, as they sing about “white breasts like hills of sand on shore of sea” (144). By describing the workers using this literary prose, di Donato is taking the position as a bard of the working class and showing that their work is just as worthy of being documented as the lives of the upper class.

Paul’s title shifts in previous chapters from son of Geremio to Paul of Job. Now it switches once more to “bricklayer-worker” whose hands have been imbued with a power to “shatter the earth” (143). This shift in power from helpless child to strong worker goes along with physical changes as he becomes a man, which his sister notes. His awareness of sex grows even as he expresses discomfort with the idea, as we see when he understands what it means for Nazone to have the “claps” and views his godfather’s photographs of voluptuous women. This discomfort drives a wedge between him and his godfather and is partly what causes him to work elsewhere.

The subsequent chapters highlight Paul transition from childhood into adulthood, as Gloria innocently views him as another boy to play with and Paul sees her as an attractive person—a prospective mate. He sees himself as a man who goes to Job now, and he can no longer play with the children. Through Paul, we recall the awkward time of adolescence when teenagers first experience sexual attraction yet do not understand why they have these feelings and urges. Paul’s religion also stresses that such urges are lustful and, therefore, sinful, leading Paul to feel increased shame that he cannot control his desires.

Paul isn’t the only character who undergoes transformation in this chapter. Luigi struggles to deal with the loss of his leg and the PTSD he suffers from when he feels his toes even though he no longer has them, which is better known as “phantom limb.”We see how—in his eyes—it limits his use to the world because he cannot work a traditional laborer’s job as men would normally do: “Air of Job will no longer nourish me. Only upon pity will I now feed…” (146) His sense of manhood has been shattered: “The Great Luigi became a background of help and understanding” (150) as he helps Annunziata tend to the house and care for the children. Luigi finds that he does not need to rely on pity, as he can actually work from home as the women do, which he finds just as meaningful. Luigi redefines the meaning of manhood from one of manual labor through Job to other means of providing for oneself. He finds that there is a place for him in the world after all.

The chapter’s title, “Fiesta,” means “party” in Italian. And so, this chapter also brings out many elements of Italian pride and culture through the wedding festivities. From the traditional stomping of grapes to lavish feasts of eel and spaghetti and rainbow-colored spumoni to the singing of old songs, Cola and Luigi’s wedding not only marks a high point of happiness in the novel but also brings out the guests’ Italian pride. Throughout much of the novel, native-born Americans mock Italians as outsiders, but in this section, we see that there are many positive and rich Italian traditions that immigrants have held onto even after migrating to America. And despite their hardships in America, Italian immigrants take great pride in their culture and heritage, as seen when Maestro Farabutti says: “We are Italians! Know you what that means? It means the regal blood of terrestrial man. Richer than the richest, purer than the finest, more capable than an-y! an-y race breathing under the stellar rays of night or the lucent beams of day!” (198). The men and women feverishly dance to a song called “Tarantella” while they discuss Italian history and wars with other countries.