Im Not Scared Corruption

The Infliction of Cruelty in I’m Not Scared Niccolo Ammaniti´s I´m Not Scared is a novel that is full of cruelty. It takes place in a small Italian town called Aqua Traverse. Most everyone knows each other in this tight knit community. Although most are poor, some families are still richer than others, and most of the characters´ fathers work outside of Aqua Traverse. This causes the characters´ personalities to be different. The main character, Michele, seems to be the only person in this community that cares about other people. Because of this, the characters are blind to the immense amount of cruelty they are inflicting on others. Skull is but one character in this novel that is sadistically cruel. When the children first find a large

Felice, Skull´s older brother, has a history in Aqua Traverse of being a very low tempered and cruel person. Whenever Felice wants something, he will threaten whoever he wants because he believes he is better than others. While Felice is fixing up his prized 127, he gets stuck under the car. Michele passes by and Felice calls for him to help. Again, Felice threatens Michele to scare him into helping him by saying, ¨Don't even think it… I'll get out of here and snap you like a stick of licorice. All that'll be left of you will be a grave for your parents to take flowers to.”(p. 116) This is another example of how cruel Felice can really be, threatening a child´s life because of his own stupidity. Put in charge of keeping guard over Fillipo, the kidnapped boy, Felice likes to see Fillipo suffer. Uncleaned for weeks and weeks, scabs formed over Filiipo´s eyes. When Felice catches Michele with Fillipo in the hole, he threatens Michele and nearly kills him. ¨How about that accuracy? I could have sliced your big toe off just like that. And what would you have done then?”(page 134) Felice enjoys seeing fear in others, and nearly cuts off Michele´s toe just to see him suffer. After Felice beats Michele, and Michele´s mother finds out, Mama beats Felice because of him hurting her son. Michele´s mother did not realize how dangerous what they were doing was until someone close to her was injured from

Michele´s father, Barbara´s father, Skull´s father, and the man from Rome are the ones that kidnapped Fillipo and put him in a hole. One of the worst things about this is that all of the fathers of the characters know Fillipo´s condition in that hole, and they all do absolutely nothing about it. Michele´s father even threatens to hurt Fillipo more. ¨Two ears we´ll cut off. Two.¨(p. 79) This is after Fillipo´s mother is seen asking for her son back on TV, and everyone in Michele´s living room calls her names and threatens her even more. Near the end of the novel, they move Fillipo to a new location after they found Michele in the hold with Fillipo. ¨He was lying on the ground. Naked. His arms and legs were bound with packing tape. ´Mmmm!´ I put my hands on his face. He had tape over his mouth too.¨(p. 195) This time, they were extra cautious, and decided to tape his hands, feet, and mouth. Along with that, they have him hid inside a hole in a rock, and plan on shooting Fillipo and ending it all. This plan backfires as Michele helps Fillipo escape, and Michele´s father shoots Michele accidentally. Papa then drops everything he is doing and tries to find help for his son as the novel comes to a close. Papa, just like Mama, had no idea how cruel the things they were doing to Fillipo were until it ended up hurting his own