The Fortunate Pilgrim Response

In The Fortunate Pilgrim, Mario Puzo presents an Italian immigrant family living in New York roughly between the time of the depression and the outbreak of World War II.  The family includes the mother Lucia Santa Angeluzzi-Corbo, her husband Frank, and their six children.  By utilizing his personal history as an Italian immigrant, Puzo is able to expertly recreate the lives and experiences of those in a New York tenement in his portrayal of the Angeluzzi-Corbo family.  His narrative points to the idea that achieving the “American Dream” comes at a greater cost than many of the immigrants originally imagined. 

Although The Fortunate Pilgrim’s third person omniscient point of view allows the reader to enter into almost every character’s mind, Lucia Santa is clearly the main character.  Through backstory and her inner thoughts, the reader is able to gain a summary of her history.   Lucia Santa left her home in Italy, emigrating to marry a man she did not know.  Once in America, she bore two children and lost her first husband to a sudden accident while pregnant with their third child.  She married her second husband Frank and had three more children.  During the course of the story, Frank becomes insane and is sent to an asylum, leaving Lucia Santa alone to raise the family.  In addition to the past misfortunes Lucia Santa suffers, she also endures the Depression, the disobedience and disrespect of her son Gino, and the deaths of Frank, her friend Zia Louche, and her son Vincenzo. 

However,  Lucia Santa is still counted fortunate at the end of the narrative.  In the words of one of her neighbors, “the balance was struck” because Lucia Santa’s remaining children are counted successful in life and the mother did not have to endure many of the additional misfortunes experienced by others in the tenement.  Yet when she leaves her home of forty years for a house on Long Island, Lucia Santa regrets that she could not have what she wanted “without suffering…without guilt, without sorrow, without fear of death.”  Attaining the “American Dream” comes at a price higher than that which she originally thought.  This concept is also seen in Larry’s willingness to threaten others for his job, Dr. Barbato’s disconnect from other Italian immigrants to maintain his professional status, and Vinnie’s subjection to hard work and a life of continual exhaustion and eventual death. 

In modern America, the costliness of the “American Dream” can still be seen.  The definition of the dream today is different from that of an Italian immigrant like Lucia Santa, but it still includes success and stability. In attempt to obtain it, Americans prioritize careers over their families as they work to climb business ladders, become consumed with self-interest, lose their health, and resort to dishonesty and hurtful practices.  The path to the “American Dream” is littered with pain, broken trust, and damaged relationships and few ultimately reach the goal. This leaves one to wonder whether such an elusive dream is worth the trouble it brings and whether there might be more satisfying definitions of success.