Chapter I In the opening of the chapter, the main character Vitriol describes the story that the book is Mitten about. It has a beginning that occurred on a hot July day in the year 1960 in Vitriol’s home town of Valve De Sole, when his mother, Christina got bit by a snake. Vitriol describes his city as to have no holy places, ancient cites or ruins; forgotten and unsung. Just like hundreds of villages spread throughout Italy.
Vitriol describes how his father immigrated to America almost our years ago when Vitriol was barely three years old. His grandfather was left crippled from the war when a horse crushed his foot and he was injured by a grenade. That day, his mother slipped out of the house making him promise that he would read his school books. Vitriol’s attendance at school was not very regular because he would spend much of class time wondering to the top of Cole did Papa or down the river with his friend Fabric and sharing cigarettes that
Fabric had stole from his father. Vitriol was sitting on his porch reading math books when he dose off. He was awakened by a muffled shout coming from the stable, Vitriol ran to the stable and stopped short at the bottom of the steps and peeked through the crack in the door. Inside he saw a green snake which slipped through the cracks of the stable and into the tomato garden.
While Vitriol was watching the snake, the barn door opened, and a man with blue yes swooped out of the stable, After Vitriol went inside the stable, he saw his mother pouring water into the pigs’ trough as though nothing has happened. Vitriol tells his mother that he heard a man scream and when she asked him what he saw, Vitriol replied that he didn’t see anything. He then told her that she has blood on her ankle. In the conclusion of the chapter, Christina tells Vitriol to run up to Did Luck’s and tell him to bring a car because she had been bitten by a snake.
