Geremio
The event which drives the narrative is the collapse of a building in a man named Geremio is working. The falls lands him stuck the concrete of the title where he dies with arms outstretched, crucifixion-like. That the story begins on Good Friday only cements—literally—the symbolism of Geremio as a Christ-like figure.
The Building Collapse
The collapse of the building due to shoddy construction materials and the subsequent cooked investigation which shifts the blame from the company to the workers is the defining symbol of the narrative. The literal collapse of the building which killed his father reflects Geremio’s son Paul’s gradual collapse of faith in all the institutionalized systems supposedly designed to help the underprivileged.
Father John’s Feast
One of those institutions is the Catholic Church. When Paul seeks the assistance of Father John for charitable assistance from the diocese to help with his family’s sudden financial disaster, he is met with an astonishing lack of empathy. To this injury is added the insult that at the time Father John is enjoying a literal feast for himself that could likely satisfy the appetites of half his tenement for the night. This juxtaposition symbolizes the capitalistic corruption of the Catholic Church in America.
Job
The word "job" is capitalized and made manifestly symbolic in the novel. Although the context signifies an obvious allegorical connection to the put-upon figure of suffering sharing the same name in the Bible, the real symbolism at work here are the words which do not appear: Job symbolizes the fruitlessly empty myth that the American Dream can be attained simply by believing in and adhering to the Protestant work ethic which allegedly built America.
Boss Murdin
Mr. Murdin owns the Murdin Construction Company, making him the boss of Geremio at the time of the man’s death. He successfully orchestrates a ruling which places the blame for the accident squarely on the backs of the “Eyetalian” laborers whom he simply cannot keep from injuring themselves no matter how much he tries. Murdin is the central symbolic incarnation of the bottomless evil of American capitalism at its top echelons of power and who walk away scot free and pay no penalty for murd’in' people on the job.
