Essay on "Bread and Wine by Ignazio"

Essay 3 pages (1097 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The most important part about this passage is that such a thought actually scares the girl to whom Spada is talking. She is frightened because she is simple, poor, and stupid, like most of the peasants, and is sued to simply conforming with the majority. The fact that she is afraid shows that the peasants in this novel are simple people who go along with the masses, while a rebel such as Spada is truly a "revolutionary" (Cellar Door, 2006) because he talks about the virtues of free thought.

It is important to realize that there are other characters in this novel that represent the idea that individual thought is the most important theme and ideology considered within this novel. Spina encounters other individuals who help to stir his own waning confidence in and desire for communism. Some of these characters value individual thought as much as Spina does, and help him to see that communism does not necessarily promote the idea of the individual. One of the most influential of these characters is Spina's friend who plays the violin, Uliva. Uliva is both against communism and fascism, and helps to remind Spina of the true value in individual thinking. The following quotation, in which Uliva talks to Spina about individual thought and the narrow difference between communism and fascism as far as their influence on the individual goes, suggests this fact. "technical progress will be an opening wedge for a compulsory official doctrine, for a totalitarian orthodoxy which will use all means, from the movies to terrorism, to stamp out any heresy and tyrannize individual thought" (Silone). In this passage, Uliva explains the limitations of communism and fascism. The chief limitation is that they will suppress "individual thought" as well as any opinions that are contrary to those of the majority. He believes it is foolish to try to conform to any sort of political ideology, because t will ultimately produce the same effect in which individuality is suppressed. Such a statement is one of the predominant themes in Silone's novel, and illustrative of the fact that this theme is more important to the author than the other themes regarding politics or organized religion.

The lack of individual thought ultimately functions as the point of common ground between Christianity, fascism, and communism. All of these ideologies serve as themes in this novel. However, they are subordinate to the dominant theme that individual thought is more important to the others. Spina and the other characters that represent this view help to establish this fact.

References

Cellar Door. (2006). Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone. www.cellardoor.com. Retrieved from http://indian2006.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/bread-and-wine-by-ignazio-silone/

Hicks, B. (2009). On the bookshelf: Ignazio Silone's 'Bread and Wine'. www.artscatter.com. Retrieved from http://www.artscatter.com/general/on-the-bookshelf-ignazio-silones-bread-and-wine/

Lockhart, D.A. (2013). The philosophy of an exile's return: Ignazio Silone's Bread and Wine. Near Pastoral Satoris. Retrieved from http://pastoralsatori.wordpress.com/

Malhotra, K. (2013). 'Bread and Wine' by Ignazio Silone. Prof. Qualls' Course Blogs. Retrieved from http://blogs.dickinson.edu/quallsk/2013/10/15/bread-and-wine-by-ignazio-silone/

Salzone, I. (1936). Bread and Wine. York: Methuen & Co., Ltd. READ MORE

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