— Anonymous
What surprised me the most when I was reading Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio was the amount of times when the characters would knowingly be ignorant or be racist. The first example given to us in the book is the interaction between Benedetta and Parviz. Since they are both unfamiliar with each other’s languages, their words are misunderstood and they misinterpret them as far worse than what they seem to be. Parviz believes that Benedetta shouting “Guaglio” repeatedly means “fuck in Neopolitan”, while she is actually just saying “boy”. On the other hand, Benedetta believes Parviz responding with “Merci” is also a curse word that is in “Albanian” even though Parviz is not from there. Later in the book, Amedeo reveals to Benedetta that not only is Parviz not Albanian, but he is also saying “thank you” rather than a curse word that Benedetta misinterprets. Despite being revealed the truth, Benedetta still would rather go along with her misinterpretation of what Parviz is saying. This was shocking as the author implies that, while exaggerated to an extent, it isn’t too far from what occurs in interactions between people from different regions. We see another example, later in the book, where Bendetta has strong feelings against foreigners as she believes that they are taking the jobs away from her son. This is an argument that we’ve seen time and time again that correlates with not only history but even as of recent. The idea of foreigners coming into a country and stealing jobs from locals is not a new idea but also helps us try to understand what the author is implying about our nature. Overall, the idea of ignorance against foreigners repeatedly occurs throughout the book. Lakhous implies multiple times of references to modern day racist ideologies and wants us to do something about it. Although they are exaggerated, they are clear to the point and gives the book a distinct message.
