The Monkey's Wrench: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Monkey's Wrench: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the lives and perspectives of key figures in a narrative centered around the character Libertino Faussone, a skilled rigger of monumental steel structures. Faussone, characterized by his independence and physical prowess, navigates a series of global adventures while expressing disdain for incompetence in the workplace. Though he enjoys fleeting romantic relationships, his commitment lies more with his craft, which he views as a source of personal fulfillment and identity. The narrator, an industrial chemist transitioning to writing, serves as an audience for Faussone's stories, reflecting on the values instilled in him by his father, a dedicated coppersmith.
Supporting characters include Faussone's aunts, Teresa and Mentina, who express concern for his well-being and personal life, and an unnamed Indian engineer who contrasts sharply with Faussone. This engineer, despite his polite demeanor, lacks the competence and urgency required in his role, leading to tensions during a critical construction project. The interplay between these characters highlights themes of craftsmanship, personal fulfillment, and the complexities of professional relationships, inviting readers to consider various perspectives on work and life.
The Monkey's Wrench: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Primo Levi
First published: La chiave a stella, 1978 (English translation, 1986)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Soviet Union, India, Africa, Alaska, and Italy
Plot: Philosophical realism
Time: The 1970's, with reminiscences of earlier decades
Libertino Faussone (lee-behr-TEE-noh fahew-SOH-nay), a rigger of giant steel structures such as cranes and suspension bridges. Faussone is an independent man, tall, thin, tanned, proud of his physical skills, and contemptuous of incompetent bosses, workers, and designers. The thirty-five-year-old Faussone enjoys a variety of professional and personal adventures as he travels around the world setting up monumental steel constructions. This “novel” is, in fact, a collection of separate tales connected mainly by the adventurous personality and forcefully stated perceptions of Faussone, their teller and principal character. He is by no means a perfect man; he is incapable, for example, of maintaining a permanent relationship with a woman, although he clearly has enjoyed a number of intense temporary relationships. He believes that women need “a different man for a husband, the kind that punch the time clock and come home at the same hour and never say boo.” He is also claustrophobic and has a fear of water that has prevented him from learning to swim. Above all, Faussone is a man in love with his work and its demanding structural problems that only the rigger's indispensable skill can solve. As he says, “For me every job is like a first love.”
The narrator, an industrial chemist who has gone to the Soviet Union to solve a problem of grit in his Italian factory's exported enamel. Clearly, the narrator is the author, who has decided, at the age of fifty-five, to leave his chemist's profession and devote himself entirely to his writing. In Russia, he has his first encounter with Faussone, who has been rigging a colossal excavator. An attentive listener, the narrator acquires Faussone's permission to use Faussone's stories. (In a postscript, the author writes that Faussone is “a mosaic of numerous men I have met, similar to Faussone and similar among themselves, in personality, virtue, individuality, and in their view of work and the world.”) Like the composite character of Faussone that he has created, the narrator believes that “lovingyourwork…representsthebest,mostconcreteapproximation of happiness on earth.” He characterizes himself toFaussoneasa“rigger-chemist…whobuildsstructuresto order.” Faussone, the central figure of almost all the tales, wonders if the narrator has given enough thought to his career change, whether it is wise to leave the material world for the world of words.
Libertino Faussone's father, a coppersmith who insisted on running his own shop instead of working regular hours under a boss in a factory. Even after copper pots had ceased to be in demand, he refused to change his work. By example, he taught his son the values of craftsmanship and of building one's own monuments through skilled and loving labor. Turning melancholy when the world no longer needed his skills, he died in his shop with his coppersmith's hammer in his hand.
Teresa Gallo and Mentina Gallo (mehn-TEE-nah), Libertino Faussone's aunts. They live in an old apartment building in Turin, the native city of both Faussone and the narrator. Teresa is sixty-three years old, a dark-haired, sociable, childless widow. Mentina is sixty-six, white-haired, and never married; she talks mainly to her sister. They are both very worried about their only nephew's eating habits and occupational dangers. They constantly try to arrange meetings for him with a “nice girl” because of their concerns about his unsettled life, but Faussone has no interest in being shackled to a fixed abode.
The Indian engineer, not otherwise named. He is in charge of the construction of a huge suspension bridge over a river near Calcutta, for which Faussone is called in to rig the suspension cables. Serving as Faussone's foil, the engineer has manners and diction that are impeccable, but he lacks competence; he does not even correctly remember Faussone's name. He never loses his serenity, even when disaster occurs at the bridge, and Faussone has to spur him into action. Near the end of the episode, when part of the bridge's deck collapses, the main cables rigged by Faussone remain intact. Faussone's job being over, he leaves India without even saying good-bye to the engineer, whose attitude to his work Faussone cannot respect.