Michele Amitrano: The character that makes Michele most appealing to the readers is his compassion. Throughout the book, the level of empathy that Michele shows is beyond his year which makes the reader forget that his only nine years old. For example when he goes after his sister when she has fallen over despite his own fears as well as when he offered to complete the forfeit in place of Barbra when Skull forced her to complete an embarrassing forfeit and the most obvious one, taking care of Filippo. When Michele describes other characters or places he shows his own way of viewing things that demonstrates his childlike and innocence. He often combines reality and fantasy like when describing his dad, "Papa was the bogeyman. By day he was…show more content… He is a small man always away working as a truck driver making him disconnected from his family. It is clear that he is annoyed by his poor life in Acqua Traverse and dreams of living a better life. He sees Filippo as a way of scaping his miserable life and living his dream.
Pino is the ‘boss’ of Acqua Traverse but is eventually shown to be an incompetent criminal – a big fish in a small pond. He is not inherently evil but a victim of his own incompetence and greed. While Pino isn’t as openly violent and aggressive as certain characters, his role in the kidnapping still shows his cruel nature. “Papa made the scissors sign with his fingers. Two ears. We’ll cut off two”. Throughout the novel it is clear what Pino is like on the outside but in places he reveals small amounts of empathy, the most obvious being when he pleads on the final night. ”let's give him back to her.” The reason for this is that he can relate to Filippo’s mother as he is a parent himself.
Pino often makes and breaks fake promises and distorts his children from reality. One of the ways he does this is by buying them gifts. First example is when he brings a Venetian boat at the start of the novel to pay for being away too long and second example is when he buys Michele the Red Dragon to distract him from Filippo.
Teresa
