The Little Virtues

Natalia Ginzburg is a very relatable author. As an Italian writer, she definitely would have different cultures and values than her readers that are not Italian, but because her works evolve around such fundamental emotions that are shared by readers of all backgrounds, the feelings described in the book were personally very applicable to my own experience. Here are the three techniques she used that helped her achieve that goal, in my opinion.

These three phrases jumped out of the book after reading her works. Her essays are not only full of small, intriguing details, but also very humorous, but in a very casual way. Last but not least, her works are not filled with explicit emotions, yet the essays are very emotional indeed.

These characteristics are well presented in Winter in the Abruzzi. The sentence "every evening we walked arm in arm, sinking our feet into the snow" (Ginzburg 4) greatly illustrated how Ginzburg used details and blankness to present emotions. By writing this small depiction of a daily activity she and her husband did in the winter, their closeness and connections are immediately portrayed through this childlike, romantic and heart-warming scene. She did not explicitly describe their relationships, but by showing these details from a sideway, the love of this relationship is strongly confirmed by reader's interpretation and how it related to themselves.

"The dressmaker divided the world into two groups - those who comb their hair and those who do not comb their hair" (Ginzburg 5) illustrates the sense of humour Ginzberg possessed. She bantered how the dressmaker used this very simple, almost silly principle to differentiate people, thereby presented the simpleness of the people in Abruzzi. The people in Abruzzi also said to Ginzberg "'this isn’t the time for walking dear. Go back home'"  (Ginzburg 6) when she was walking her children in the winter. This orderly tone is the same tone that a grandma would use when she told her grandchildren that they should eat as much as possible at Thanksgiving. "You should'n stop eating darling, you've only eaten so little!" These "orders" are being imposed on the author and the grandchildren, but all that would be felt is nothing but love and care. Even though the order givers may not necessarily understand the situation, these words are always out of a very pure motivation--love.

By using words that are true, relatable and humorous, Ginzberg did a great job conquering her readers' heart. These essays are written in such way that readers of all places would feel connected to and empathized with. Reading Ginzberg's essays is almost like having tea with an old good friend after a long separation. The works are very genuinely and beautifully written.

Natalia Ginzburg's The Little Virtues, is a clearly, concisely written novel that conveys Ginzburg's perspective on particular scenarios in life.  Certain sections of the novel are more personal for the author, such as "My Vocation," whereas other sections, such as "Human Relationships" delves into a complex topic that the reader can relate to. One of the sections I found particularly interesting is the section entitled, "England: Eulogy and Lament." This part of the novel is quite critical of English society.  Ginzburg discusses the gloominess, superficiality, and melancholia of the country's customs.  For example, she says, "But we quickly realize that in this country vulgarity is always overpowered by melancholy" (23).  Ginzburg claims the people of England to be dreary and melancholic to the extent that they cannot be blamed for their impolite acts.  The severity of Ginzburg's opinions of England increases when she says, "The English have no imagination: and yet they do show imagination in two things--two only. In the evening-clothes worn by old ladies, and in their cafes" (24). She continues to say, "nothing in the world is sadder than an English conversation, in which everyone is careful to keep to superficialities and never touch on anything essential" (25).  These bold statements are harsh and somewhat shocking to the reader.  Ginzburg is not afraid to share her opinion, no matter how blunt, with her audience.  This genuine quality in Ginzburg's writing is what makes her novel intriguing.  Although her statements are often critical, her honesty is refreshing.  

The Little Virtues - a collection of lessons

         Natalia Ginzburg’s book, The Little Virtues, is composed of a collection of essays to teach children and educate them on not the little virtues in life, but of the great ones (97). To live life we as people need to experience specific events, in which we grow and evolve. Children start at the bottom of the mountain and need to climb, get lost, be scared, frustrated and determined to get to the top and conquer what the excursion brings to the surface. In each of the 11 essays Ginzburg teaches the reader and specifically, the children, about the larger attributes to life, which she refers to as the great virtues. She says life is, “Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; nor shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one’s neighbor and self denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know” (97). Each essay addresses these great virtues that Ginzburg wants the reader to draw and take away from reading this collection. Every story is different, but its skeleton is the same.

            The opening story, “Winter in Abruzzi” the reader enters into the author’s life when she and her husband live in the countryside. Here, everyday is unpleasant and drags. In this time in her life, the author is struck with harsh reality. Dreams are just dreams. They are not the reality in which people live. The essay concludes,

       Our dreams are never realized and as soon as we see them betrayed we realize that the intensest joys of our life have nothing to do with reality. No sooner do we see them betrayed than we are consumed with regret for the time when they glowed within us. And in this succession of hopes and regrets our life slips by.  (8)

Dreams are only dreams and reality is the space where we must live. In this time in the author’s life she was confronted with multiple deaths and poverty. She had no other choice than to live in this part of the world at this time. She could hope, but in these hopes she is saying that life will go on despite the dreams and wishes people hope for. In this essay she is attempting to demonstrate for the reader that they should not have a desire for success and to be known, but instead they should have a desire to live in the moment where frankness is recognized and the truth is seen. The individual should have courage living in this world to continue living in the present instead of in his or her dreams. A person should not care about the money, but should care about what he or she does have and what others are sharing with them. I have listed a few of the great virtues that Ginzburg mentions in the concluding essay and the reader can perceive that all of the virtues are apparent in each individual story.

      While reading this collection the reader in part one is reading the author's experiences and cannot relate directly, but in the last two essays Ginzburg narrates mostly in second person. However, most of part two allows the reader to step into the story and see him or herself in it. This allows the reader to put him or herself into the essay giving the reader the opportunity to learn these lessons. It is an easy book to read because the stories are short, relatable and the reader takes something away. 

Response to the Iguana

Ana Maria Ortese’s fiction expresses the magical and otherworldly in a way that challenges her readers to reexamine their present reality.  By distorting the boundaries, edges, and limitations dividing the real and the unreal, the primary effect of Ortese's novel exists as an increase in the proximity of two worlds so that they are no longer two separate entities, but a single world that is both alien and familiar to her readers.  The reader is called upon o actively dismantle what seperates the real and the unreal revealing underlying truths regarding society and human nature in the process.  These truths would otherwise remain inaccessible if not for her installment of fantasy.  In short, The Iguana exemplifies Ortese’s preoccupation with the in-between.  Within this intermediate realm, her novel makes impossible the construction of any new division between what is real and what is unreal.  Instead, it seems to obscure those that already exist.  For example, it is clear that as the novel progresses into the second section, not even the narrator can be held reliable.  Orteses's characters are representational of mankind who tries to understand the world, but in doing so, they become more alien to it.  Such is the case with Daddo, who feels the need to interfere with the injustices on Ocana.  Ortese refrains from attempting to create a seperate, fantastical world in her fiction.  Instead, she forces the reader to question their own world by making her world of fantasy and our woeld of realism one in the same. In detaching her readers from reality within the context of The Iguana, Ortese is actually allowing them to uncover hidden truths reality their own realities—allowing them to view their reality from a place existing within her fantasy.

Analysis of The Iguana

            Anna Maria Ortese’s The Iguana revisits many themes that have been present in the rest of the novels that have been analyzed in class. Ortese emphasizes the absurd, which was mostly present in the works of D’Annunzio and Pirandello. She also focuses on the distortion of time, and the relationship between narrator, character, and reader; much like Artemisia. Additionally, there is the ever-present theme of madness; who is mad, and what is madness?

            One of the most puzzling aspects of the novel is the concept of the narrator. The novel shifts the point of view between second and third person often. In the addresses to the reader, the narrator confesses not knowing certain parts of the story, or confusion. I found this to be extremely interesting because it gives the reader the impression that the narrator is a character. I suppose the narrator in any novel is a character in some sense but in The Iguana I feel that the presence of the narrator as a character is much more prevalent. The dialogue between narrator and reader in The Iguana reminds me of the dialogue between author and character in Artemisia.

            Unlike Artemisia, Ortese’s narrator asks the reader to define what the fantastic is, a very difficult question not only to answer, but also to understand. My answer to the question is that the fantastic is what humans believe to be the absurd. However, almost all of the novels analyzed in class ironically give the opposite answer that our perception of reality is the absurd. For example, the concept of the logical sequence of time, according to Ortese is illogical and the wrong way to examine the work, a concept that I believe many readers outside our class would find to be absurd. Lastly, Ortese stresses the value of the fantastic. The novel proves that the fantastic can say things that nonfiction cannot. Through the fantastic of The Iguana the reader is able to grasp a new comprehension of the definition of reality, is warned against conformity, and reminded of their ethical obligations as the reader. 

Iguana Analysis

After discovering that the events in the novel were the illusions of a madman, I find it very difficult to interpret The Iguana. The most vital sections of the book to analyze would be the last chaotic chapters that jump through space and time, but these are the hardest for me to understand. In the beginning of the story, Daddo makes a joke about discovering the story of a man who fell in love with an iguana, and some manuscript written from the oppressed's point of view that he could bring back to Italy and publish for the nobility to read. Ironically, this very situation comes true, which could have been taken as a sign that the the Count was imagining the whole thing. There are several confusing, contradicting statements and descriptions throughout the story, and I would probably need to read through it again to begin to understand what is actually happening in the novel and what underlying meaning it could have. 

A quote that I believed was important is, "You could say that this cavalier was a fundamentally good man, but had come to find himself at a crossroads, since it was time for him to die, but he was still attached to life; and Death encourages him to put an end to the question by making a choice. He's told he should lovingly choose Death and willingly follow it, and that he shouldn't try to choose life, since life no longer has any need of him."(116) Ilario's feelings about his actions concerning the Iguana could be explained very well by this quote, but now I am unsure if there was ever any relationship between the two of them. "To die," in this instance, means that it was time for Ilario to get married in order to finally get his family out of debt. "Life," is the Iguana. Ilario must leave the island forever, in turn leaving the iguana, but since he has been so cruel to her for the past few years, she no longer had any need for him- the attachment had long been severed. 

Iguana

"Perhaps attempting to polemicize against the menaces of Marxist ideology, the Milanese saw oppression and revolt as no more than a question of feelings and the right to express them, forgetting that not even feelings survive - neither feelings nor any desire to express them - when people have no money, or when money can buy everything, or where penury cohabits with great ignorance."

This sentence appeared in Iguana spoke to me and arose my attention towards the "revolution" on campus. Are people here in DePauw like the Milaneses in Iguana, who just wanted to express their feelings, in this college setting where voices are heard and finance is not on the top of the list of many students?

"Briefly put, the Milanese were persuaded that some world of oppression had something to say, whereases the oppressed don't even exist, or can't, at least, have any awareness of being oppressed when their condition is authentic and a legacy from distant past." Personally, I think the scenario that is described there are the scenario here are fundamentally different in this case. Despite the differences, there is a phenomenon of a lack of communication in the society - how do other people feel like? We only have a limited amount of space in our brain that a lot of time we choose to avoid the question by not recognizing it.

Ortese has a unique writing style, which utilizes long, rich sentence structure to describe the events in her novel, The Iguana. The Iguana is an abstract tale of a rich, young Milanese Count who travels to a remote island to buy cheap real estate.  While at the island, the Count sympathizes with an ostracized Iguana, who has been rejected by the others on the island and forced to be their maidservant.  The people of the island have escaped the difficult financial struggles of the mainland, and therefore have no  wealth to their names.  The complexity of the novel lies in the relationship between the Count and the Iguana.  The Count is sickened by the way that the Iguana is treated by the people of the island, yet he is not completely convinced that the mysterious creature is completely innocent, as she appears.  It is unknown why the Count hides his sympathy for the Iguana.  The reader wants the Count to stand up for her against the cruel and degrading behaviors of the Marquis, yet he maintains his silence throughout the majority of the novel.  Only towards the end does the Count reveal his intentions to rescue the Iguana and allow her to live a life of leisure away from those who have enslaved her.  The iguana, however, does not express gratitude towards the Count because she is too attached to the Marquis, who once loved her.  The complexity of the Iguana and her solitude is difficult for the reader to interpret.  The reader is challenged to determine what is evil, what is good, and what the internal nature of the Iguana truly is.

The duplicity and complexity of the Iguana’s character depiction

            In this novel, a Milanese count, Aleardo, discovers an island off the coast of Portugal, which is unknown to the rest of the larger world. The island is called Ocana and is said to belong to the Devil, but the count is interested in its financial benefits that it could offer him so he stays on the island. On this island the count encounters who he first presumes is an old woman by the well, but later discovers that she is actually a young servant, an Iguana. She is mistreated and looked down upon by the people of the island, but the count grows to love her throughout the course of the novel. First he pities her and then he becomes obsessed, which turns into desire and love for this creature. This novel is about the Iguana and whether or not she is truly evil or if she is a beast that has been innocently marginalized. It’s interesting to look at her relationships with the count and other people on the island and how they determine her status and self-confidence.

            The first description of the Iguana comes early in the novel and it is when Aleardo first sees her at the well. He first thinks that she is an old, poor woman and does not think much of her. In fact, he does not even consider her a human being. After being invited to dinner with the wealthiest family on the island and getting to know this Iguana the count’s consideration of her shifts one hundred and eight degrees. He has an epiphany saying,

            “While looking down at this extravagant little creature he discovered her bright,        steady eyes to hold a suaveness he had never seen in anyone’s eyes in Milan. They filled him with a calm, grave sense of the secret of the Universe, of all the         abyss surrounding us, and their highly probably goodness,” (72).

The Iguana becomes a mystical creature that he becomes intrigued with. This begins his obsession with her character and her status as a human being. At this point in time where his feelings for her change the reader can begin to see the duplicity the author intends to create about the Iguana’s character. And Aleardo starts to notice this and becomes a hero in recognizing how the rest of society views her wrongly.  On page 111 Ortesia writes, “The count was pained by his confrontation with the duplicity (judging from what he had heard) in the character of the Iguana. So she wasn’t so simple a little beast as he had previously believed.”

            The novel becomes a question about the Iguana’s character and how she is oppressed on this island. In the invitation written by the Guzman brothers in the first part it reads, “Help me. Know me. Greet me. Call me by name, not by the serpents. I want to come to life again,” (195). The entire novel can be boiled down into these five sentences. All she wants out of life is to be acknowledged by someone and this story becomes a tragic love story. All the Iguana wants is to be called by name and to be able to live a true human beings life and the count is the only person there to provide this to her.