How is the theme of appearance and reality important to the development of many of the novel’s storyline threads

How is the theme of Appearance and Reality important to the development of many of the novel’s storyline threads?

The elemental question always is are you who you "portray" yourself to be to others? That is, we dress and act a certain way when we are with other people but is this really who we are. So, I think the theme of appearance and reality plays out particularly in the case of Nino who we meet in his friendship with Guiseppi in the old country and Vincent in the new country. Which is the real person? It is also addressed in the theme of the movies themselves where artifice is the nature of the game. I think ultimately the author is trying to show that we all strive to be ourselves but sometimes gets stuck in situations where we realize that maybe who we are we might not want always to be. This is a great question!

Hollywood is famous for smoke and mirrors, many of the characters in this novel were not what they seemed. The pretense of projecting a false narrative often had harmful results on the character's life.

On page 58, Maria's mother replies to Maria's comment about drinking alcohol by saying "What you don't know about me would fill a library." There are aspects of appearance versus reality in not only Marra's characters' lives but to some degree in every adult's life - people not wanting to discuss/putting on a public front of their marriage or partnership is perfect and their kids are all doing so well (watch for the intro line of "I'm not saying this because he/she is my child, but..."; politicians promising things that never come to fruition; governments pretending they're defending freedom when they are supporting puppet leaders in developing countries for manipulation of natural resources... it never ends. So of course, the Hollywood appearance v. reality is anther part of that: fake news releases, actors pretending to be who they are not- from stage names to love relationships. It has been a part of life since recorded history.

Hollywood has always been the land of make-believe. Just look at the back lots, all designed to represent real places (New York City, small town, or European city streets, for example). But they're all false fronts. Just like movie sets where doors open, but lead only to the backstage area. Hollywood is founded upon making things appear to be things that they really aren't.

And that was truer nowhere in the story than with the casting of Eddie and other performers to play characters far from who they really were. At one point, Marra described how Chinese-Americans portrayed Japanese characters, Protestants portrayed Catholics and vice versa, etc. (That was decades before Lin-Manuel Miranda made history by employing a diverse cast to portray the Founding Fathers to make a very different point.) Eddie's story about just wanting to play a variety of parts without being limited by his ancestry, race, and skin color was emotionally riveting.

In order to survive and find freedom, Nino decides to appear to be Vincenzo, stealing his identity in order to create a life for himself. Maria tries to save her father by making him appear to be someone he wasn't really - a compliant, complicit citizen rather than an outspoken critic of the fascist regime. She attempts to burn the writings that reveal his real thoughts and feelings, and threaten to bring destruction to him and their family, unwittingly bringing about that destruction herself. Maria has to appear to her colleagues and Artie, her boss, in command at all times, never dssuaded or hurt by the misogyny to which she is regularly subjected. She cannot let her vulnerabliyt show or it will exacerbate the way that she and other women are perceived in the workplace. (Women were seen as "the weaker sex.") Bela Lugosi even resorts to appearing to be another actor impersonating him, joining his fellow impersonators (Clark Cable and Judy Garland) in delighting and entertaining movie fans! And Artie strives to appear to be a faithful husband, even though he's not fooling his wife, Mildred.