Chapters 14 - 16 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 14

October begins and so has Italy's war with Abyssinia. The peasants care little for the war, regardless of the number of speeches Don Luigi makes. Don Luigi and the sergeant spoke so highly of the government in Rome that the peasants didn't believe them. The fellows in Rome had no relation to them except as distant oppressors. The people of Gagliano certainly didn't think they had any interest in this war. They'd prefer that the government build a dam or a bridge. The people of Gagliano did once care about a war, though, the Bridgand wars that ended in 1865. Yet everyone spoke as if they remembered it. The brigands were roving bands attempting to oppose Italian unification, committing ruthless and violent crimes along the way. But the peasants understood it differently. Brigandage was a revolt against their fate...