The Godfather
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32
Characters
All CharactersDon Vito CorleoneSantino “Sonny” CorleoneMichael CorleoneFrederico “Fredo” CorleoneConstanzia “Connie” CorleoneMama CorleoneThomas “Tom” HagenJohnny FontanePeter “Pete” ClemenzaSalvatore “Sal” TessioVirgil “The Turk” SollozzoCaptain Mark McCluskeyLuca BrasiKay AdamsJack WoltzPaulie GattoRocco LamponeNino ValentiDr. Jules SegalLucy ManciniCarlo RizziAmerigo BonaseraMargot AshtonNazorineAlbert “Al” NeriFabrizzioGenco AbbandandoLes HalleyJerry Wagner and Kevin MoonanDon FanucciThe Bocchicchio FamilyEmilio BarziniFelix BocchicchioAl CaponeMoe Greene
Terms
Symbols
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The Godfather
byMario Puzo
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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
The Godfather tells the story of the Corleone Family, in which the primary protagonists are the leaders of a New York-based Mafia organization—first Don Vito Corleone and then his son, Michael Corleone. Perhaps it should be no surprise that in a novel in which the “bad guys” are the focus of the story that the concepts of crime and justice are, at their core, complicated.
The primary source of the complicated nature of crime…
Power
In its portrayal of the rise of the Corleone crime Family to power, and its central family’s struggle to maintain that power in the face of various competing factions, both inside and outside the family, The Godfather explores the nature of power. The novel’s exploration of power proceeds at two different levels. First, it examines interpersonal and organizational power, the qualities required in leaders to build and run organizations. Second, it explores the differences between…
Masculinity and Patriarchy
The Godfather is a novel in which men dominate. The novel is primarily about men—most of the characters are male. And those men engage constantly in a fight for dominance over the other men around them. In addition, it is accepted as a matter of course among these men that they should dominate the women in their lives. Many of the men in the novel view women not as equal human beings, but as objects…
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Family
Family is essential in The Godfather, but it is also complicated. Puzo’s novel focuses on Don Corleone and his blood relatives, as well as the relatives and associates that make up the Corleone Family. It is impossible, however, for Don Vito (and later Michael Corleone) to maintain duel loyalties to both families because the two are interwoven. The crime Family is the blood family’s source of income, and as such, Don Vito much…
Loyalty and Betrayal
The Corleone Family prizes loyalty and considers betrayal to be a transgression punishable by death. However, because the Mafia’s goal is to seek power and make money by most any illegal means possible, it is a breeding ground for traitors seeking to get more than they currently have. Foiling likely attempts at betrayal, in fact, is built into the very structure of the organization. Below the Don of the Family (Don Corleone)…
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