DE SICA: Religious symbolism of

Furthering the image of Ciociaria as Edenic, when Cesira and Rosetta finally arrive in the country, Cesira describes it, saying, " there was sunshine, there was blue sky, there was the green countryside, composed of all hills covered with vineyards'- (Moravia 36), which is clearly an idyllic description recalling descriptions of a heavenly paradise. In addition, when they finally arrive at Sant'Eufemia, Filippo is hosting a banquet, which establishes the location as heavenly and abundant (Marcus 84). To Cesira's disappointment, however, the country is not the divine garden she had hoped. It too has been ravaged by the war which "is everywhere, in the country just as much as in the town'- (Moravia 62). The damaged countryside is synonymous with Cesira's own ruined life (Ross 141) as her personal Garden of Eden is ruined when she is faced with the deterioration of her own life. The landscape, incorporated into Cesira's history, bears witness to her development from instinct and bloodshed to sorrow and compassion (Dego104).
             In both the film and the novel, the horrors and deprivations of war induce the abandonment of all moral values. The instincts of the peasants to self-interest, indifference and greed occur in the extreme times of war. Both the novel and the film are indictments of an accepted social morality, which fully reveals itself only in times of such great stress. Michele constantly berates the characters for their deliberate moral blindness to the implications of war, a blindness, which results in their being "dead- (Moravia 163-4). He tells the parable of Lazarus in order to illustrate his point, a story that represents Cesira's life. Cesira, in accepting the capitalist way of life, is spiritually dead, as regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social justice, since "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market- (CA 34).