Christ in Concrete

Throughout the book, Job is personified as a cruel, oppressive system that keeps the worker in poverty. However, Job is not some mysterious force. It is a force that has its roots in the oppressive system of unfettered capitalism that prizes profit over workers’ safety. If Job is evil, then the corporations that set up Job must be evil, too. This is made clear when Paul says this of Geremio’s boss, who pushed the men to work in unsafe conditions: “Father, I know now that Mr. Murdin is our enemy!” (225).

Di Donato sets up this conflict between the corporation—which seeks increasing profits at the expense of underpaying its workers and forcing them into unsafe working conditions—and labor early on. He establishes this tension when Geremio protests that they cannot work faster without securing the building’s underpinning, but Mr. Murdin insists that they do so anyway, leading to the building’s collapse and Geremio’s death. We see the corporations’ lack of concern for workers’ rights when Rinaldi denies Paul just compensation for his work. Rinaldi tells Paul that he doesn’t run the corporation alone and that that’s “the way the world is” (95) in a capitalist system.

Time is money, and so any time workers slack off—even for a lunch break—their value declines in a capitalist system. This becomes evident when their manager, Black Mike, speaks down to his fellow Italians: “Whey, paesans, tend to your work. We are paying money!” (81). And due to their rich lawyers and enormous resources compared to the poor immigrants that they employ, the corporations are not held accountable, as seen in the courtroom scene when Referee Parker rules that the corporation is not liable to give any compensation to Annunziata. The families of their workers are of no concern, as Murdin says when he dismisses Annunziata regarding the fact that Geremio died on his work site: “I didn’t kill him” (132).

The corporations’ utter lack of empathy for workers in a capitalist system is also emphasized. The workers, naturally, do not want to return to work after witnessing Nazone’s death. But the foreman insists they must trudge on: “Boys…there’s a lotta mortar in the mixer and tubs that’s gotta be used up.” (219). If they don’t continue working at breakneck speed, the wealthy corporations will lose money, thus reducing the gap between the rich and the poor that looms over the novel in the form of massive income inequality. The rich do not want to bear even the slightest loss in profit that could come from providing safe working conditions and better pay: “The scaffolds are not safe, for the rich must ever profit more” (228). This creates a codependent system between labor and corporation which forces the men to continue working despite these conditions because their family will starve otherwise: “The men are driven. They prefer death or injury to loss of work” (228). As history will show, there is a cost to pay for unregulated capitalism run amok, which manifests in the decade-long Great Depression that takes place after the book’s ending.

Manhood becomes a central concept in the book. Geremio feels it is his duty as a man to take care of his family with his own two hands: “But am I not a man, to feed my own with these hands?” (9). This is a view that Paul will later adopt as the male financial provider for the family after his father’s death, even though he also finds Job to be quite emotionally and physically draining. This sense of manhood is intricately linked to Job. When Luigi becomes disabled and is unable to work as a bricklayer, his sense of manhood—his sense of self—is shattered: “I have lost my small place in world, and it is not in the heart of men to know this hunger within, as even I do not love Luigi for his fate” (151). As Paul sweats on Job, he feels more like a man: “Striding along the street he raised his brown hand to his nose and smelled it. It was like a man’s” (170). Like Geremio, he is proud to feed his family with his work as a man: “He was proud that God had given him hand, back and eye to bring home food, proud that he earned almost as much as the thick-wristed men, proud that he studied blueprints and construction, proud that he felt beauty in his form and soul, proud of his wonderful family” (163).

Manhood also presents itself in more jarring physiological changes. As Paul undergoes puberty and experiences attraction to his neighbor, Gloria, he struggles to know how to deal with these unexpected feelings and urges. Due to his religious upbringing, he feels uncomfortable with his growing sexuality, as evident in his reaction to finding pornographic materials in Vincenzo’s office. At the same time, the Italian immigrant workers praise each other’s virility, thus making the pursuit of women a defining characteristic of manhood in their eyes. However, it is possible to redefine manhood, as Luigi does when he takes up embroidery—traditionally women’s work—and finds a sense of purpose in that work and in his marriage to Cola. Becoming disabled and losing Job does not make him less of a man, and he is able to accept this. 

As an Italian immigrant, Geremio is a devout Catholic. Faith in Christ does keep Geremio’s spirits somewhat afloat. Geremio models his own suffering at Job after the sacrifice of Christ, who was crucified on the cross when he says: “Yes, the day is cold, cold…but who am I to complain when Christ himself was crucified?” (4).

Due to the teachings of his faith that emphasize hard work, Geremio believes that he has rightfully earned a place on Earth for himself and his family: “Blessings to thee, O Jesus. I have fought winds and cold. Hand in hand, I have locked dumb stones in place and the great building rises. I have earned a bit of bread for me and mine” (6). That steadfast faith is cruelly unrewarded when Geremio calls out for God in his last moments before death: “Show yourself now, Jesu! Now is the time! Save me! Why don’t you come?” (18). The death of Geremio occurs on Good Friday, which is a significant day in the Christian faith as it commemorates Jesus’s crucifixion and death. The death of the workers—who are deeply Christian—occurs on the same day as the death of Jesus as a symbol. The workers, like Jesus, are martyrs unjustly sacrificed by cruel authority figures. Geremio becomes a Christ-like figure, although he is impaled upon a “cold steel rod” (16) rather than a cross. He literally becomes a “Christ in Concrete” per the book’s title.

God is depicted as not an altogether benevolent presence, which Luigi implies when he cries out in his dream: “[D]ear sister it was not I who betrayed you—it was someone stronger than you and me—someone who does not tell why…” (49). Due to Luigi’s faith, it's inferred that he is referring to God in this passage. However, the force could also be interpreted as unregulated capitalism or poverty, both which force immigrants to work in dangerous conditions. God becomes even less of a benevolent figure in the second chapter when Paul is unable to receive any help from the government offices or the local church official. This concept is reinforced in servants of Godlike Father John, who dismisses Paul when he asks for help. Nonetheless, Paul—and others like Luigi and Annunziata—continue to pray to God.

Competing ideas also challenge the idea of faith in the third chapter when Paul says: “That was the spirit of God” that toppled the Czar, and Louis replies: “That was the spirit of my brother’s ideals (139). Faith versus reason comes out in a big force in this chapter, with Paul representing faith and Louis representing reason. Louis questions Paul as to whether he has seen God, and this question serves as the catalyst that may undo Paul’s faith. Ultimately, when Job kills Nazone, Paul realizes the falsehood of both the American dream and the salvation that Christianity promises. This realization leads to a total collapse in Paul’s faith. Louis’s earlier words that there is no God echo in this final chapter when Paul tells his mother with reference to Dio: “That’s a lie” (229). Faith—be it the Cripple’s communications with Geremio or the teachings of the Catholic Church—tides the poor masses over with false comforts of hope that may not actually be true. The book comes full circle, starting with Paul’s unabashed faith in Jesus and ending with his total abandonment of religion.

To be an Italian immigrant in this time in America is to be an outsider who must bear the brunt of America’s xenophobia. During this time period, Americans considered Italians immigrants to be ignorant and often undesirable foreigners, such as when a fellow coworker calls Paul a “dago”—a slur for an Italian-American. This perception of Italians is also demonstrated when a court official snidely comments on the number of Annunziata’s children and in the way that Annunziata is not taken seriously as an immigrant mother by either the court official presiding over her case. Even Mister Murdin, a boss man, patronizingly dismisses his “Eyetalian” laborers for their supposed ignorance: “They’re careless like children” (132). And this is not just for Italians, too; members of other minority groups also experience rampant discrimination in America. This is made clear when a neighborhood bully yells anti-Semitic remarks at Louis, who is a Jewish refugee in America: “Killdejewbastard! Killum!” (121).

Nonetheless, despite hardships of being an uneducated immigrant in America, the Italians maintain great pride in their heritage and culture and do not necessarily aspire to the American style as Geremio does. This is illustrated when dame Katarina chides the women assisting with Annunziata’s childbirth for becoming too Americanized. Similarly, when Paul is unable to understand a corporation manager’s Italian, the manager says to him: “You are not son of Italian; you are a little cock-o of an American without salt” (92). The subtle tension between Italian immigrants wanting better American prospects for their children and the backlash against assimilation into American culture is evident. In the wedding festivities between Cola and Luigi, the narrator details how these rich Italian traditions have bonded immigrants and allowed them to form a tight-knit community of fellow countrymen, or paesanos, that supports each other through tough times. A key example is when Nazone and the other workers chip in to buy Luigi a prosthetic leg, thus allowing him to lead a more mobile life.