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
Albert Neri is in his Bronx apartment dressing in his police officer’s uniform to prepare for an important job. Before becoming Michael Corleone’s bodyguard, Neri was among the most feared police officers in New York City. He is physically strong and quick to handle punks with his favored weapon, a long, heavy flashlight. “With awesome, quick ferocity,” he would “beat them bloody and throw them into the patrol car.” His temper caused strains with his wife and nephew, but proved valuable on the job.
Neri’s donning of his police uniform in order to commit crimes in the service of a mob boss is symbolic of the kind of perverse “justice” in which the Mafia specializes. Even as a cop, however, Neri demonstrates the violent qualities that the mob looks for in their members. Like Don Corleone himself, Neri’s fate lies in the underworld.
Themes
One night in Harlem, however, Neri beat a pimp, drug dealer, and abuser named Wax Baines so badly that Baines died. A court convicted Neri of manslaughter and sentenced him to prison. Aware of his tough reputation and Sicilian heritage, the Corleone Family enlisted Tom Hagen to get Neri’s sentence suspended. Disenchanted with legitimate society’s laws, Neri agreed to meet with Don Vito and Michael Corleone. He understood that “the Corleone Family approved that act of his which society condemned and had punished him for.”
Like the other men who come to the Corleone Family for “justice,” Neri first dedicated himself to the legitimate powers who run society. When he feels that legitimate justice has failed him, however, the Mafia is there to welcome him warmly by promising “justice” in exchange for a lifetime of servitude.
Themes
Before his death, Don Corleone believed that Neri could be a new “Luca Brasi” for the Family. Once, Michael asked his father why he used an “animal” like Luca Brasi. “There are men in this world […] who go about demanding to be killed,” the Don told Michael. “Luca Brasi was such a man,” he continued, “most of these people are of no concern to ourselves but a Brasi is a powerful weapon to be used.” Al Neri was just such a man, and after the Don’s passing, he swore his full loyalty to Michael.
Neri’s similarities to Luca Brasi connects Don Corleone’s lineage to his son Michael. Just as the Don relied on Brasi as a directionless tool of malevolence and violence whom the Don could control for his own ends, Michael offers Neri a purpose in life that his previous life as a police officer denied him.
Themes
Back in the present, and dressed in his police uniform, Al Neri prepares to do battle for Don Michael Corleone.
Ironically, Michael murdered a corrupt police officer for colluding with Sollozzo against the Corleone Family. Now, Michael has enlisted a corrupt police officer to save his Family from the war Michael started by murdering a police officer.
Themes
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