The Godfather

“That was the mark of the Don’s humanity. He knew from bitter experience what courage it took to ask a favor from a fellow man.”

The Don is being asked for favors during his daughter’s wedding, as is customary in Sicilian culture. In this first scene, in which readers are introduced to Don Corleone, his behavior characterize him directly. But the reader also receives strong impressions of him from the indirect characterization offered by the other guests and members of the family. This statement also hints to a painful past which continues to shape his behavior towards others.

“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

This line, delivered by Don Corleone, is one of the most famous in the novel. Additionally, thanks to Coppola’s film adaptation, it is one of the most famous lines in cinema as well. But it also displays one of Don Corleone’s most fundamental business strategies: to not give his adversary an opportunity to refuse or make the consequences of refusal so dire that it is not really an option.

“As he watched, Tom Hagen disentangled himself from his wife’s arms and lowered her back onto the sofa […]. He strode into the office without another look at his still-sobbing wife. He hadn’t lived with the Corleone Family ten years for nothing, Michael thought with a queer flush of pride. Some of the old man had rubbed off on him, as it had on Sonny, and he thought, with surprise, even on himself.”

With the shooting of Don Corleone, suddenly the next generation of the Corleone family is called into action. Having recently been named consigliere, Tom is ready to get to work. In this scene, he puts the needs of the Corleone family above those of his wife, which Michael views with pride. They all understand that loyalty to the Corleone family must take precedent over their own families. This is also one of the first moments Michael sees himself as an insider, instead of an outsider.

“The emotion in his voice shamed Sonny, who said, ‘Oh, Christ, Tom, I didn’t mean it that way.’ But he had, really. Blood was blood and nothing else was its equal.”

Although Tom grew up in the Corleone family, he is always an outsider. This is exemplified in this quote, as Sonny implies that the Don’s shooting means less to him than it does to the Corleones. This idea, that family and blood are everything, is one of the foundations of the Mafia family system.

“‘The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping on the bottom of the ocean,’ he said. ‘It’s an old Sicilian message.’”

The fact that Tom is the one who must explain this to Michael shows how much of an outsider Michael is to his own family—and how much of an insider Tom really is. Michael is stung by these reminders, even though he is the one who chose to leave the family. This line, which was changed to “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes,” became one of the most famous quotes in the 1972 movie.

“He was surprised to find himself so secretive with Kay. He loved her, he trusted her, but he would never tell her anything about his father or the Family. She was an outsider.”

As Michael is drawn deeper into family business, he quickly reverts to the more traditional way that the men in the Corleone family treat their women: keeping them outside. Michael is surprised because he still has not realized that he is more a part of his family than he realizes. This moment is one of the first steps along his transformation into the new Don.

“He saw the captain give him a triumphant glance and he tried to answer that glance with a smile. At all costs he wanted to hide the delicious icy chilliness that controlled his brain, the surge of wintry-cold hatred that pervaded his body. He wanted to give no warning to anyone in this world as to how he felt at this moment. As the Don would not.”

Michael has just been hit by Captain McCluskey, who now thinks he has gotten the better of Michael. Instead of showing his pain and anger, he hides it from McCluskey. This is one of his father’s fundamental rules, which Michael now embodies. He even explicitly acknowledges that he is modeling his behavior after the Don. Michael’s pivotal confrontation with McCluskey will forever change the young man’s destiny.

“Michael stood up. ‘You’d better stop laughing,’ he said. The change in him was so extraordinary that the smiles vanished from the faces of Clemenza and Tessio. Michael was not tall or heavily built but his presence seemed to radiate danger. In that moment, he was a reincarnation of Don Corleone himself.”

Sonny, Tessio, and Clemenza are laughing at Michael’s assertion that he can kill Sollozzo and McCluskey—Tessio and Clemenza because of what they see as Michael’s bravado, and Sonny because he has been waiting for Michael to show his true self, which he finally has done. Michael’s reaction and resemblance to the Don are enough to make Tessio and Clemenza, as well as the reader, take him more seriously.

“For the second time he saw Michael Corleone’s face freeze into a mask that resembled uncannily the Don’s.”

Tom Hagen, as consigliere, is often the quiet observer during their family meetings. Here, he is the only one who does not laugh when Michael says he will kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. In Michael, he can see shades of the Don which others do not—at least not yet.

“For if he believed what he said, then his life was set on an irrevocable course. And yet, could it be otherwise after tonight?”

Michael is reflecting on his assertion that he will kill Sollozzo. The repercussions of such an act will be dire; if he manages to escape, he will have to leave everything behind until it is safe for him to return. Yet he does not see how he can do anything else. Sollozzo is too dangerous to be left alive, and Michael is the only one who will be able to get close enough to kill him. His destiny has been set.

“And Johnny would have to pass the next test, which would prove how smart he was. He would have to do something for the Don that the Don would never ask him to do or insist that he do as part of the agreement. Hagen wondered if Johnny Fontane was smart enough to figure out that part of the bargain.”

Tom Hagen has gone to Johnny Fontane with an offer from Don Corleone. He will financially back Johnny in a new venture as a movie producer. Although Tom has told Johnny that nothing is expected of him in return, in fact, Don Corleone has something in mind. Tom wonders if Johnny is smart enough to figure out what it is: to bring Nino Valenti to Hollywood to be famous. In the end, he does.

“‘I’ll reason with him’ Vito Corleone said. It was to become a famous phrase in years to come. It was to become the warning rattle before a deadly strike. When he became a Don and asked opponents to sit down and reason with him, they understood it was the last chance to resolve an affair without bloodshed and murder.”

The Don’s famous “reasonableness” is a motif that runs throughout the novel. This quote is the first instance of the Don saying it. The idea of being reasonable is one of the pillars of the Don’s business strategy, but as this quote notes, it belies the serious consequences if one does not accept the Don’s reason.

“Don’t you want to finish school, don’t you want to be a lawyer? Lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks.”

Don Corleone questions Sonny when he wants to leave school. This quote underscores another one of the Don’s pieces of wisdom. He understands the value of legal and political leverage. He also knows that one can make more money with a veneer of legitimacy.

“After a time the cop learns. Why should he not collect the fees these hoodlums are paying? He needs it more. His children, why should they not go to college? Why shouldn’t his wife shop in more expensive places? Why shouldn’t he himself get the sun with a winter vacation in Florida? After all, he risks his life and that is no joke. But usually he draws the line against accepting dirty graft.”

With this quote, Puzo shows yet another side to the corruption that permeates New York City: the graft of the police force. However, the officers have defined a line between clean and dirty graft. Clean graft is not even considered a crime by them, but dirty graft, like McCluskey’s involvement in narcotics, is unacceptable. This is the main reason why the police do not bother to search harder for McCluskey’s murderer.

“And then his optimism returned. It could all go well. Don Corleone was a clever man. Certainly everything had been arranged to keep the secret. He had only to keep his nerve. For of course the one thing more fatal than any other was to earn the Don’s displeasure.”

Amerigo Bonasera, who the reader encountered at the very beginning of the book, asked the Don to punish the two men who beat his daughter. In return, he owed Don Corleone a debt, which he is now being asked to repay. He is nervous but recognizes that he essentially has no choice in the matter. This point will be illustrated throughout the book, as Puzo highlights the effects of being in debt to the Don.

“[I]n her life with the Don she had learned it was far wiser not to perceive. That if it was necessary for her to know something painful, it would be told to her soon enough. And if it was a pain that could be spared her, she could do without. She was quite content not to share the pain of her men, after all did they share the pain of women?”

This is a rare insight into the mind of Carmella Corleone, the Don’s wife. She has been with the Don since she was 16 and throughout the growth of his business. She fatalistically accepts her separation from the business. She sees the business as the world of men, offering a different perspective when she questions why she should have the burden of their pain, since they do not share the burden of her pain.

“They were men who guarded their free will with wiles and murder. Their wills could be subverted only by death. Or the utmost reasonableness.”

The people who run the Mafia families are men who have chosen to operate outside of the American system because they believe the system has nothing to offer them. The only thing that can change their minds is reasonableness, one of Don Corleone’s most important qualities.

“As he had known it would, that made them take him seriously. By admitting his crime he inspired belief in his claim of high competence.”

Jules Segal has just informed Johnny Fontane and Nino Valenti that he was criminally charged as an abortionist in New York. He understands that to acknowledge his crime makes him more trustworthy and inspires more confidence in his ability to do the job. This highlights Johnny and Nino’s connection to the Sicilian culture that defines the Mafia system; they have more trust in a man who has not allowed the authorities to make his decisions for him.

“‘Tell my father to get me home,’ Michael said. ‘Tell my father I wish to be his son.’”

Michael is recuperating from his injuries after Apollonia is killed by a car bomb. He has decided to return to New York and become a part of the Corleone family business. With Apollonia’s death, Michael’s transformation into the future Don has been accelerated. In addition, his time in Sicily has given him a new perspective that helps him understand the Mafia culture.

“Dinner focused on Michael as they ate. They all noted his resemblance in speech and manner to the Don. In some curious ways he inspired the same respect, the same awe, and yet he was perfectly natural, at pains to put everyone at their ease.”

In Las Vegas, Michael shows a bit of his new authority to Johnny Fontane and his brother Fredo, among others. People are beginning to see Michael assume the manner of his father as he slowly transforms into the Godfather. Yet, as the quote illustrates, he is relaxed, as if he is already completely competent in his new role. He is utilizing one of the Don’s strategies: to reveal nothing.

“For the end of this trip meant that he finally had to take the action he had been groomed for over the last three years. The Don would be waiting for him. The caporegimes would be waiting for him. And he, Michael Corleone, would have to give the orders, make the decisions which would decide his and his Family’s fate.”

Michael is returning to New York after his trip to Las Vegas. Once there, he is going to put a plan in motion—a plan which readers are not privy to yet. One can sense that this plot has been in motion for a long time, and that Michael is simply going to be the one to finally move it forward. It is really the Don’s plan, but in order that he not break his word, Michael must take the action.

“Tessio had a better opinion of Michael. He sensed something else in the young man: a force cleverly kept hidden, a man jealously guarding his true strength from public gaze, following the Don’s precept that a friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults.”

Tessio is one of the few men in this meeting that seems to understand what Michael is really made of. This is ironic, because Tessio is also the one who will betray Michael to the Barzini family. But both impulses are characteristic of Tessio, who is smart, quiet, and observant, as opposed to Clemenza.

“In their eyes he was not yet the new Don; he had not earned the position or the title. If the Godfather had lived, he might have assured his son’s succession; now it was by no means certain.”

The other men in this first meeting with Michael still do not see him as their boss,. His rise to power has been rushed by his father’s ill health, and they do not think he has had the training and experience to lead the Corleone family. Michael will have to prove himself worthy of being the Don before his authority will ever be fully accepted.