Importance of Family in the Short Story, Cakes Essay

Confucius once said, â€Å"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.† The majority of people across the world deem family as the uttermost important aspect of their life. Family is something that often teaches us moral values, and helps shape the individuals we become later in our lives. In the short story, â€Å"Cakes† Salvatore La Puma conveys the prominence of family in Italian-American immigrant culture in the 1940’s industrial era. La Puma utilizes the first paragraph as mini-ethnography to portray the unity of the Vitale family. The introduction states, That summer he sweated from the humidity which in 1940 everyone in Brooklyn sweated from; then he sweated from the hot ovens at Carlo Amato’s pastry shop in†¦show more content†¦Everyone in the family has dinner together, which further emphasizes the idea that family serves as a unit of function. In addition, after dinner the Vitale family listens to a famous radio called â€Å"Philco.† The â€Å"Philco† while acting as a cultural attribute, serves to be a unifying symbol, bringing every single family member together during a specific time of day. Clearly the atmosphere presented in the Vitale’s household illustrates the importance of family. By using an analogy, La Puma explores the role of family in teaching social values. Although it is evident that Carlo, the owner of the pastry shop on Seventeenth Avenue, is flimsy and feeble, Giovanni â€Å"helped Carlo out at night, as Johnny helped him out† (4). The use of an analogy that Giovanni helps Carlo as Johnny helps him, serves to illustrate the ideology that the father often acts as an â€Å"educator† in facilitating important values such as respect for elders. Giovanni uses family to teach his son an important social value that respect prevails over job title. He tries to explain to Johnny that respect for elders, is the same as respect for parents. He does not differentiate between the status of father and the friend but instead highlights that respect is universal. The use of an analogy further underscores the idea that family is an educator. In addition to playing the role of a teacher in transmitting social values, La Puma shows family asShow MoreRelat edConfronting Social Identities in Society Essay1580 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Everyday Use† (1973) both target ongoing social problems, Morrison structures her story to reveal just how pervasive and destructive social racism is, whereas Alice Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† focuses on the character’s conflicting ideas about their identities and heritage. â€Å"The Bluest Eye† is focused on a little girl name Claudia who is confused on why white girls was glorified and not black girls like her. 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