In the early 20th century, the American eugenics movement gained significant influence, promoting the pseudoscience of improving the human gene pool through selective breeding and immigration restriction. Proponents, including prominent academics and politicians, sought to eliminate traits they deemed “unfit,” such as poverty, criminality, and intellectual disability, which they believed were hereditary. The movement also ranked racial and ethnic groups hierarchically, frequently promoting Northern and Western European ancestry as superior while portraying Southern and Eastern Europeans, Black Americans, and other marginalized communities as biologically inferior. These ideas shaped public policy and influenced how certain groups were categorized and treated under the law.

Following restrictive legislation such as the Immigration Act of 1924, which, according to the US State Department, established quotas that disproportionately limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, immigration inspection became more rigorous. Officials, influenced by eugenicists such as psychologist Henry Goddard, used medical and psychological examinations to identify individuals they classified as undesirable. Goddard, who is quoted in the novel’s front matter, asserted that the intelligence of many immigrants was “perhaps of moron grade” (3), reflecting the language and assumptions common within eugenic discourse at the time.

This historical framework clarifies the novel’s depiction of Ellis Island as a site where immigration decisions were shaped by prevailing beliefs about heredity and fitness. In the narrative, officials use chalk marks to single out individuals for further review and label Enzo “feebleminded” (44), leading to his and his mother’s deportation. The novel situates the Conti family’s experience within documented practices that linked immigration control with eugenic classification.