The Fortunate Pilgrim And The Right Thing To Do

Holding onto traditional Italian codes of behavior and attitudes toward the family as a means to mitigate the confusion associated with assimilating into American culture is a central idea that occurs in both The Fortunate Pilgrim and The Right Thing to Do. Due to the differences in Italian and American cultures, many Italian American immigrants struggled assimilating into American society while retaining their cultural identity. For first-generation Italian American immigrants, like Octavia and Gina, the action of assimilation included letting go of their traditional Italian heritage. For Italian immigrants, like Lucia Santa and Nino, who immigrated to America, however, instead of letting go their traditional beliefs and attitudes, they hold

onto them as a source of strength against the uncertainty that is associated with American society.
In The Right Thing to Do, Nino uses his traditional Italian beliefs and attitudes as a way of coping against the confusion associated with assimilating into mainstream American society.

Nino’s allegiance to the “old ways,” in which Angelo describes as Nino always “arguing for the old ways [, you] don’t just follow them, you hang on to them as though they’re all that’s saving you from going under” (Hendin 18) demonstrates how Nino uses traditional Italian beliefs and attitudes as a way of navigating life in a conflicting bicultural environment. Having grown up in Italy, Nino’s perspectives of the proper way of living life is different from those of first-generation Italian American immigrants, as seen by how he tells Angelo, “you were born here and you haven’t made up your mind which rules to follow” (Hendin 18). To Nino, the act of looking for rules based on “truth” and “feelings” is impossible, as there is no “foolproof way of telling which is which” (Hendin 18). In addition, Nino’s use of traditional Italian beliefs and values to navigate the conflicting bicultural environment around him is also shown through how he follows an Italian, instead of an American, code of ethics or rules. In his conversation with Vinnie, Nino criticizes the American way of doing business through contracts, saying how “[you] want to follow their rules instead of ours [, but] what are their rules?” (Hendin 19). Criticizing the American way of doing things, Nino further comments on how “contracts

for everything show you mistrust everyone you deal with [, that when] we want to change[,] we don’t put our trust in other people’s rules” (Hendin 20).
Nino’s protectiveness of Gina also portrays Nino’s use of traditional Italian codes of behavior and attitudes toward the family to navigate a society that shares different values and beliefs than those who grew up with in Italy. Nino’s protectiveness of Gina stems from how “[she] being a woman trigger[s] emotions of protectiveness and honor that sprang out of a dim Sicilian past, as “the loss of honor had less to do with her than with a judgment on him[, as if] it was his vanity that was at stake” (Hendin 95-96). To Nino, restricting Gina’s freedom is his way of protecting her not going against the uncertainties of life, but also against her own actions, as she pursues a relationship with Alex. The idea of protecting Gina against the uncertainties of life is also portrayed through Nino’s fatalistic perspectives and how he tells Gina in advance how “she won’t get into [a fancy women’s college],” telling Laura “what do places like that want with Sicilian girls from Astoria” (Hendin 24).
Holding onto traditional Italian codes of behaviors as a means to navigating mainstream American society is also portrayed through both Lucia Santa’s fatalistic perspectives of life.

When Octavia tells Lucia Santa about her wanting to become a teacher, Lucia Santa “objects out of superstition,” emphasizing how “life was unlucky, you followed a new path at your peril” (Puzo 12). To Lucia Santa, taking risk when everything in life is already stable is the same as “[putting] yourself at the mercy of fate,” and because Octavia was [too young to understand,]” the only way to protect her against the uncertainties of life is to restrict her freedom. Similar to how Nino wants to protect Gina from the disappointment of not getting into a fancy women’s college or from getting pregnant in an uncommitted relationship with Alex, Lucia Santa wants to protect Octavia from losing what she already has obtained “to be happy” (Hendin 12). In addition to protecting Octavia from the uncertainties of life, Lucia Santa’s fatalistic perspective is also shown through their cynicism against upward mobility, as “the greater the reward, it followed, the greater the risks,” as you can “become helpless in a shattering defeat” (Puzo 138). Thus, instead of taking risks and trying to achieve richness, it is better to have a “modest safety” (Puzo 138). The idea protecting what you already have, instead of trying to strive for more, is also apparent through Lucia Santa’s refusal of letting Frank return home,

“[we] would all have to suffer, risk our lives to give him another chance” (Puzo 180). In order to protect Octavia, “who would suffer, be driven into leaving her home, [and marry] early to get out of the house,” letting Frank back into their lives “could not be risked” (Puzo 180).
Despite changes in Italian culture associated with assimilating into mainstream American culture, the traditional use of folktales and proverbs as a way of descending traditional Italian beliefs and attitudes are still important agents in Hendin’s The Right Thing to Do. For instance, both Laura’s story of Anna, the midwife, and her cheating husband, and her proverb of how “[a] man who isn’t handsome makes a better husband because he’s grateful to you for marrying him” are orientated to helping Gina navigate her life in a society that shares different beliefs and values than those she grew up with (Hendin 46). Nino’s proverb of how “[p]eople who think they’re smart enough to manage anything usually turn out to be wrong” also is orientated towards teaching Gina a fatalistic perspective necessary to mitigate the uncertainties associated with life, as she would be the one “who will pay the price” for her choices (Hendin 59). The Italian code of proper speech, or omertà, is also emphasized throughout The Right Thing to Do through Hendin’s repetition of the proverb “chi gioca solo non perde mai’” or “[the] man who plays alone never loses” (Hendin 23 and 115). The former was used during Nino’s and Vinnie’s conversation as a way of Vinnie convincing Nino that Gina’s secretiveness was a sign of her hiding something, while the latter was used when Gina reflected on Alex’s reluctance to express his true emotions – something that Gina describes as him being “too weak to go the distance” (Hendin 115).