Lovely Pearl Caramat March 31,2017 Mr. Fiore ESLEO1 Lives of the Saints Reading Response Log In a hot July day in the year 1960, in the village of Valle del Sole which a mother was bitten by a snakes One day, Vittorio is sitting on the stone bench in front of his grandfather’s house and reading a book called Principi Matematici. But he was not attending to it. Instead he slipped into a state of indolence. He was awakened by a muffled shout that had came from the direction of their stable.
He saw a small snake flicking his tongue and he stood frozen. While he had been staring after the path of snake two dark eyes were staring down at him. He search for his mother and he enters the stable and find her committing adultery with the blue eyed man. Unfortunately, a venomous snake bites his mother, Christina, forcing her to go to the hospital. After the villagers hearing about her encounter with the snake they believe that she is cursed with the evil eye. As a result Cristina is no longer welcomed among the villagers.
Vittorio Innocente is the main character and narrator of the novel. Vittorio is a young seven year old boy son of Christina, who is innocent and clearly does not know much what the real world has to offer. Vittorio is too much young to understand the wrong actions of his mother and the villager’s. Cristina Innocente the most controversial character in the of the novel. She commit sins like adultery. She was biten by snake which means she was cursed with the evil eye.
She does not believe all the beliefs and traditions that are sacred in the village of Valle del Sole. Vittorio’s grandfather was an important supporting character. He is the father of Christina, the mayor of the village Valle del Sole.He follows the beliefs and tradition of the village religiously. In the first section that I’ve read, Vittorio talks about Cristina’s snake bite incident.
He also mention about the blue eyed man that he see in the stable with his mother. This gives me the idea that the snake bite is not the only thing that happened in the stable. The idea gives me the prediction about what will happen in the next section. My prediction in the next section are they will reveal the relationship between Cristina and the blue eyed man. The villagers will avoid the Innocente family because they will found out the relationship that Cristina have.
“He came to the village?”………”Cristi, you’re tempting the devil”(Ricci 64)-Luciano.”What could I do?”……..” A letter came in the morning, he came in the afternoon. How could I stop him?”(Ricci 64)-Cristina. This part of the novel makes me feel curious about what are they talking about and who was the person in their conversation. I think this answers me when I will read the next section. There is something with their conversation that is related to my prediction which is about the relationship between Cristina and the blue eyed man.While reading the text I was curious in every part that it’s too hard to understand and on the event in the text. While reading the text I was curious in every part that it’s too hard to understand and on the event in the text.
The novel somehow reminds me the superstitious beliefs we have in the Philippines. In Valle del Sole snake has a significance to the villagers. They believed that the snake were immortal. They also believe that if the snake is colour brown it was bad and was evil and if the snake is colour green it was good.
In Philippines we have many superstitious beliefs too. We believed that if a black cat crossing your path means bad luck. They should go back to their house and postpone their plan or errand for the day because pushing with the plan may produce bad results. Even a black ant inside the house means good luck. Somehow there are connection between the novel and my personal experience. In the novel, the father of Vittorio which is Mario, needed to go to the other country to support his family.
Like in today’s society, people need money, they will do everything to make themselves alive. Many of them did this because in their own country, they could not find a better job to support their families. In this section of the novel, the theme of destructive power of superstition towards Cristina and to her family. We all know that Cristina was bitten by a snake, the villagers believed that she is a cursed with the devil eye. For fear that horrible things will occur if they interact with her, the villagers avoid her, talk behind her back and spread the rumors about the incident with the snake.
These behaviour of the villagers towards Cristina eventually force her not to go outside of the house to communicate with other people. Even her father retired from being a mayor. In short, they can not live the life that they have before.
