With my nose pressed against the window of the taxi, I amazed by the little restaurants and shops lining the street, having never known a quiet corner existed in this bustling city. I watch with fascination as people wave to each other or chat easily with one and other. In our neighbourhood, the only wave or words exchanged are angry gestures, ordering people or traffic out of the way since everyone is in a huge rush to get anywhere. The taxi idles outside a quaint, Italian restaurant. I remain close beside Alice as we follow the two men inside. Such a beautiful restaurant with paintings of Italian scenes decorating the simple red brick walls. Green foliage hangs in baskets around the room, adding beauty and colour. Red and white chequered clothed tables line one length of the room, curving around the corner, to continue alongside the large picture window. Curtains, matching the tablecloths, each tied back with red plaited ropes hang from a bronze pole across the window, allowing a bright, spray of sunlight to spill in, lighting the entire restaurant. …show more content…
I'm not one for stereotypes, but this woman appears very Italian in her physique and attire. She wears a white, flowered kerchief over her short, curly, raven hair, relieving the fullness of her face. Whereupon she wears soft, welcoming, honey-pot eyes, and a gleeful smile. Her attire is a simple black dress with a white pinafore. With fascination, I watch her interaction with Angelo and Frankie, both having to bend their knees and their backs to lower themselves enough to embrace her, each giving and receiving three kisses on their cheeks. Even though they speak in Italian, I know Alice and I are the subject as the motherly woman continues to smile at
As I walked into my local small ethnic grocery store in my hometown for the first time I could not help but to be amazed. It was so neat to see the cultural art hanging around the walls and all the variety of different foods. El Cristal: Tienda Hispana is a great place to shop. When shopping in the grocery store there were many Hispanics that would come in and out of the door. Since the store has a dominantly Hispanic demeanor there was only one other Caucasian in the store besides myself. Most people of other cultures visit an ethnic grocery store when looking for something specific in a recipe where as someone of the same ethnicity buys a good amount of their groceries from there.
The story centres around Josephine Alibrandi - an agressive, disatisfied, and confused final year student of Italian extraction. She has one burning ambition: to find her place in affluent society and to break free from her embarassing, stifling italian family.
Many scholars have written about the particularly intimate connection between food and family prevalent in Italian-American culture. Herbert Gans interprets this to be a legacy of the traditional Southern Italian peasant culture that the immigrant generation successfully passed down to the younger generations in America. Thus, the connection is implied to be a “transplanted” cultural trait. However, when viewed in light of the social changes in America, this bond was inevitably affected by the Italians’ experiences in America. Italian-American food culture was a tradition shaped by changes outside and inside the family. An examination of the Italian-American family of the interwar years (c.1919-1940) demonstrates that the critical role food came to play in the family life of Italian-Americans was very much the product of inter-generational negotiation. The second generation , largely affected by public discourse, originally viewed “Italian” food as a marker of social inferiority. Therefore, food became a major source of family conflict between generations. But, through inter-generational negotiation, food was ultimately to become a fundamental unifying force of the Italian-American family. Today, in light of the rise of inter-ethnic marriage rates between Italians and Italian-Americans in America, a new form of negotiation centering on food is taking place within the Italian-American family—‘inter-spousal’ negotiation.
Geraldine A. Johnson & Sara Greico. Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (Cambridge 1997). Patricia Simons Portraiture: Facing the Subject, Ed Woodhall (Manchester 1997). Lorne Campbell Renaissance Portraits (Yale 1990).
Next let us consider the vivid scenery depicted throughout this specimen of literature. Compared to other attempts at re-imagining this piece of literature none of them materialized virtually close to the number of scenes in this film. First, amidst the introductory we are given the scene of Lena catching the public bus transportation system home from work, affording us the opportunity to view the magnificent city on...
The tall doors leave enough space above for the placement of the name of the bar: “Charrito.” This ground floor takes up roughly one-third of the image leaving a small space for the sidewalk and the second floor of the establishment. The upper floor contains three small windows skewed toward the left of the image. The camera appears to have captured half of the window farthest to the left, followed by the smallest of the windows in the center, and another window surrounded by four bird cages at the far right. The bird cages are scattered at the top right, left, and beneath the window, as with one located further to the right. The upper floor also contains a phrase that states “exquisite pulques from the best haciendas of the plains of Apam.” In the image, a tree casts a natural shadow set by the light that filters from the upper left corner. This shadow falls on the right side of the image and partially in the bottom left corner. The print also captures two men on opposite corners; one at the top right and another at the bottom left of the image. Both of these men’s identity obscured by the flickering shadows of the
Claris, S. (1998). Italians Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America . October 17, 2004. Boston: Gale Research, Inc., 1995.
They stifle me with ridiculous rules and regulations they have brought with them from Europe… There’s always something that shouldn’t be said or done. There are always jobs I have to learn because all good Italian girls know how to do them, and one-day ill need them to look after my chauvinistic husband. There’s always someone I have to respect. (Pg. 38)
...taining the calm feel. The focus is obviously on the people inside. The much brighter light of the diner draws the eyes towards the right area of the painting as well, where the people sit. The street is dark and empty, while inside the diner's bright light and people provide contrast to it's outside. The abundance of straight lines and realistic shapes and forms make the painting very realistic and true to life. The bright light from inside the diner is flooding into the street, casting dark shadows not seen inside the diner. The viewer of the scene seems to be slightly at a distance from the diner, looking in at an angle from the darker street. The brushstrokes are used to provide miniscule details especially to the people and objects inside the diner. The paint is spread evenly, but not always thick and dark. All elements of the painting are smooth and realistic.
As Travis’s taxi drives down the road, the viewer gets the chance to view the streets through the eyes of Travis. You see things through the windshield and rearview mirrors, all luminescent in the neon glow of the night. The streets are filled with different sorts; prostitutes on the street corners, pimps in the cafes, and homeless people wandering through the mess aimlessly. As film critic Leonard Quart put’s it
The artist used colors and light to draw one’s attention to the diner and the people in it and then to the only character not facing the viewer. This emphasis with the use of colors and light means “that our attention is drawn more to certain parts of a composition than to others” (Getlein 127); when the emphasis is on “a relatively small, clearly defined area” (Getlein 127) this is called a focal point. The focal point in this piece of art is not only the brightly lit diner sitting on the corner of an empty intersection, but also within the diner, where the eye is drawn to the individuals in the diner. In addition, the woman stands out in particular because of her red dress and the bright color of her
The walkway before me never becomes silent. A buzz of voices blends with the city soundscape of cars driving and trucks backing, swingsets squealing and sparrows chirping. A toddler, holding tightly to his sister's stroller, yells "Achtung! Achtung! Achtung!" at a squirrel that crosses two inches from his foot. His mother comforts him, in German. A man sits down on the bench across from me, eyelids dropping on his creased red face as he stirs his cup of coffee.
The United States of America, a country where anyone can become anything he or she wants to be. It is even given the phrase “Land of opportunity.” This is one of the reasons people from different parts of the world choose to immigrate to the United States. Immigrants do not immigrate alone, but bring their cultures with them. One of the representatives of culture is food, and with the vast amount of immigrants, the vast amount of ethnic restaurants are introduced. Beneficial things happened with the rise of ethnic restaurants, they serve as a doorway to introduce different cultures and they improve the country’s economy. Some people disagree and believe that ethnic restaurants are a problem. That they lead to cultural separation because it
Italian food is the world’s most popular cuisine. It is an essential part of Italian life and very common to non-Italians. The most well-known Italian dishes today are pasta and pizza, but Italian cuisine varies greatly from one region to another. For instance, “the popular Italian-American dishes generally come from the southern region of Campania and the island of Sicily, just off the southern coast” (Traditional Italian). However, many years ago, Italy was made up of different nations, conquered by many, and it experienced vast influences from different countries. These impacts would shape the food of Italy and its’ culture.
Stripped back and neutral tones dominate the walls and floor surfaces. Apart from the Ultra Marin lightweight curtains which covers the full length of the window, from ceiling to floor and a striking feature wall. Different sized mirrors arranged in an abstract manner, creates a funky and trendy vibe highlighting just how much character this design possess. Small amounts of negative space between each mirror, delivers