The Godfather: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.    

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. 

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.