Essay Questions

What is the significance of the novel’s title?

It is an allusion to the Catholic practice of serving bread and wine during the sacrament of Holy Communion. The image of both bread and wine as it is used in religious rites are central to the narrative because the novel is critical of organized religion, particularly the predominant organized religion in the area, Catholicism. The author is critical of Catholicism as he sees many of its rigid, hierarchical, and restrictive practices to have too much in common with Fascism.

What does bread and wine symbolize in the novel?

Both bread and wine are recurring, multilayered symbols in the novel. Bread is produced through months of hard work by farmers. The grains produced by it are tiny but are produced in vast quantities and ground into flour. It is the food that sustains the masses because it is not as expensive to produce as meat. In a Catholic mass, the bread is used to symbolize the body of Christ which is the collective body of believers. Taking all of these details into account, bread becomes a symbol of unity, life, and the multitude of people. Wine too is produced through a similar method: produced through the toil of poor laborers, its fruit tiny but growing in clusters, and the drink is produced by crushing the fruit underfoot. In a Catholic mass, wine is used to symbolize the blood of Christ a commemoration of His sacrifice. Taking all of these symbolic associations wine too is a symbol of unity, hard work, and sacrifice. These two disparate symbols, taken together, take on the additional layer of meaning of two things coming together to form a sum total greater than its parts---much like his belief in what people can achieve if only they are willing to truly work together.

Would you consider the novel to be a criticism of organized religion? Explain your answer.

The novel takes place in Italy during the 1930’s, a time where fascism is starting to gain momentum. Although the novel is primarily anti-fascist and anti-Stalin it also takes some clear jabs at Catholicism, which is the predominant religion of Italy, especially at certain practices within the religion that the author disagrees with. His criticism of the Catholic Church is primarily voiced out through the character of Pietro Spina/Don Paolo Spada, a hardcore socialist who disguises himself as a Catholic priest to hide from fascists hunting him. As a mock priest he deviates from certain practices such as absolving the sins of a woman who had an abortion done. In Don Paolo’s interactions with Luigi the author opines that religion, in this case Catholicism, only becomes valid as a social force of good if it truly helps to serve humanity and not merely give people something to do.