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The Role Of The Family In Italian American Culture

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The role in which traditional Italian codes of behavior and attitudes towards the family play in the Italian American immigrant experience represents the dynamic interplay in which a distinct Italian American culture developed as a fusion between Italian and American cultures. From this perspective, the changes occurring in Italian culture, as it integrates into the more dominant mainstream American culture, can provide insights to the Italian American immigrant experience. Contrary to the patriarchal nature of Italian culture, Lucia Santa’s perspective of men as incompetent, commenting how “folly” it was for “men should control the money in the house, have the power to make decisions that decided the fate of infants,” provides an example of the changes within family dynamics as a result of assimilation into American culture (Puzo 27). …show more content…

Instead of allowing Frank return to the family and disrupt the family’s stability, Lucia Santa decided to forsake Frank for the sakes of the family’s wellbeing. This is further emphasized through when Frank died, Lucia Santa refused to bring his body back to New York, commenting “[w]hy bring her husband’s body back all the way to New York, pay an undertaker, make a big fuss, remind everyone that her husband died insane?” (Puzo 218). This change in Lucia Santa’s attitude towards the family structure underlines more significant cultural changes occurring in the Italian American culture, particularly between in terms of gender roles, as a result of assimilation in American

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