How are the Carbone family presented at the start of the play? Consider them as individuals and as a family unit.

We see this is a working class family. Understandably, then, money is a consistent theme in the play and adds a degree of tension to an already-tense situation. Marco wants to make money to take care of his family and becomes frantic and enraged when he realizes that Eddie has endangered that by turning the cousins in to Immigration. Rodolpho wants to make money to buy a motorcycle and feel like he fits in in America. Catherine seeks a job because it will help the family, and does not think that school is the best option for her when she could be making money. Many of Eddie’s complaints about Rodolpho stem from the fact that he is “stealing” from him—that he gave the brothers a bed to sleep on and a roof over their heads and Rodolpho is repaying him by taking Catherine away.

Eddie’s working-class background makes him an Everyman. He lives in a small apartment in a tenement building with his wife and niece, works on the piers, and spends all his time within his neighborhood and his community. Louis, Mike, and Tony are his peers, the people he goes bowling with after an arduous day at work. However, what distinguishes Eddie from his community is his dirty secret—he is in love with his niece, Catherine.