The King of Mulberry Street

Once alone, Beniamino hitches a ride to visit Uncle Aurelio. He goes to Vomero, a wealthy neighborhood where his Aunt Rebecca works. There, he sees girls playing a game. When one calls him dirty and another suggests he play too, he runs away. 



Beniamino goes to the convent, where he retrieves bottles of wine from underground passageways for the nuns. Down there, he is frightened by the body of a dead man, which reminds him of a shooting in his neighborhood the month before. He emerges from the tunnels crying and smelling badly. A nun comforts him with chocolate and three coins; despite her pity about him being fatherless and Jewish, Beniamino is proud of his mother and his Jewish heritage.

Later, he hides his coins in a matchbox and runs to the bay to wash up. However, because “scugnizzi-urchins, the poorest of the poor” (16) are there, he continues on to the rain-filled craters on Mt. Vesuvius. When he emerges from the water, his pants are gone, but the matchbox remains. 

After hitching a ride home, Beniamino stops at the butcher for liver and couscous. His family is worried when he arrives, but grateful for the food. On orders from Nonna, he delivers meatballs to their neighbors. That night, he sleeps with his mother in the kitchen and hears her cry.

The next morning, Beniamino’s mother wakes him early and dresses him in his finest clothes. She gives him new shoes, the contents of yesterday’s package. Before leaving the apartment, Beniamino puts on his yarmulke and touches the mezuzah above the door. Beniamino asks where they are going and if she got a job. His mother confesses that the office job was given to someone else, but she does not reveal their destination. Instead, she grips his arm, removes his yarmulke, and buys him fish heads to snack on. As Beniamino think this is the best day ever, his mother tucks a piece of cloth into his shoe, telling him that he is special and that he must survive. 

They then walk onto a ship, where his mother declares her son’s passage to America is paid. When the crew member declines because this is a cargo ship, she insists and subtly offers sex in exchange. The man tells Beniamino to hide among the cargo and wait until an hour after they are at sea to come up. He pulls Beniamino’s mother away, and Beniamino is left alone to navigate the dark cargo hold. He waits, hot and fearful, before calling out for his mother.

As Beniamino whispers for his mother, another voice tells him to be quiet, but the boy persists. Consequently, a man grabs him and insists that the boy will be thrown overboard. The stranger says that there will be no sympathy for stowaways like them, especially when they are sick, for he has cholera. 

Beniamino moves away, calling for his mother, whom he assumes is hiding too. His shouting draws the attention of a crew member who pulls him up to the deck. Beniamino stumbles to the mast, climbs a pile of cloth, and sees that there are no women aboard the ship.

Beniamino clings to the mast, calling for his mother. A man gently pulls him away to eat with the crew. The boy refuses salami because it is not kosher and only takes bread and cheese. Remembering one of his Nonna’s proverbs—“Whoever has a mother doesn’t cry” (32)—he takes a sip of wine and fights back tears. Carlo, a kind sailor, offers Beniamino an extra slice of tomato. When they ask his name, the boy says nothing, for he does not want them to know he is Jewish. The men joke that he should be called “Dom,” an Americanized form of Domenico, and the boy agrees. 

Eduardo, another sailor, says that the crew will not stay in New York like Dom, but will return to Napoli. Dom reveals that there is a sick man below. They find the stranger barely breathing and gasping for water. He dies soon after. The crew throws his body overboard and them swabs the deck clean. When Franco, the sailor who let him board the ship, tells the boy he smells and suggests he get undressed to wash, Dom refuses, so the man tosses a bucket of water on him.

After days searching for his mother, Dom realizes that she is not there. He helps Riccardo, the cook, clean squid because it distracts him. Thinking of his mother, Dom vows to return to Napoli. In the meantime, he works hard to help the crew. Every afternoon, Dom unties the cloth his mother put in his shoe. Inside are holy tassels, called tzitzit, from his grandfather’s prayer shawl, which will become part of his own prayer shawl at his Bar Mitzvah. Each day, Dom also cleans his shoes and hides them in hay to keep them dry. 

One day at mealtime, the crew argues about what language is spoken in New York and some, like Franco, suggest they stay in America this time. Eduardo advises Dom to stay hidden in the bunk room when they arrive the next day until he can sneak him off the boat. Then, Dom must find his way to Mulberry Street where folks from Napoli live. Eduardo wishes Dom luck and tells the boy to put his shoes on. 

The next morning, ignoring Eduardo’s instructions, Dom hides elsewhere, hoping to stay onboard. He falls asleep, and when he wakes, the horn blares as the ship pulls away from shore. When Dom shouts with joy, Franco finds him and throws him overboard.

Frantic, Dom, swims to the dock and clings to a barnacle-covered pole that cuts his hands. He worries about being crushed by an incoming ship and calls for help. A dock worker hears him and retrieves someone who can speak Italian. Although the dialect sounds strange to the boy, he understands. Another man jumps in the water and swims to Dom, dragging him ashore. On land, men talk and assume Dom is from a wealthy family because of his shoes. Someone wraps a cloth around him and carries him through crowds of people talking in funny languages. 

When no one claims him, Dom is returned to a different ship, believed to be a third-class passenger because of his ripped pants. He is forced to stay in horrible conditions below deck. Quarantine officers board and remove anyone believed to be sick. Days later, Dom awakes to find that his socks and prayer tassels are gone. Distraught, Dom longs for Napoli, not a new life.