Paper on Rosso Malpelo: Unveiling Social Injustice, Child Labor, and Human Struggles in 19th-century Italy

Introduction

The story “Rosso Malpelo” revolves around the life of a young boy with the same name. The name was given to him for his red hair, believed to have an evil Sicily disposition (Alizzi, par. 1). The story was written in 1878, and it reflects the social and economic conditions that were subjected to the people of the poor working class in the southern part of Italy. Rosso Malpelo was always beaten because of his nastiness, as was presumably predisposed by his red hair.

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The story begins with the tragedy of his father's death, who dies in a mine after the mine collapses. The end of his father’s life was a considerable loss to Malpelo because he had no one else to protect him at the mine. Consequently, other workers began picking on him and beating him up for his presumed mischievous nature. Malpelo is forced to come up with contorted philosophies as his way of surviving in the mines. He begins beating those weaker than him in revenge. One day, Pinocchio is hired in the mine and is picked on by other workers. Malpelo takes him in his care to have the pleasure of beating himself. Pinocchio gets ill and dies, leaving Malpelo lonely again. The mine owner gives Malpelo a dangerous job, which he accepts, enters the mine, and disappears, never to be seen again (Lucente, 142).

Even though Malpelo is working, there is no possibility for change because society treats him: he hails from a low-class family and interacts with other individuals like him (Baldini, 356). Moreover, he does not have a wealthy family to bounce back on since rich families do not welcome poor Malpero except when delivering his income share. The perceived evil nature of Malpelo also makes it difficult for him to make any progress in life because he is always picked on and beaten by other employees.

Violence is necessary for the story to give a realistic view of Malpelo's life from his perspective. The theme shows how Sicilian people "despised" individuals with red hair since they were perceived as evil (Lucente, 156; Alizzi, par. 1). Violence is also used to depict the horrible life of Rosso Malpelo to his unfortunate end.

Child labor in Rosso Malpelo

The term child labor is often defined as any form of work that denies children their right to childhood, their right to discover their potential, and their dignity, which exposes them to mental and physical torture. There are several proponents of child labor, including poverty, hindrances to education, inadequate laws and enforcements, culture and traditions, and earning money for the family. Children are often exposed to various forms of child labor, including agricultural labor, manufacturing industries, forms of slavery in armed conflicts, and the mining sector discussed in Rosso Malpelo. Another form of child labor, debt bondage, is perpetrated to settle debts incurred by parents.

Rosso Malpelo and his father, Misciu, worked in salt mines, and his father was subjected to heavy work that caused his death, which greatly affected Malpelo. His father was the only person who cared for him against all forms of harassment and abuse from the other workers in the salt mines. The mine owners were not able to support the family for the welfare of the dead father (Lucente, 160). Such incidences show that society has high regard for work rather than ensuring that those working are provided with suitable working conditions.

Two days after his disappearance, Malpelo returned to the mines, and everything that happened to his father made him seek all forms of revenge. He ended up beating donkeys and those who were weaker than him, which worsened his situation in the mines. His reputation inevitably made the other mine workers blame him for any misfortunes (Baldini, 360). Malpelo accepted every allegation that he was subjected to, e.g., the beatings he faced without questioning.

Human basic needs were not properly provided at the mines, making Malpelo share his food with Ranocchio, who had fallen from a bridge. Pinocchio had a limp, but he was not allowed to take a rest. Malpelo was beaten continuously in the mines until he could not see his family members given for the days that he was supposed to deliver his pay to the parents. He is depicted to become more savage and lamented to be a person born in the mines. Malpelo worked in the mines, but the mine owners did not care about their welfare. The proper clothing in the mines was not dealt with accordingly by the mine owners; this is evidenced by the act of Malpelo taking his father's clothes and tools. After Misciu’s death, Ranocchio felt ill. However, the mine owners did not care about his welfare. Ultimately, he died due to the pressure in the mines. The dangerous mines made Malpelo resign from the mines. He walks away from the mines, and he never comes back again.

The story of Malpelo takes us through different types of mistreatments that the peasants go through it. The People of Southern Italy that the author describes mentions most of the peasants' challenges in their day-to-day encounters. The type of inhabitants of Verga's tales take part in small land ownerships, day laborers, and economically marginal communities; they constitute up to two-thirds of the population (Britannica, par. 1). The study of child labor dwells majorly on the life of Malpelo, who is subjected to various mistreatments in the mines. For Malpelo, he had prepared himself to change his state of metaphysical damnation into the awareness of social injustice. He is thinking of the lower level of hopelessness, and when his father died, he was nicknamed Master Misciu the donkey because he was the one responsible for all the burden all the time in the salt mine. He was ready to take whatever job he was given. In all the chatter, no one heard the cry of the child's voice, which made.

The absence of the Frog in the pit made the boss wash his hands instead of finding out what was happening and assisting him. This clearly shows how people value work more than human life. When his mother found him, she wept and despaired as if her son had earned as little as ten shillings in a week.

A lot of lessons can be drawn from the short story of Malpelo. The mine owners should have compensated for the loss of the Mission and Frog. Humanity has been merely reduced in such a way that only a few people focus on assisting others. In the story, the mine owners seem to be self-centered and are only interested in getting the products without considering their health. We can see the workers struggling to mine without tools, thus risking their lives (Baldini, 342). The mine owners underpay their workers and do not improve their welfare by accessing their basic needs. There is an aspect of beliefs and traditions. Society believed that Malpelo was malicious and had an evil disposition because of the combination of his evil redhead and the evil hairs (Alizzi, par. 3).

Verga was taking part in exposing South Italy's backwardness (Giorgia et al., par. 7). At this time, some great politicians were majorly based in the northern part, and they were not ready to create institutions in the south. (Baldini, 348). Vega's Short story can be used to access the social problems suffered by many people in the southern communities that were poor compared to their environment.

Conclusion

In summary, Malpelo showed passion in his work; he didn’t care about external influence. This can be used to teach society that irrespective of the external forces that people face, there should always be an element of hard work that should be portrayed. During the time of the Publication of Rosso Malpelo, Child labor was high, and children were being abused (Alizzi, par. 2). This made the government introduce compulsory education to children between six to nine years old. Due to poverty, many of the children did not manage to join schools. Verga was far away from being a socialist. But for Rosso, he remained literarily denounced of the harsh conditions during that time.

In Vega's work, he deals majorly with humanity part than the political point of view, thus making his work relevant and more practical to today's society. People have adjusted their needs, and they have learned from Vegas's work, especially the employers. In today’s society, children are treated with dignity, and also there is a provision in the Bill of Rights to protect them from exploitation. Most employers take part in their employees' enlightening to work in a conducive and productive environment to maximize production. These are parts of the lessons that one can learn from Rosso Malpelo's work.

Works Cited

Alizzi, Giuseppe. “Digging within Digging: ‘Rosso Malpelo’ - European Studies Blog.” European Studies Blog, 2 Sept. 2019, blogs.bl.uk/european/2019/09/digging-within-digging-Rosso-malpelo.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Baldini, Alessio. “The Liberal Imagination of Giovanni Verga: Verismo as Moral Realism.” The Italianist, vol. 37, no. 3, 2 Sept. 2017, pp. 348–368. Taylor & Francis Online, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02614340.2017.1409313, 10.1080/02614340.2017.1409313. Accessed 20 Aug. 2020.

Britannica. “Giovanni Verga | Italian Author | Britannica.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Aug. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Verga. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Giorgia, Cataldo, et al. “Child Labour: Abused Children’s Rights.” IIS Calabrese Levi, www.calabreselevi.it/Progetto_Valorizziamoci/Progetto_Valorizziamoci/G7/cl.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Lucente, Gregory L. “The Historical Imperative: Giovanni Verga and Italian Realism in the Light of Recent Critical Trends.” Neohelicon, vol. 15, no. 2, Sept. 1988, pp. 149–174. Springer Link, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02129081, 10.1007/bf02129081. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.