51 pages • 1-hour read
The View From Lake Como
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
Marble
Throughout the novel, marble is a motif that demonstrates The Damaging Nature of Family Secrets and is a symbol of human fragility and beauty. Early on, Jess writes a journal entry that describes her uncle’s anxiety whenever Capodimonte Marble and Stone received a shipment of marble from Italy. She explains, “Marble is delicate, even though it’s a workhorse. Hit the stone in a vulnerable spot, it shatters, and you end up with slag. In this way, marble is a lot like a human being” (56-57). Slag is essentially a valueless byproduct of manufacturing and mining. Marble’s unpredictable fragility seems counterintuitive, given its reputation for durability. Like people, it can seem tough, yet still maintains a delicate nature.
This is similar to the way Jess has endured multiple disappointments, sustained the loss of several beloved family members, and managed panic attacks and long-standing anxieties about fitting in with her family and community; she’s repeatedly showed tremendous strength, but learning of her parents’ choice to prioritize Joe’s education over her own is the final revelation that metaphorically “shatters” her. Jess returns to this symbolic idea near the end of the novel, claiming, “The way to make yourself whole is to understand what shattered you to pieces in the first place” (380). She felt broken from the revelation of multiple family secrets and healed herself by gaining independence from that family and their opinions.
Marble is also quite beautiful, made of recrystallized limestone, and it is sometimes understated and sometimes bold and bright. Jess often compares it to ice cream or handwriting, and it is very much connected to the soul’s artistry that Jess ultimately connects with one’s professional work. At one point, she describes Mauro’s quarry as a “white cathedral […]. The stone is cold and smooth like the surface of water. I trace the cursive swirls of gold in the white stone with my finger” (163). She connects the marble with something quite spiritual, then with a liquid, and then again with swirling cursive, as though it is art. Another time, she refers to it as a “white canvas,” furthering this association. Jess’s relationship to and appreciation of marble highlights her belief that one’s job is “a creative expression of […] the soul” (386).
Food
The making and sharing of food symbolize the familial and social bonds within the Italian American community in the text. For this reason, the Capodimonte and Baratta families’ holiday celebrations often center around food: Food is always shared following funerals, and Jess’s own “nuclear” family—including her brother, sister, and their children and spouses—has dinner together every Sunday. Now that Jess lives in her parents’ basement, the responsibility for preparing the “gravy” falls to her. She says, “After hours on the stove, the gravy creates a symphony of scent […]. You know your people by their gravy” (32). Food becomes synonymous with family in many ways. Jess even includes her Aunt Lil’s recipe for zeppole during her eulogy because it is so thoroughly and positively associated with Lil.
Food also symbolizes one of life’s most profound joys and how simple it can be to find happiness. It is, of course, life-sustaining, but it is also restorative for the spirit. When Jess visits Googs in prison, he describes the way the first cup of coffee each morning soothes his soul. He says, “By the time I’m done with that cup of coffee, I almost believe I can face anything, conquer any foe, right any wrong […]. That first cup of coffee makes life worth living” (375). He encourages Jess to find something similar in her life, and she does. When she moves to Italy, she says she will open an architecture firm next to the bakery in Carrara because she “want[s] a fresh cornetto with [her] coffee every morning for the rest of [her] life” (388). Her Grammy B once told her that “[l]iving with beauty is as important as the food you eat. Sometimes beauty sustains you more than bread” (181). Just like marble, food takes on associations far beyond its actual purpose and hints at what is most important in life and human relationships.
Gold
Gold is a motif that highlights the necessity of Prioritizing Courage Over Conformity and of Independence as a Catalyst for Transformation. The first time Jess mentions gold in the text is when she describes the sunrise as she leaves her parents’ home to travel to Italy. Once she arrives in the home of her ancestors, she suddenly sees gold everywhere, demonstrating the value of her new independence and courage. She says, “The Tuscan countryside rolls out before [me] in waves of soft gold” (143). When she enters an Italian museum, she says, “Triangles of gold marble offset midnight-blue stars in a pattern that sweeps the visitor inside, as if walking through clouds on a starlit night. The doors are carved of thick wood from the local forest and inlaid with gold gilt” (172). One villa in Lake Como has “sunflower-gold walls,” and the church where she goes to Midnight Mass with Angelo is painted “a soft gold” (182) and has “crystal chandeliers that throw light on the mosaic of gold” (183). The presence of gold in nature, in art, and in buildings demonstrates just how valuable and meaningful this time in Italy is to Jess and her healing.
Further, Angelo’s work as a gilder foreshadows the role he will play in Jess’s transformation. His application of gold to the local marble is very “personal” to him. He says, “My own humanity binds the gold to the stone […]. This is my own technique to seal the gold” (177). His work with gold suggests that he will be loved by the courageous, transformed Jess who develops due to her time away from family and decision to stop trying to please others.
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