Under The Ribs Of Death
“‘This is gonna be good,’ he muttered. ‘Yeah, a real pleasure. By God, I’ll make them jump!’” (p.166). This is an incredible beginning of just another striving attempt of the main character to survive and rejuvenate in “Under the Ribs of Death”, written by the renowned author John Marlyn. A truly enlightening and thought provoking book, it sheds light on the immigrant experience in the years leading up to the Great Depression. John Marlyn portrays the main character, Sandor Hunyadi (Alex Hunter), in a contrasting milieu of social realism and moral parable. Alex encounters impoverished childhood and confronts social hostility. However, he is emboldened with a prospect of a better future. Alex’s power-loving and contemptuous characteristic is restored as he obtains a higher social standing. Alex strives to get out of his poverty-stricken and ridiculed past to find himself in a haughty position to disdain the Kostanuicks, but he rejects to take advantage of the situation because of his high-raised morals and affection for Mary Kostanuick. Sandor Hunyadi grows up in a socially deprived society and faces a bitter reality of abject poverty. Sandor’s early days passed in a great distress. Sandor lived in a poor community with substandard housings. “For over a year I been wantin’ to get a bed insteada sleepin’ on those chairs. An’ lookit our house—not even a bedroom, no oilcloth on the floors and not even a ice box or a…” (p.