The Godfather

The Godfather

by

Mario Puzo

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The Godfather: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Amerigo Bonasera, a Sicilian-American undertaker, sits in a New York City courtroom awaiting the sentence of two men who viciously attacked his daughter. The judge chastises the offenders, but suspends their sentence due to their fathers’ political connections and their clean records. A furious Bonasera watches the men leave the courtroom. He thinks about his daughter lying in her hospital bed “with her broken jaw wired together.” Bonasera has long trusted the law, but now he feels the law has failed him. He tells his grieving wife, “for justice we must go on our knees to Don Corleone.”
The novel opens by highlighting the major theme of crime and justice that runs throughout the story. Through the court’s failure to adequately punish the men who assaulted Bonasera’s daughter, Puzo presents Don Corleone, and, by extension, the Mafia, as an alternative system of justice that has the courage to do what the legitimate law cannot, or will not, do.
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It is 4:00 a.m., and Johnny Fontane, a famous singer and actor, is drinking scotch in his lavish Los Angeles hotel suite. Soon, his second wife, the alluring actress, Margot Ashton, opens the door. Johnny asks where she has been. Margot tells him that she was “out fucking.” The drunken Johnny knocks her to the floor and beats her, but he cannot bring himself to damage her beautiful actress’s face. Sensing this weakness, Margot tanuts him before locking herself in the bedroom. The humiliated Johnny decides that only “his Godfather Corleone” can save him from his despair.
As a character, Johnny Fontane is emblematic of the male-centric world that Puzo has created. Within the Mafia’s wide orbit, women exist not as equal human beings, but as objects upon which men hang their own problems and shortcomings. Fontane, for example, hypocritically resents Margot for cheating on him even though he is a consummate womanizer, as will soon become clear. That he cannot bring himself to damage her face suggests that he feels some guilt for abusing her, though he seems far more concerned about hurting her beauty than hurting her—yet another indication that women are treated like objects by the novel’s male characters.
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A rotund New York baker named Nazorine watches his daughter, Katherine, and her boyfriend, Enzo, an Italian prisoner of war paroled to work in America as a baker’s helper. Much to Nazorine’s disapproval, the couple are flirting while on the job. Nazorine wants Enzo sent back to Sicily, but his wife, Filomena, urges the baker to secure Enzo’s status is America so that he can marry Katherine. Nazorine knows there is “only one man who could arrange such an affair. The Godfather. Don Corleone.”
Much like Bonasera and Fontane, Nazorine the baker decides that only Don Corleone can give him justice. Whether the Don’s “justice” exists within the realm of the legitimate law does not matter to these men. They go to Don Corleone because he will not constrain their passions with the law.
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Bonasera, Fontane, and Nazorine are among hundreds who attend the August 1945 wedding of Don Vito Corleone’s daughter, Constanzia “Connie” Corleone, to her groom, Carlo Rizzi. The ceremony and reception take place on the expansive grounds of the Corleone family home, known as “the mall.” Guests lavish the new couple with envelopes that swell with cash to show their loyalty to Don Corleone. Vito is “a man to whom everybody came for help” because he disappoints no one. He requires only that people swear their loyalty and friendship to him, as well the promise of future services, in exchange for his aid.
The opening wedding celebration serves as a demonstration of Don Corleone’s power and wealth. His estate is vast and brimming with loyal subjects like a monarch’s castle. Like a king in past eras, the Don operates as a stand-in for God on earth. People come to Don Corleone professing their eternal servitude in exchange for his graces. Like God, the Don can make promises that other men cannot fulfill. This ability is the root of his power.
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Don Corleone, the Sicilian-American patriarch of the Corleone Family, observes the wedding festivities from the doorway of his Long Beach, New York, home. It is customary for a Sicilian to grant requests from loyal friends on his daughter’s wedding day, and he “received everyone—rich and poor, powerful and humble—with an equal show of love.” Many of the people who decorated for, and serve at, the wedding are among the friends who are in his debt.
Here, Puzo demonstrates the Don’s simultaneously benevolent and malevolent nature. Don Corleone dispenses favors for the rich and poor alike, but he does so not out of generosity, but for personal gain. To receive the Don’s favors necessitates being forever in his debt. This is not a relationship centered on friendship; rather, the Don masks his greed and coercion with the veneer of friendship and generosity.
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Also standing at the door with him are the Don’s two elder sons. The eldest, Santino “Sonny” Corleone, is a tall, powerful man with a Cupid-like face, a quick temper, and notoriously large phallus. The middle son, Frederico “Fredo” Corleone is short, burly, and curly haired. He is deeply loyal to his father but lacks the charisma “so necessary for a leader of men.” The Don’s youngest son, Michael Corleone, sits further away at a table with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay Adams, whom he met while attending Dartmouth College. Michael is short but handsome, and he has his father’s calm demeanor.
Puzo quickly establishes that Don Corleone is looking for a successor to run his crime Family. Each of his sons appear to have individual qualities that qualify them for the role, but each son seems to lack the combination of qualities befitting a successful Don. Sonny is strong and violent but not wise, Fredo is deeply loyal but lacks charm, and Michael is calm and independent but lacks loyalty.
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The wedding guests notice that Don Corleone pays little attention to Michael. Before the outbreak of World War II, Michael was the Don’s favorite son. Michael, however, joined the Marine Corps and fought in the Pacific, where he became a Captain and earned medals for bravery. Don Corleone, however, believes that loyalty to family supersedes loyalty to country, and huffs that Michael “performs those miracles for strangers.” Don Corleone eventually arranges Michael’s discharge from the military by convincing a doctor to forge paper’s claiming that Michael has a disabling wound.
Despite being Don Corleone’s favorite son, Michael rebels against his father and his larger crime Family by joining the military. In this manner, Puzo sets Michael up to become a tragic prodigal son who has the initial courage to reject his family’s obsession with loyalty, but who ultimately falls prey to that obsession later in the novel.
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Michael sits with Kay, whose attention turns to a group of men gathered around a barrel of homemade wine. The men are Amerigo Bonasera, Luca Brasi, and Anthony Coppola. Michael explains to Kay that the men are waiting to see his father in private because “they have favors to ask.” As Don Corleone stands greeting guests, a black car parks outside of the mall. Sonny quickly realizes the car’s occupants are cops. He angrily approaches the car and learns that the men are FBI. He spits at their feet and returns to the wedding.
This segment demonstrates that Don Corleone draws two types of people: those seeking favors, and those seeking to punish him for distributing such favors. Puzo emphasizes this pattern throughout the book, as the Don spends his time building contacts and dispensing favors while dodging the vengeance and ire of law enforcement and rival mobsters.
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 Don Corleone understands that being a Mafia Don attracts the presence of law enforcement. He disapproves of Sonny’s angry display because he values restraint and patience, comfortable in the knowledge that “the most humble of men, if he keeps his eyes open, can take his revenge on the most powerful.” Soon a band begins to play in the garden, where hundreds of guests celebrate the new couple. The bride and groom sit with their wedding party at a raised table. At her parents’ insistence, Connie agreed to a traditionally ostentatious Sicilian ceremony.
Among the secrets to Don Corleone’s success as a Mafia boss is his ability to avoid openly playing the role of a criminal. Rather than accost the FBI as Sonny does, the Don accepts their presence as an inevitable consequence of his role as a Mafia Don. Don Corleone’s patience allows him to successfully plot against his enemies behind closed doors, rather than out in the open.
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Connie is “not quite pretty” but nonetheless gleaming in her wedding dress. Her groom, Carlo, is half Sicilian and half northern. He is a burly former laborer from Nevada who greedily eyes the piles of gift envelopes. Because he has married into “a royal family,” he dreams of a life of impending luxury. In the crowd, Paulie Gatto, a soldier in the Corleone Family, also eyes the wedding envelopes while his boss, the fat Corleone caporegime (captain) Peter “Pete” Clemenza, dances and drinks copious amounts of wine.
The theme of loyalty and betrayal underpins Puzo’s novel. This segment early in the novel, however, shows why betrayal is built into the Mafia’s very structure. Puzo depicts two of the novel’s most significant traitors, Paulie and Carlo, lusting after the Corleone Family’s wealth. In a Mafia subculture where the temptation to constantly line one’s pockets is ever-present, treachery is a constant, and inevitable, threat.
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Quotes
As the wedding band takes a break, a musician named Nino Valenti plays the mandolin while Sonny flirts with Lucy Mancini, the maid of honor with whom he is having an affair despite being a married man. From inside Don Corleone’s office, the acting Family Consigliere (advisor), Tom Hagen, gives the Don the list of men who will meet with him.
Connie Corleone’s wedding provides an opportunity for the Corleone men to engage in their business while the women tend to marriage and family. This separation of the genders into distinct, and unequal, spheres is characteristic of the Mafia’s approach to gender relations.
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First, the Don meets Nazorine, who has contributed money to the bakery union that Don Corleone controls. The Don agrees to use his corrupt political connections to secure Enzo’s stay in America. Next, Don Corleone gives $500 to Anthony Coppola so that he can open up a pizza parlor. Coppola is the son of one of the Don’s long-time friends. The Don then meets with his loyal enforcer, Luca Brasi, a fearsome, violent, nihilistic man who fears neither death, other men, nor hell, but who “had chosen, to fear and love Don Corleone.”
This passage highlights the two primary means by which Don Corleone cultivates and wields his power. He avoids violence when merely pulling strings will do, bribing politicians and businessmen and cashing in on favors that men like Nazorine promise him. When violence is necessary, however, he turns to men like Luca Brasi to do the dirty work for him. The violent enforcer embodies crime without conscience. He is less a human and more of a tool that Don Corleone uses to further his own wealth and power.
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Quotes
Luca Brasi’s fierce reputation always precedes him. Michael Tells Kay, much to her shock,) that Brasi once single-handedly killed six men who threatened Don Corleone’s olive oil business. His reputation aside, however, Brasi humbly congratulates the Don with a wedding gift. Meanwhile, Michael tells Kay more about his family, including how his father unofficially adopted and raised the orphaned Tom Hagen. Inside the house, Sonny and Lucy have sex in an upper bedroom while Sonny’s wife, Sandra, gossips with the other guests.
At the wedding, Kay experiences the Corleone Family’s brutality and kindness in equal measure. From Michael, she learns that Don Corleone orders men to be killed, but is also capable of great kindness, like informally adopting Tom Hagen. By presenting the Corleone Family as both savage and loving, Puzo allows readers to both relate to, and be repulsed by, the Family’s behavior.
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In his office, Don Corleone meets with Amerigo Bonasera, who begs the Don to murder the two men who assaulted his daughter. At first, Don Vito rebukes Bonasera for spurning his friendship and relying on the police for justice. After Bonasera swears his loyalty, Don Corleone tells him “you shall have your justice,” but reminds the undertaker that “Some day, […] I will call upon you to do me a service in return.”
Don Corleone outwardly chastises Bonasera for not showing him “friendship,” but what he is really doing is forcing the undertaker to swear his eternal loyalty, ensuring that the man is in the Don’s debt. For those in the Mafia, “friendships” are always contingent on services rendered.
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Quotes
Johnny Fontane arrives at the wedding and sings a song. The Don then meets with Johnny, who is his godson. Johnny complains that his voice is shot and that his second wife doesn’t respect him. He also asks the Don to convince the film producer Jack Woltz, who personally despises Johnny, to cast him in a film that will revive his flagging career. Don Corleone agrees to help Johnny, but he chastises him for divorcing his first wife, Ginny, and for failing to act “LIKE A MAN.” When Johnny asks how the Don will convince Woltz to cast him in the movie, Don Corleone assures him that “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
The Godfather is a story about men who build their conception of masculinity around dominating women. Here, Don Corleone berates Fontane for not living up to his role as a family patriarch. When Johnny wallows in his misery, the Don tells him to act “like a man,” suggesting that an outward display of emotion, such as feeling sorry for oneself, is feminine behavior and therefore inherently negative coming from a man. “Real” men, according to the Don, display their power and dominance by making offers that other men “can’t refuse.”
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Quotes
Tom Hagen reminds Don Corleone that he must soon meet with narcotics dealer Virgil Sollozzo to discuss a possible partnership. The Don then instructs Hagen to go to California to meet with Jack Woltz. In the meantime, Don Corleone brings his three sons and Johnny Fontane to the hospital to visit the old Consigliere, Genco Abbandando, who is dying of cancer. Before he leaves for the hospital, Michael tells Kay about the time his father and Luca Brasi threatened to kill a bandleader named Les Halley unless he released Fontane from a bad performing contract.
Don Corleone acts as a cross between a businessman and a politician, as he delegates tasks to various underlings and pays his respects to a loyal follower. To those observing from the outside, The Don acts like any other powerful man. Kay’s inquiry into his behind-the-scenes criminality, however, allows the audience to glimpse what they will soon see in full: however much he seems like any other powerful man, the Don is a criminal.
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At the hospital, Genco implores the “GodfatherDon Corleone to save him from death. The Don admits that such an act is beyond his power, but he stays with the old Consigliere until he passes away. Later that evening, Gatto and Clemenza drive Kay back to her New York City hotel. The next day, Don Corleone officially makes Tom Hagen the new Consigliere, a controversial move since the German-Irish Hagen is filling a position traditionally reserved only for Sicilians. Hagen then boards a flight bound for California.
Throughout the novel, Puzo frequently compares Don Corleone to God. The Don is a family patriarch with more power than most men have, so this comparison often seems appropriate. In this passage, the Don flexes his power by appointing the non-Sicilian Hagen as new Consigliere. However, the Don is also still human: unlike God, he cannot save Genco from death. This limit on his power will prove costly later in the novel.
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As a child, the orphaned Hagen befriended Sonny and won the grace of Vito Corleone, who took him in and raised him as his own son. Hagen attended law school and worked as a lawyer before accepting the Don’s offer to work full-time for the Corleone Family. Hagen arrives in Los Angeles and meets with Jack Woltz, a pezzonovante (“big shot”) with powerful connections. Hagen offers to quell labor union agitation and to “handle” a heroin dealer who is selling to one of Woltz’s movie stars if Woltz will cast Fontane in his new picture. Woltz angrily rebuffs Hagen but agrees to meet again later at his lavish Hollywood mansion. 
Although Done Corleone takes in the orphaned Hagen, he never fully adopts him. Instead, the Don grooms Hagen for service to the Family by sanctioning his legal training and then offering him a position in his criminal organization. Hagen, in return, serves Don Corleone not as his father figure but as his employer.    
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Quotes
At the mansion, and upon learning that Hagen represents Don Corleone, Woltz shows him his prized racehorse and treats him to dinner. Woltz tells Hagen that he cannot cast Fontane in the picture because Johnny stole Woltz’s latest actress-girlfriend. When Hagen asks Woltz to reconsider his response to Don Corleone, the producer angrily warns him, “if that Mafia goombah tries any rough stuff, he’ll find out I’m not a band leader.” A disappointed Hagen then flies back to New York, but not before witnessing a mother lead her young daughter out of Woltz’s mansion. At this, Hagen realizes that Woltz is a pedophile.
Puzo skillfully gets readers to sympathize with his Mafia protagonists by portraying them as possessing at least some moral qualms that others do not share. Thus, while Don Corleone and Jack Woltz are both powerful and corrupt men, Woltz is a pedophile and therefore a worse man than the Don is. That Woltz is so vile and deserving of punishment makes the Don’s eventual “persuasion” by use of the racehorse understandable, if not entirely palatable. 
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Back in New York, Paulie Gatto and Pete Clemenza wait in their black car until Jerry Wagner and Kevin Moonan, the two men who beat Bonasera’s daughter, emerge from a bar. The two mobsters jump the men and beat them nearly to death. Don Corleone has fulfilled Bonasera’s desire for justice.
The attack on Wagner and Moonan underscores the major difference between mob justice and legitimate justice. Mafia justice operates under an “eye for an eye” framework, and as such, it is not beholden to legal niceties such as leniency. This decidedly Old Testament brand of justice is fitting for a man like Don Corleone, who often exists as a surrogate for God on earth.
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