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Chapter 28
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
It is a sunny Sunday morning. The Corleone women are attending church and Don Corleone is tending to his garden. He moves among the plants spraying invading ants with his bug sprayer as his young grandson, Michael’s child, draws near. The Don waves his hand to warn the boy away, and then collapses “into the earth.” The child retrieves Michael, who helps the Don to the patio and calls for an ambulance. “Life is so beautiful,” the Don says. They are his final words.
Don Corleone dies a peaceful, pastoral death in his beloved garden. This grace is particularly lucky for a man who spent much of his life living by the sword. The Don’s final words, however, underscore the complicated nature of his legacy. He dies a devoted family man who nonetheless caused great harm to his family, harm that he justified as necessary, if regretful, given the nature of his “business.”
Themes
Don Corleone’s funeral is a “royal” occasion. The Dons of the Five Families attend with their caporegimes and Consiglieres, and a small army of Don Corleone’s friends come to pay their respects. Amerigo Bonasera prepares the Don’s body for its final rest, and in this, he performs his finest work. Michael spends most to the day meeting mourners and discussing plans with his inner circle. He imagines his future now that his father has passed. “He would follow his father. He would care for his children, his family, his world. But his children would grow in a different world.”
Don Corleone’s funeral is a ceremony fit for a king. Yet, just as both loyal subjects and traitors have always surrounded kings, friends and enemies alike attend the Don’s funeral to maintain the veneer of respect in the midst of a bloody Mafia war. Fittingly, the Don’s passing marks the moment where Michael completes his transformation from family outsider into the new leader of the Family. Like his father before him, he now plans to care for “his world,” and his world alone.
Themes
The morning after Don Corleone’s funeral, Michael tells the caporegimes that his plan for moving forward remains unaltered. Clemenza warns him that “the Barzinis and Tattaglias are going to move in on us real hard […] you gotta fight or have a ‘sit-down’ with them.” Tessio adds that Barzini has already attacked by setting up bookmaking operations in Tessio’s Brooklyn territory. Michael assures them that “the Corleone Family is a lot stronger than anybody thinks,” and urges patience.
With Don Corleone gone, the threat the Five Families pose to the Corleones only intensifies. Michael’s confidence in the Family’s position, however, continues to test the loyalty of the caporegimes. This test is intentional on Michael’s part, as it will soon reveal a traitor in his midst.
Themes
Michael then tells Hagen that Don Corleone warned before his death that an inside traitor will betray the Corleone Family by setting up a peace meeting between him and Barzini. Michael knows that this meeting will be a trap for Barzini to kill him. The next morning, Tessio telephones Michael to say that he has set up a peace meeting with Barzini—Tessio is the traitor.
Tessio has dedicated a lifetime of loyal service to Don Corleone, but with the Don’s passing, he reasons that the Family’s future is too uncertain and throws in his lot with the Barzini Family. As betrayal never goes unpunished in the Mafia world, Tessio’s actions will costs him dearly. In the Mafia, a single act of treachery cancels out a lifetime of loyalty.
Themes
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Michael reasons that Tessio’s plan makes sense: by setting up the hit, Tessio stands to inherit the Corleone Family and forge an allegiance with Barzini that will end the long-simmering war between the Five Families. Unlike the late Don Corleone, however, Tessio does not understand that “political connections and power are worth ten regimes.” A day before the scheduled meeting with Barzini, Michael stands as Godfather to Connie and Carlo’s child at a baptism ceremony. “I think Carlo and Mike are going to be real friends now,” Connie tells Kay.
Michael understands Tessio’s reasoning for betraying the Family, demonstrating just how much treachery is an expected part of the Mafia lifestyle. Unlike Michael, however, Tessio underestimates the role that connections have in shoring up a crime Family’s power. As the leader of a crew of soldiers, he has mostly relied on brute force and intimidation to serve the Family, not careful alliances and quiet favors.
Themes
