Both Puzo’s The Fortunate Pilgrim and Hendin’s The Right Thing to Do demonstrate not only how traditional Italian American codes of behaviors and attitudes towards the family serves as a buffer, mitigating the difficulties of assimilating into a bicultural environment, but also demonstrates how they can become catalysts for rebellion, especially if the standards of those ideals are unrealistic, or ill-adapted for mainstream society. Similar to how changes in Italian American culture, especially through the interplay between traditional Italian and mainstream American culture, can provide insight to the experiences of first-generation Italian immigrants, the resistance against change also provides insight to how changes in traditional Italian