Arms of the Father

Tony Filpi
English 630
Dr. Picicci
7 April 2010

Arms of the Father

One of the aspects of Calvino’s The Secret Path to the Spider’s Nests is Pin’s search for some special friend he can share his secret place with, and while this hope of Pin’s is overtly expressed at several junctures in the story, the type of individual he is seeking remains a vague shadow throughout the text. Rather than some special friend, I propose that this entire text is an exorcise in searching for and defining family; specifically, Pin is searching for a father.

We are first introduced to this idea at the beginning of the text, when Pin describes his life as a child of the alley. His sister is an unconcerned prostitute, and he is rejected by the younger children and those of his own age. The only solace and companionship he can find is in the memory of his father’s arms and the company of the drunks at the local bar. The men of the bar confuse Pin, and he is uncomfortable with the pastimes of these adults: he finds them “harsh like all the sensations men enjoy; smoke, wine, women” (34). His memory of his father isn’t much better, but in this we find the connection to this ultimate redemption.

The description of his father’s hands is brief, but its importance becomes obvious once one pairs it with the arrival of Cousin. He remembers, “being swung in the air in his big bare arms, strong arms marked with black veins” (42). It is this faceless set of arms that Pin is seeking in the men he meets, and though Pin attempts to find a father figure in the men from the bar, Committee, his master, and even possibly the German his sister is sleeping with, it is in the hands of Cousin that he finds acceptance.

Cousin is the most interesting of Pin’s acquaintances. Calvino hamstrings him with a disability, like most of the other characters, but Cousin is able to retain his humanity regardless of his neurosis, a deep hated and distrust of women. This seems particularly significant during the first meeting between him and Pin and the final scene of the novel. Before their first meeting, Pin is abandoned by Red Wolf, and Cousin finds him wondering in the woods. When Cousin questions him, Pin falls back to identifying himself as the brother of The Girl from Long Alley (84). Rather than rejecting Pin, Cousin responds with “ Yes…yes…yes…yes…’” He goes on to hint at his disgust of women by telling Pin that “War’s all the fault of women,” but the significance of this scene is in his acceptance of Pin, even though Pin’s only identity is found though a medium that Cousin despises. His acceptance of Pin is solidified when he offers to carry Pin back to camp, as Pin’s father once carried him, but Pin settles for allowing “The big man [to] take him by the hand” and walk him to camp.

This concept is furthered at the end of the book when the two meet again by chance. Cousin appears to be over his hatred of women and asks to visit Pin’s sister, but when he returns, he tells Pin that he “got disgusted” (184). However, he still maintains his relationship with Pin, and the implication at the end of the story is of a kind of adoption. Pin is able to show Cousin his spiders, and the big man pays attention. The final lines cement the almost magical reunion with a father Pin has never known: “And they walk on, the big man and the child, into the night, amid the fireflies, holding each other by the hand” (185). Pin finally has a face to attach to the “bare arms” and a friend to share his secret place.

Italian Lit Proposal 2

Tony Filpi

English 630

Dr. Picicci

31 March 2010

The Death of the Prince

In the shorter version of my paper, I address the significance of Machiavelli’s works in regard to Italian views on the role of a ruler or ruling party. I specifically discuss the Lampedusa’s obligation to address Machiavelli and how his work picks apart the role of the medieval archetype through the ascension of the merchant class. Rather than viewing the state as an extension of the ruler, the merchant class viewed the state as tool for producing wealth. This, in turn, disinterested the role of Machiavelli’s prince.

To expand on this concept of eliminating the prince, I would like to bring up an earlier attempt, one that focuses on the faith as the excusatory element to the prince. For this, I feel that Manzoni’s Betrothed would present my ideas nicely. Manzoni presents a world not unlike the one inhabited by Machiavelli himself; however, in this world, the characters who most embody the ideals of Machiavelli’s prince are either removed from power or converted to working for the good of the people separate from the good of the state.

I plan to follow the characters of Don Rodrigo and The Unnamed as my principle examples. I think that presenting Manzoni’s treatment of these two characters will highlight a historical attempt to dismantle the conscienceless ruler well before Lampedusa dethrones him with the middle class republic.

Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe. The Leopard. Trans. Archibald Colquhoun. New

York: Pantheon Books, 2007. Print.

Geerken, Jonh H. Machiavelli Studies Since 1969. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 37, No.

2 Apr. - Jun., 1976, pp. 351-368. Print.

Kuhns, R.F. (1969). Modernity and Death: The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa. Contemp.

Psychoanal., 5:95-118. Print.

Paolucci, Anne. “Comprendere Manzoni.” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 Dec.,

1976, pp. 380-383. Print.
Prezzolini, Giuseppe. Machiavelli: A Study in the Life, Work, Influence and Originality of an

Obscure Florentine Civil Servant Who Has Become Our Contemporary New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967. Print.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Discourses Trans. Leslie Joseph Walker. London: Penguin, 1983.

Print.

----. The Prince Trans. W.K. Marriott. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Print.

Italian Lit Essay Proposal I

Machiavelli Paper Proposal

I would like to examine the relation of Machiavelli’s political theory to the works of The Leopard and The Betrothed. I would argue that Machiavelli’s advice to his Prince was well known enough during the times of both Manzoni and Lampedusa that they would have had to write their texts knowingly in either agreement or opposition. Though I cannot prove this fact for certain, by examining the characters of Don Rodrigo, the Unnamed, Don Fabrizio, Don Cologero, and Father Pirrone, I believe I can paint a clear connection between Machiavelli’s words and the characters’ actions. In addition to making the case for a connection, I would also argue that the religious slant of the two pieces was instrumental in deciding to agree or oppose The Prince.

To this end, I would argue that all five of my subjects represent a Machiavellian character, but each characters’ actions and ultimate fates at the end of the text reflect their author’s feelings. Don Rodrigo is a foreign power attempting to maintain control in his domain, while feeling entitled to his carnal intentions toward Lucia. He is ultimately destroyed for his self-serving abuse of power. The Unnamed employs his power in the same way, but is saved by the author through an act of expiation. Fabrizio and Cologero, exercise their power for their own benefit, which they believe will in turn benefit the larger state that they control. While the author does not necessarily paint these characters as successful, Fabrizio is able to maintain control much longer than his aristocratic counterparts and Cologero is able to lift his family out of obscurity. Both of these characters are able to accomplish their goals through an intellectual strategy that either bends morality or ignores it all together. Both believe that gaining and maintaining their power is beneficial to the good of the state.

Father Pirrone is a unique case. He will be used to highlight the actions of both Fabrizio and Cologero through his own actions and conversations in Cono. Lampedusa uses Pirrone to explain the motivations of the nobility.

For resources, I plan to use

Geerken, Jonh H. Machiavelli Studies Since 1969. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 37, No.
2 Apr. - Jun., 1976, pp. 351-368

Kuhns, R.F. (1969). Modernity and Death: The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa. Contemp.
Psychoanal., 5:95-118.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, translated by N.H. Thomson. Vol. XXXVI, Part 1. The
Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14

Paolucci, Anne. “Comprendere Manzoni.” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 Dec.,
1976, pp. 380-383