Their prostration before the Job had come to replace God for so many immigrants, even constituting something reflective of the mythological characterization of the circles of Hell. The author, once again describing the Lean, tells, "The barrow that he pushed, he did not love. The great God Job, he did not love. He felt a searing bitterness and a fathomless consternation at the queer consciousness that inflicted the ever mounting weight of structures that had to! had to! raise above his shoulders! When, when and where would the last stone be? Never . . ." (Di Donato1, 8) This last passage reflects a major device for punishment in Dante's Inferno, a classic literary description of the Seven Circles of Hell. The concept of a never-ending task which never gets smaller or larger, and which never proceeds any closer to or further from its goal, is described as a punishment designed for specific offenders. In the Di Donato text, this is the life reserved for immigrant laborers, who in addition to their unending toil, have been consumed by the capitalist, industrial beast that is America. The worship shown to the Job, a figurative effect of the Di Donato text, is nonetheless shown in Chapter 2 to constitute a form of religious heresy perpetrated by the United States and foisted upon its subjects great and small.

The immigrants described by the text are the meekest of these subjects, with some like Geremio struggling to retain faith betwixt he and his family even as the Job permeates his life. They are...

So is this illustrated in the absolutely horrific set of pages devoted to the collapse of the building in which the men worked. On Good Friday no less, as a warm happiness set about men soon to be on holiday, the splintering structured claimed each in a manner as gruesome and terrifying as one might imagine.
Thus, in Chapter 1 of Book II, entitled Job, the measure of these events is counted against the will of God. So declares his wife awaiting Geremio's return in vain, and hearing word of a tragedy. Annunziata declares "it will all come out. . .the Lord will not permit . . .fathers are needed." (Di Donato2, 22) the scale of the tragedy would be enormous in the lives of the immigrant families now left behind, but would be a speck of sorrow to the God known as the Job.

This is the core premise of the text, which relates from a number of immigrant perspectives the challenge to spirituality and faith instigated by the Job's supplanting or religion. A stinging criticism of American materialism, Christ in Concrete provides an evocative context for the examination of religious devotion and the conflict imposed by the demands for mere survival.

Works Cited:

Di Donato, P. (1993). Geremio: Chapter 1. Christ in Concrete: A Novel, Penguin Classic.

Di Donato1, P. (1993). Geremio: Chapter 2. Christ in Concrete: A Novel, Penguin Classic.

Di Donato2, P.…