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Chapter 1
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
Tom Hagen meets with Don Corleone to discuss the Woltz affair, as well as to plan the upcoming meeting with Virgil Sollozzo. The Don calls Woltz’s pedophilia an infamia (“infamous behavior”) and orders Hagen to punish Woltz for his refusal to cast Fontane in the movie. Soon after this, Woltz awakens one morning to find the severed head of his prized racehorse in his bed, after which he promptly casts Fontane in the movie. That evening, Hagen briefs Don Corleone on Sollozzo. He is a heroin dealer known as “The Turk” due to his skill with a knife and his drug contacts in Turkey.
Woltz’s status as a pedophile provides Don Corleone the moral cover to proceed with his plan to murder an animal to further the career of a selfish womanizer like Fontane. Puzo uses incidences like this to suggest that the slippery slope of criminal behavior makes boundaries difficult to maintain. Yes, Woltz is an awful man who deserves to be punished, but his punisher is a man who is marginally less awful.
Themes
Sollozzo wants to use Don Corleone’s political contacts in order to shield his drug distribution from Sicily into America. Despite both Hagen’s and Sonny’s insistence that “there is more money potential in narcotics than in any other business,” the Don decides he will decline Sollozzo’s offer, but agrees to still meet with him.
Don Corleone’s predetermined rejection of the narcotics business in the face of its enormous profit potential appears to suggest that even crime bosses have some moral standards. The Don’s meeting with Sollozzo, however, will confirm that the Don’s moral standards are themselves informed by selfishness.
Themes
Don Corleone, Sonny, and Hagen meet with the fearsome Sollozzo, who informs them the rival Tattaglia Family is backing his drug trafficking plan. The Turk offers the Don a 50 percent stake in the operation if Don Corleone will share his “payroll” contacts in politics and law enforcement to use as cover for drug distribution. Don Corleone thanks Sollozzo but refuses his offer because narcotics is a “dirty business” that would and scare away his political connections. When Sonny expresses interest in the deal, Don Corleone angrily reminds him to “never let anyone outside the Family know what you are thinking.”
Don Corleone’s refusal of Sollozzo’s lucrative offer demonstrates the old adage that there is no honor among thieves. The Don refuses to join the “dirty” drug trade not because of the negative consequences it could have on broader society, but because doing so might cost him personally, threatening the political contacts that help bolster his illicit wealth and power. Here, Puzo suggests that the Mafia’s primary concern is preserving its power rather than chasing blindly after money.
Themes
It is now around Christmas. Fontane thanks Hagen for securing him the role in Woltz’s new movie and vows to get his Godfather a lavish Christmas gift. Michael also calls to tell Hagen that he and Kay will meet the Don at his Long Beach home on Christmas Day. Hagen walks down a New York City street until Sollozzo stops him in his tracks, and orders him into a nearby car. Meanwhile, Michael and Kay meet in a city hotel room, where they make love before going Christmas shopping. They happily discuss marriage until Michael sees a newspaper headline proclaiming that his father has been shot.
By having Don Corleone’s attempted murder happen near Christmastime, Puzo invokes religious notions of death and rebirth, of the son redeeming the father. Just as the God of the Christian Bible promised to redeem the fallen world through the birth of his son Jesus, Puzo places Michael as the redeemer of his crime Family by making his discovery via the newspaper of his father’s near death the impetus for his eventual role as the Don’s protector and successor.
Themes
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Michael calls Sonny at the mall and learns that Don Corleone’s assassins shot him five times but he is still alive. He also learns that Sollozzo has snatched Tom Hagen.
Don Corleone is mortal after all, but he is still a hard man to kill. Sollozzo’s failure to kill the Don will ultimately seal his own fate.
Themes
The narrative shifts back in time to the afternoon before the Don is shot. That afternoon, the Don’s normal bodyguard, Paulie Gatto, calls in sick, and Don Corleone wonders why Paulie is sick for the third time that month. Fredo offers to drive his father home from his city office. He leaves the office and waits for the Don near his car outside of the building. After he walks out of the building, Don Corleone stops to peruse some fruit in a nearby stand.
This marks one of the key moments in the novel where cars act as harbingers of death. Paulie’s betrayal of the Don forces the weak Fredo to serve as his father’s surrogate bodyguard. In this instance, however, the car Fredo drives does not foreshadow Don Corleone’s death, but the death of his betrayer, Paulie.
Themes
Suddenly, two black-clad men open fire on Don Corleone. Although he is armed, Fredo is afraid to shoot back at the assassins. His father collapses into “a blackish lake of blood” as news photographers swarm the scene. Shortly after the shooting. Detective John Phillips, a cop on the Corleone Family payroll, informs Sonny about the shooting. Enraged, Sonny suspects Sollozzo, but knows the Turk must have powerful allies to have dared such a hit. When Clemenza mentions to Sonny that Paulie was too sick to guard the Don that day, Sonny suspects that Paulie has betrayed the Family.
In this section, Sony displays strengths that make him seem capable of serving as a Don in his father’s absence. He demonstrates intelligence and resourcefulness when he suspects that Sollozzo could not have acted alone and that the Corleones must handle him carefully. He is also the first to suspect that Paulie betrayed Don Corleone, a suspicion that later proves to be true.
Themes
Sonny calls Salvatore “Sal” Tessio, the Brooklyn-based Corleone Family caporegime and orders him to send guards to the hospital and to the mall. He also tells Tessio to bring Michael back to the mall for his own safety. Sonny also wonder what happened to Luca Brasi, who Don Corleone had dispatched to spy on Sollozzo and his allies the Tattaglia Family.
Sollozzo proves a powerful and worthy foe of the Corleone Family. He rightfully recognizes that to take down the Corleones, he must attack their strengths, not their weaknesses. Luca Brasi is a key source of the Corleone Family’s strength, so Sollozzo targets him with vicious effect.
Themes
