Essay on The Carpenter

When the Rosato family arrived in Montreal, they lived in an apartment to small for them in Ville Émard. This community was mostly Italian, so this helps them in finding friends and people to help them. Dave Damonti, a policeman, was one of them. He helps Silvio Rosato finds a new apartment for his family. Silvio was a carpenter and he finds easily jobs in the neighbourhood, but he uses this money to gamble and to buy alcohol. Those problems are related to his war experience that affects him mentally. When you see people dying and bombs exploding near you, you can’t comeback in real life just like that. Once his son Luciano got older Silvio started to tell him stories about his pass experience. This is very important for him. With those stories, he got respect from his son and Luciano learn to have respect about the past. The years were passing by and Silvio were getting older and developing gradually Alzheimer’s disease. He got less and less able to tell his stories to his son. Luciano thought that his father problems were due to his abusive consumption of alcohol.

In now days, the Montreal’s Italian community is grouped in few districts like St. Léonard or the Little Italy. The community is still attached to there traditions. Some have problems learning French to get a job or to talk to Quebecois. In other community that are poorer their biggest problems are really learning French and facing everyday racism about their way of living. For example, in Park-Extension, in 2004, there was 62% of the population who was born outside of Canada and only 19% speak French. The unemployment rate is twice as the average of Montreal (20.8% in 2001 compare to average of 9.2% for the same period). The majority of the immigrants work in little stores or restaurants serving their ethnic community. They are not able to work at other places because of the racism. The Quebec people should be more open-minded and there should be more help for the immigrants, so they can learn our values and standards.

Reference

The Carpenter. Rossi, Vittorio. Dir. Gordon McCall. Centaur Theatre, 2007.

Groupe de Travail sur les Portraits des Quartiers Villeray, Saint-Michel et Parc-Extension. Portrait du Quartier Parc-Extension. Sept. 2004. City of Montreal. 25 Oct. 2007. <http://www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/>