Poverty
Marcovaldo lives with his family in a big Italian city. He has six children and lazy wife. They are experiencing not the best time because Marcovaldo, being a blue collar, cannot provide his family with everything they needed. That is why he had to eat leftovers from the supper for his lunch, they are freezing in their house on winter and he has to look for woods in the middle of the evening. Besides, they cannot afford to buy anything in the supermarket, so they just go there and pretend as if they are buying something. It is humiliating but they don’t care. Of course, their poverty worries them and they dream of better life, but Marcovaldo is not a skilled man, their children are not working yet and there was no other way out but to get used to their poverty and live with it. Sometimes things went better, sometimes worse and they were absolutely ok with it.
Family
Marcovaldo’s family is unique with its joys and sorrows, just like any other family in this world. They are more or less friendly, fights and quarrels rarely happen in their poor house. Children got used to the way they live and don’t care too much about the lack of money. They learned to admire all they have. Marcovaldo’s wife, Domitilla, doesn’t have a job because there are a lot of work for her in the house, looking after children, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning, although the author mentions that she is a lazy person and dreams to get things already done. Their life is tough but they never lose the optimism and hopes for the better life.
Loneliness
Like every big dreamer, Marcovaldo was lonely. Although he had a big family, they didn’t share his interests and were more primitive, landed creatures. He liked the nature and every ling being on this planet. He could miss the new building or billboard or even his tram stop but he will always notice little mushrooms near the stop, that leaves of the plant at work became yellow. Life in the big city was tough for him and not just because of lack of money. He wasn’t actually a good conversationalist, he didn’t have friends and he was lost if there were lot of people around. He was also a very naïve person and people could easily cheat him. He was living in his own world, where the nature was everywhere and there was no need to communicate with human beings.
Environment
Nature is beautiful in all of its shapes and representations, but some people just don’t too busy and they don’t notice is. They take everything for granted – every tree in the park, every cloud in the sky and so on. But there is a person in this noisy dull city, who loves nature so much that he cannot live without it and the ugliness of the city is driving him crazy, it is our friend, Marcovaldo. Every grass, every rabbit, every plant in the pot is a part of his life and he can think about it every night and day. He is unique, he is sincere and kind man who really cares about the environment, sometimes even more than for his family.
