The Contrasting of America and Italy in A View from the Bridge

The Contrasting of America and Italy in A View from the Bridge

Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge presents many different views

of America, not only do you see America through the eyes of an

Immigrant but also through the eyes of the regular working people, for

instance the longshoremen.

Within Alfieri's speech, we get our first ideas of what America was

like for Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine. The speech highlights,

cultural connections 'Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half

by a machine gun on the corner of Union Street' this shows the

influence and grip the Mafia had over American Culture in the 1950's.

When describing the area, where Eddie and Beatrice live, he describes

it as 'the slum that faces the bay' which gives the impression, of a

run down area where only the poor live. He uses the simile 'the gullet

of New York, swallowing the tonnage of the world.' Which gives image

of a place that has boats coming from all over the world laden with

cargo and more. It gives Red Hook, the image of an unsightly place,

where people have to work to their limit to feed and support their

families.

In my opinion Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine are there to show the

typical Italian American family of the 1950's. Their house is what

most of the longshoremen and their families would live in. It is only

a small tenement flat. In the early section of Act One, Miller

contrasts the flat, to the living conditions in Sicily and Southern

Italy, he voices the comparison through Eddie's response, to

Beatrice's worries about needing a new table cloth and cleaning the

flat, which is 'listen, they'll think this it's a millionaire's house

compared to the way they live.' This is showing, why there were so

many immigrants coming into America, the living conditions were so

much better than in their countries, even the poorest were living like

Kings in the eyes of the immigrants.

Catherine, I believe is symbolising the future, because she is the

one, who wants to move on with her life, and become a stenographer and

work for a company. But Eddie, who still believes in the archaic ways

that the man should do the working, tries to discourage her from

taking the job. In a way, Catherine being offered the job is showing

the 'American Way' that anyone can get a job in America, even an

immigrant.

But soon the conversation turns back to Beatrice's immigrant cousins

and about the American Immigration Bureau. This gives the image of a

country full of rules and regulations, a place where there is law and