Seeking Identity: Individualism versus Community in an Ethnic Context

In Seeking Identity, Belliotti combines ethical theory and personal experience as he explores family and community influences on individual behavior within an ethnic setting. He scrutinizes the fine line Italian Americans and others with ethnic ties must continually tread between personal freedom and community bonds. Individuals, he shows, are linked to a variety of often conflicting groups - family, friends, neighborhood, and country - and enmeshed in an assortment of international, ethnic, gender-based, and racial alliances. Constantly influenced by ancestry and affiliation, Belliotti argues, those with ethnic affiliations simultaneously long for emotional attachment yet are horrified that their individuality may disappear once they achieve it. Outlining the unwritten but deeply ingrained system of moral codes that Italian immigrants brought to America, Belliotti examines that system in relation to moral theorists who argue we owe the most to people close to us and those who contend we must attach no special weight to our own interests when determining proper moral action. He also investigates philosophical, historical, sociological, and political aspects of government authority, examines conflicting images of Italian immigrant women, and analyzes war and pacifism.