49 pages • 1 hour read
Nino RicciLives of the Saints
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Loss of Childhood Innocence
As is typical of a bildungsroman (See: Background), a key theme of Lives of the Saints is the loss of childhood innocence through conflict or challenges, resulting in the protagonist developing a more mature understanding of the world. This theme is largely embodied by the protagonist Vittorio Innocente and his first-person narration of the text. In the beginning of the story, Vittorio is six years old and does not understand the actions and motivations of those around him. By the end of the novel, he is forced to reckon with the ultimate loss of his childhood innocence.
In the opening chapter, Vittorio comes upon his mother, Cristina, with a man in the stable. While it is implied that his mother is having sex with this stranger, Vittorio’s understanding of the situation remains impressionistic and uncertain. While he is certain he heard a man shout, he describes the figure he sees fleeing the barn in magical, mystical terms: “[T]wo eyes […] bright flames that held me transfixed” (6). When his mother encourages him to say he didn’t see anything, he reflects that, “it seemed possible for an instant that […] the strange blue eyes had been an aberration, a trick of the sunlight” (7). As an innocent child, Vittorio is willing to believe almost anything his mother tells him, and he does not overtly challenge her in this moment. However, the snake that Vittorio sees the moment that he comes upon the barn prefigures his loss of innocence, carrying echoes of symbolism from the Biblical Garden of Eden story.
Vittorio’s loss of innocence continues as his family faces social ostracism once his mother’s snakebite and extramarital affair become more widely known in the village. He is bullied by the other boys at school, and when he runs away when Fabrizio sticks up for him in a fight, he feels ashamed of his cowardice, reflecting his growing self-awareness. His most important moment of growth comes towards the end of the novel, when he braves a storm to find the doctor and assists during his mother’s labor. Her death leads to Vittorio’s ultimate loss of innocence, symbolized by the loss of his lucky lira coin when it falls overboard. As part of his acceptance of his newfound maturity, he loses faith in the superstitions and myths that had once explained his world and he must now confront a new life in Canada alone with his father and half-sister.
The Influence of Superstition and Myth
In Lives of the Saints, the villagers of Valle del Sole use superstition and myth to understand and attempt to influence the parochial world around them. These superstitions and myths are a complex combination of folk beliefs, Catholic religious traditions, and individual idiosyncratic beliefs. Cristina is openly scornful of this way of understanding the world, but Vittorio tentatively explores some of them following the models of the other villagers, such as Father Nick, la maestra, and Guiseppina.
From the opening pages of the novel, local folk superstitions about snakes and snakebites become important. Namely, there is a saying in the village that “where pride is the snake goes” (5), and it is widely believed that snakes are “agents of the evil eye” (6). This is a mystical understanding of the world wherein all manner of ailments, disasters, and catastrophes are blamed on the evil eye. Giuseppina’s suggestions to Cristina about how to alleviate the evil eye brought on her by the snakebite are representative of the mix of pagan and Catholic religious beliefs in the village: She encourages Cristina both to make confession to Father Nick and to do an animal sacrifice folk ritual that appears to be pagan in origin.
Cristina mocks Giuseppina for her suggestions, calling them “stupidaggini” (54) and insisting that she does not need the priest. This is typical of Cristina’s scorn for superstition and mythology, reflecting her rejection of the village’s traditional beliefs. She laughs when Vittorio attempts to replicate Father Nick’s parable of hiding shoes under his bed, openly mocks the priests, and castigates the villagers before her departure for their ignorant superstitions.
Vittorio, as a child, is more drawn to these myths and superstitions. He is particularly taken by the possibility of magical events, such as the miracles of the saints told to him by la maestra or the myth of the giant Gambelunghe told to him by his grandfather. Vittorio’s most overt endorsement of these beliefs is when he attempts the animal sacrifice ritual suggested by Giuseppina. He also worries after the neighborhood boys tell him an illegitimate child will be born with “the head of a snake” (127). He is not disabused of this belief until he sees his baby half-sister and is “flooded with relief to see that all of its features were human” (237). Ultimately, though, his belief in superstitions and myths is lost after the death of his mother, suggesting that in breaking with his old village life, Vittorio will also have to adapt a new worldview.
Traditional Values Versus Personal Freedom
In Lives of the Saints, the conflict between traditional values and personal freedom is embodied in the conflict between Vittorio’s grandfather and his mother, Cristina, who represent traditional values and personal freedom respectively. Cristina’s attempts to live life on her own terms explore the tensions inherent in trying to exercise agency in a traditional, patriarchal society.
Vittorio’s grandfather is a source of continuity and stability in the village. He served as the town mayor under fascism during World War II and continued in the position by convention in the post-war period. The importance of this role is shown in his place of pride in the church in one of the front pews. Before Cristina’s social ostracism following her snakebite and out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the villagers consulted him for advice. He disdains Cristina for her lack of fealty to her absent husband. He is particularly disgusted that her lover is not only a communist, but a foreigner. He is parochial in his attitudes and his traditionalism is manifest in his desire for things in the village to remain unchanged. However, there are some small hints that village life may be changing, such as when the communists put up their own candidate as mayor who garners a lot of attention and support. This suggests that the village is beginning to move away from its traditional, fascist past.
By contrast, Cristina defiantly acts according to her own individual desires and beliefs. She does not adopt the superstitions and religiosity of the other villagers. She flouts her father’s desire for conventional sexual morality by going to church on Christmas day without hiding her large, pregnant stomach. While her father wants her to leave the “bastard child” (160) at an orphanage, Cristina opts to travel to Halifax to raise the baby herself. She is similarly dismissive of the feelings of her abusive husband, Mario, on the subject, stating, “He thinks we’re still in the dark ages” (160).
Cristina pays the price for her independence by coming into increasing conflict with her father and the other villagers. When she turns down Giuseppina’s advice to confess to rid herself of the evil eye, she is ostracized and her friends treat her as if she is “contagious” (47). When it becomes obvious that she is pregnant and unashamed, Maria Maiale says she is “holding her nose up like a queen” (161). These opinions and her cold treatment by the villagers leads Cristina to make the extremely risky decision to leave the village to create a new life for herself and her children in America. Her death on the voyage over suggests that, ultimately, her agency is still hindered by the limitations of gender and class that she tried so hard to escape.
