Lives of the Saints

Vittorio’s lucky lira coin, given to him by Luciano on his seventh birthday, reflects the theme of The Influence of Superstition and Myth. Luciano believes that it was fate that led him to stop and pick up the coin in the midst of a battle in Greece against the Allies during World War II. He puts the coin in his breast pocket and later sees that it deflected a bullet that would have otherwise killed him. Like Luciano once did, Vittorio carries this coin with him everywhere with the belief it will give him good luck. When he does the animal ritual sacrifice to rid his mother of the evil eye, Vittorio incorporates the coin into his ritual when the fire grows large and he worries it will set the village on fire: “I had taken my lucky coin from my pocket now and was rubbing it furiously, hoping to calm the spirits” (119).

Ultimately, the lucky lira also becomes a symbol of Vittorio’s Loss of Childhood Innocence following the death of his mother. By this point, it is “shiny and slick from handling” (248) and slips out of his fingers and rolls into the ocean.