Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Godfather, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Crime and Justice
Power
Masculinity and Patriarchy
Family
Loyalty and Betrayal
Summary
Analysis
The 1947 war between the Corleone and Tattaglia families proves costly to both sides, especially since police departments are clamping down on their “protection” for various mob rackets until they solve the murder of McCluskey. Eventually, however, newspapers print stories containing definitive proof (which Tom Hagen supplies) that links McCluskey to Sollozzo’s drug rackets. The revelation shocks police departments across the city not because McCluskey had taken graft, but because “he had taken the dirtiest of dirty money; murder and drugs money.” In the complex code of police morality, McCluskey’s transgression is “unforgivable.”
Much as Don Corleone struggles to differentiate “legitimate” crime from a “dirty” business like drugs, New York’s corrupt cops try to draw a line at what constitutes acceptable graft. In both cases, drugs prove to be the deciding factor, as both police and the Don think trafficking in drugs is a step too far for both groups. This conclusion, however, is not universal, and other cops (McCluskey) and other mobsters (Sollozzo) see no fault with dealing in the most profitable of criminal rackets. Like Don Corleone, the cops who think drugs are too “dirty” are fighting a losing battle that profit, not morality, will always win.
Themes
Hagen knows that police will justify modest graft such as gambling and prostitution because they perform dangerous, often unappreciated work for low pay. Police, however, draw a firm line at “dirty graft” that puts them in league with known murderers and drug dealers, whose actions attack police officers’ “personal authority” and therefore “cannot be countenanced.” As the police “desire for vengeance” against the Mafia fades, departments once again let the Families operate most of their operations with minimal interference.
Police and mobsters alike are deeply concerned with maintaining at least some level of unquestioned authority in their respective organizations. Ironically, despite their antagonistic relationship, the police and the mob collaborate in order to maintain a certain level of authority in their respective organizations. Thus, the police tolerate several mob rackets, while the mob must observe that only extreme circumstances justify the gangland murder of a police captain.
Themes
By mid-February, following the Christmastime attack on his life, Don Corleone’s family moves him from the hospital back to the mall, which is now an “impregnable” fortress rife with guards at all ends. Don Corleone’s surgeon, Dr. Kennedy, forbids him from discussing any business matters, but the Don plans to ignore this edict. Meanwhile, Fredo now works in Las Vegas, where he helps run a luxury hotel-casino complex under the protection of a California Don. The hotel-casino is part of the Corleone Family’s West Coast empire.
The Don’s departure from the hospital reveals that despite his godlike status, he is indeed a mortal man. He is still too injured to work, and his home becomes a fortress built to protect him from further treachery. Meanwhile, in a symbolic move, Fredo, the son who failed to protect his father in his hour of greatest need, has been far removed from the Don’s presence and sent to work in the Family’s Las Vegas rackets. This physical separation further underscores Fredo’s unworthiness to fill his father’s shoes as boss of the Family.
Themes
After informing Don Corleone about Michael and the murders of Sollozzo and McCluskey, Hagen and Sonny exit Don Corleone’s bedroom to discuss the ongoing war between the Corleones and the Five Families. Tessio explains that the other families have lost money in the wake of the McCluskey affair, and they justifiably blame the Corleones. He reasons that unless the Corleone Family negotiates a deal with the Five Families to participate in narcotics distribution, the other families will continue to attack the Corleones’ bookmaking and gambling operations. Sonny refuses any narcotics involvement until the Don decides otherwise.
Don Corleone’s unique talent for negotiation proves to be a major weakness for his Family once he is temporarily unable to fulfill his role as boss of the Family. While Michael’s killing of Sollozzo and McCluskey was necessary to save the Don’s life, it has pit the Corleones in a war with the Five Families that cannot be won through violence alone.
Themes
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Hagen states that because the Corleone Family’s money comes from “bookmaking and policy,” it is therefore “out in the open” and vulnerable to attacks. By contrast, the other families’ money is not “out in the street” because they control prostitution, loansharking, and union infiltration—operations that are, by nature, more clandestine and therefore less vulnerable to attack. Meanwhile, the Five Families continue to murder Corleone associates in the garment and banking sectors, and they manage to persuade Corleone bookmakers to switch their loyalties to the other families. These attacks force Sonny and the caporegimes to “go to the mattresses.”
Ironically, Don Corleone’s refusal to traffic in drugs, lest it harm his other businesses, has still brought harm to his other businesses. In a display of power and contempt for the Don’s moralizing stance, the Five Families intentionally target the very same rackets that Don Corleone sought to protect from blowback caused by drug trafficking. Sonny’s decision to “go to the mattresses” reflects his helplessness to do anything but fight until the Don is fit enough to negotiate again.
Themes
The Mafia war reveals the Corleones are unsuited for a protracted struggle. Tessio and Clemenza are competent caporegimes, but their age and mellowed ruthlessness hampers their fighting ability. Tom Hagen is also not suited to be a wartime Consigliere due to his preference for negotiation over violence. Moreover, Sonny is unable to address these weaknesses because he is only acting Don and therefore must still defer to the still-recovering Don Corleone on major Family matters. The war is now in a stalemate, but only because the Five Families have not yet dealt a crippling blow to the Corleone Family.
At the beginning of the novel, the Corleone Family enjoys a position of power and dominance within New York’s Mafia underworld. Power, however, attracts those who wish to take that power from themselves, and the shooting of Don Corleone reveals the many structural inadequacies in his Family that left it vulnerable to attack. However, while the other Families have weakened the Corleones, they have not yet broken them.
Themes
