Nino Ricci's 'Lives Of The Saints'

Lives of the Saints Essay-Character Description (Cristina)

LIVES OF THE SAINTS ESSAY

Teacher: Ms. Haasen Student: Olga Yaremchuk Subject: English University Prep The novel “Lives of the Saints” by Nino Ricci describes the protagonist Cristina who is also known as the daughter of the mayor. Throughout the novel, her husband is in Canada preparing for the immigration of the family. Due to the villagers’ belief in superstition, Cristina is treated as a scapegoat for “acting like a princess”, after she was bitten by a snake while illustrating her infidelity by having sex with another man. Cristina dies in the end on the ship to America after giving birth to the daughter of the man she had an affair with. This essay will look upon
whether Cristina is victimized by the villagers, even though she caused most of her tragedy.
Even though Cristina betrayed her husband by having sex with the blue-eyed man, she doesn’t deserve to be treated as a curse and rejected by the villagers. She is in fact the victim in this story. In the novel, Cristina’s husband is described as “always right, there’s no way to talk to him; the only way he knows how to talk is with the back of his hand. Now he sends me money because he’s too proud to admit he was fired.” It is seen that she did not really love her husband and because he was so far away, in a way that made her affair reasonable to some extents. The villagers and even the doctor on the ship thought Cristina “acts like a princess”. This could be because she is the daughter of the mayor in the villagers’ eyes but it does not explain the
doctor’s opinion. That tells us that in some way, it is who Cristina is and how she acts. She is different from others all on her own. For Cristina, it is quite simple because it is the way she pursues her own happiness and she doesn’t want to live like anyone else. Just as she said in the hospital, “everyone is dying here except me” and what she said when she left “you are the ones who are dead, not me, because not one of you knows what it means to be fine and to make a choice”. Her being different also made her become proud, which coincidentally explains her snake bite because of the saying in Valle del Sole, “ ‘Do’l’orgoglio sta, la serpe se neva,’ – where pride is the snake goes.” It causes the villagers’ envy towards Cristina. This also leads to the villagers’ being mean to her and to Vittorio being bullied at school. After Vittorio was bullied, “And you can tell all your children the same thing. If you have anything to say you can say it to my face.” She did what a caring mother is supposed to do for her son even though she didn’t want to talk to the villagers after she had been treated indifferently. For Cristina, the way she deals with the villagers has similarities to Santa Cristina’s reactions to the judges, but there are also differences. In the book la maestro gave to Vittorio, Santa Cristina, born in a good family, was charged by her own father, but kept her faith and refused to give in. Similarly, Cristina insists her own way of living and pays no attention to villagers’ indifference. She refused to take her friend’s advice to make a gesture. She doesn’t believe the superstition just like Santa Cristina keeps her faith. However, instead of being tortured and killing the judges, like Santa Cristina, Cristina simply turns away from the villagers and lives her own life. She only burst into words when Vittorio had been bullied and at the last moment when they left the village; at that moment she expressed how she feels about how the villagers treat her. While “The villagers avoided anyone or anything that had been touched by the eye, as if there was a peril that the affliction might spread by contagion.” Even her own father does not talk to her, and “the house remained quiet, my mother knitting in silence in a corner of the kitchen.” Cristina is going through a hard time, but the way she deals with it tends to be less severe and more appropriate as in modern society. As the story develops, Mario gets aware of Cristina’s affair. As “only a few came at first, but soon they were coming almost daily”, it is not hard to know that Cristina is under pressure from her husband and in one of the letters he asked Cristina to take Vittorio to America. Meanwhile, “another letter arrived for my mother; but this one bore a small neat script of bright blue, not at all my father’s violent.” After that, Cristina decided to go to Rome to get passports and visas ready. This could indicate that the letter came from the blue-eyed man and it asked her to go to America to meet him. On the ship, Cristina gave birth to the baby when there was a storm. The story ended with the death of Cristina, which compares with the death of Santa Cristina. Cristina, as a figure lives her life in her own way and seeks her happiness, which is common in today’s society, and is regarded as a scapegoat at that time. From today’s perspective, it is totally unfair for her to be treated like this. Her death is in fact a tragedy.
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ENG3U
Ms. Haasen
Wei H