60 pages • 2 hours read
Mario PuzoThe Godfather
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Being Reasonable
In The Godfather, the motif of being “reasonable” is woven throughout the interactions between individuals and families. In particular, Vito Corleone applies the idea of being reasonable, and this motif highlights the Don’s way of doing business. This begins early in the Don’s career: “Even as a young man, Vito Corleone became known as a ‘man of reasonableness.’ He never uttered a threat. He always used logic that proved to be irresistible” (280). It is the key to the Don’s success throughout the novel, even with the heads of the other Mafia families: “They were men who guarded their free will with wiles and murder. Their wills could be subverted only by death. Or the utmost reasonableness” (381). Even the other dons’ worries about whether Don Corleone is still capable of running his family are put to rest following the Don’s speech, after which the consensus is that “[i]t was the Don Corleone of old. Reasonable” (383).
This motif carries through the Don’s retirement and becomes a foundation of the way Michael does business. By utilizing this same word to now describe Michael and his motivations, Puzo draws a strong connection between the Don and Michael. It helps to create an understanding, in the reader, that Michael is the new Don, and has the strategy and intelligence to be as successful as his father. The reader first sees this play out in Las Vegas, when Michael has a run-in with Moe Greene. Throughout their confrontational exchange, “Michael was still quietly reasonable” (518). By using this term, Puzo underscores the idea that Michael has assumed his father’s authority and understands how to wield it.
An American Girl
Another motif that runs throughout The Godfather is the idea of the American girl versus the Italian girl. The Italian girls—specifically the Sicilians—are seen by all the men to be very different from the American girls. To them, an “Italian girl” is traditional and accepting of the traditional gender roles that will certainly be a foundation of their relationship. Vito, at 18, marries “an Italian girl freshly arrived from Sicily, a girl of only sixteen but a skilled cook, a good housewife” (256). In addition, when Johnny Fontane marries his wife, it is because “[s]he was pretty, petite and brunette, a nice Italian girl, the girl next door who would never fool around with another man and that had been important to him” (210). The Italian girl is seen by the Sicilian men to be the ideal wife, who will accept her traditional role in the marriage.
Some of the Italian girls of the younger generation, like Lucy, have been somewhat Americanized, and this is not seen to be a good thing: “The maid of honor, thoroughly Americanized by three years of college, was a ripe girl who already had a ‘reputation’” (18). But Kay Adams is perhaps the best representation of the American girl in the novel. The way she differs from a traditional Italian girl that his family might wish him to marry is one of the things that initially attracts Michael to her. His Italian friends and family at the wedding have a different perspective, seeing her as “the washed-out rag of an American girl” (13). Even Kay sees the distinction between herself and women like Connie when she thinks, “Did he think she was one of those poor benighted Italian girls who would commit suicide or make a scene after giving up her virginity and then being thrown over?” (477) Michael pursues a relationship and eventually marriage to Kay at least in part because of what he sees as her Americanness.
Interestingly, Kay shifts by the end of the novel to integrate herself into the Corleone family and culture. Michael wants her to raise their children in a more American way, shifting away from the traditional Sicilian culture. But by the end, she has converted to Catholicism and attends mass daily with her mother-in-law to pray for her husband’s soul. Essentially, Kay loses the Americanness that Michael prized and embraces the more traditional Sicilian culture.
“It’s business.”
Throughout The Godfather, the men refer to what they are doing as business, even when it has tragic personal consequences. The Mafia families rely on this mantra when something personally injurious occurs, and yet it is in everyone’s best interests, business-wise, not to pursue the matter. When Michael is punched in the face by McCluskey and is bent on revenge, Tom tells him, “McCluskey is a stupid man and it was business, not personal” (189). Sonny agrees, saying, “You’re taking it personal, it’s just business and you’re taking it personal” (172). Even when the Don is shot, Tom says it is business, and Michael understands: “In a curious way Michael, better than anyone else, understood when Tom had said it was just business, not personal. That his father had paid for the power he had wielded all his life, the respect he had extorted from all those around him” (153).
But there is a subtle thread woven throughout the narrative alongside this motif. There is tension between the idea that it is just business, and the idea that everything is personal. Michael believes that is the secret to the Don’s success: “That’s what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal. Like God” (190). Michael underscores this idea later in the book, saying, “It’s all personal, every bit of business. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal as hell” (90). By weaving the motif of business versus personal, Puzo shows the tension between the brutal actions which are often necessary to maintain the family’s businesses, and their need to keep it compartmentalized and away from their personal lives—at least in name.
