Sciascia Leonardo — The Day of the Owl [393]

All this, thought the captain, is the result of the fact that the only institution in the Sicilian conscience that really counts, is the family; counts, that is to say, more as a dramatic juridical contract or bond than as a natural association based on affection. The family is the Sicilian’s State. The State, as it is for us, is extraneous to them, merely a de facto entity based on force; an entity imposing taxes, military service, war, police. Within the family institution the Sicilian can cross the frontier of his own natural tragic solitude and fit into a communal life where relationships are governed by hair-splitting contractual ties. To ask him to cross the frontier between family and State would be too much. — Sciascia Leonardo, The Day of the Owl, 393

Note

The core sociological claim that underwrites the whole novel’s evidentiary problem: the State is extraneous, a de facto entity based on force, so no loyalty crosses the frontier from family to State. This is the analytical heart of the reader’s Coleman-failure reading.