2. Becoming a Mafia Family
In The Urban Reader, Cahill states that the word “mafia” literally means swank, or dolled up, but it probably derives from a Sicilian term meaning beauty
or pride. In the context of crime, Mafia applies to the older, strictly Sicilian element of the Mob. “La Cosa Nostra” or Our Thing. It is a broader term and it
means the modern American-born organization Cahill 211. Don Vito Corleone comes from Sicily, Italy where Mafia is born. He runs away from Italy to America
because his father is murdered in Italy. Growing up in America makes him become one of the strongest Mafia family heads in America. Grabianowski’s
Mafia History gives explanation that the current structure of the Mafia took centuries to develop. It all began on the island of Sicily. Although there are major
organized crime groups from other parts of Italy, the Sicilian Mafia is generally considered to be the blueprint for all other Mafia organizations. “In Sicily at the
turn of the century the mafia was the second government, far more powerful than the official one in Rome” Puzo 193.
According to Grabianowski’s Mafia History, several unique factors contributed to the development of organized crime on Sicily. The island is located
at an easily accessible and strategically important place in the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, Sicily was invaded, conquered and occupied by hostile forces many
times. This led to an overall distrust of central authority and codified legal systems. The family, rather than the state, became the focus of Sicilian life, and
disputes were settled through a system in which punishment was dealt beyond the limits of the law. As Don Vito is from Sicily where Mafia originates, he knows
how to form and maintain this organized crime.
According to Farley in American Social Problems, an organized crime is similar to a corporate crime that involves large-scale organizations rather than
individuals, but it is different in one very important way. An organized crime appears to be involved in virtually all types of illegal activities, but there clearly
are certain types that are predominate. In general, organized crime provides illegal services for which someone is willing to pay. Thus, illegal gambling, prostitution,
the importation and distribution of illegal drugs, and loan sharking are among the primary activities Farley 141. In the novel there are many businesses that the
Corleone family has: the illegal and legal ones. The legal business is an olive oil importing business named Genco Pura Olive Oil Company.
For the next few years Vito Corleone lived that completely satisfying life of a small business wholly devoted to building up his commercial enterprise in
a dynamic, expanding economy. He was a devoted father and husband but so busy he could spare his family little of his time. As Genco Pura olive oil
grew to become the best selling imported Italian oil in America, his organization mushroomed Puzo 210.
The very first business is at first a satisfying company, but as time goes by, there are a lot of companies like this that make Vito Corleone loose economically.
However, since he had started off relatively helpless, economically, since he did not believe in advertising, relying on word of mouth, and since if truth
be told, his olive oil was no better than his competitors’, he could not use the common strangleholds of legitimate businessman. He had to rely on the
force of his own personality and his reputation as a “man of respect.” Puzo 210-211.
It is clear that Vito Corleone starts thinking to have a new business to make his life better economically. He knows that he needs a new thing to make more
money rather than just having this olive oil importing business. But great men are not born great, they grow great, and so it was with Vito
Corleone. When Prohibition came to pass and alcohol forbidden to be sold, Vito Corleone made the final step from a quite ordinary, somewhat ruthless
businessman to a great Don in the world of criminal enterprise. It did not happen in a day, it did not happen in a year, but by the end of the
Prohibition period and the start of the Great Depression, Vito Corleone had become the Godftaher, the Don, Don Corleone Puzo 211.
To do it his first step is force some Italian bootleggers who smuggle alcohol and whiskey from Canada to use his deliverymen and trucks to distribute their product
over New York City. The fee is so big that Vito Corleone cuts his oil business drastically and uses the trucks almost exclusively for the service of the
bootleggers. This despite the fact that these gentlemen had accompanied their offer with
a silky threat. But even then Vito Corleone was so mature a man that he did not take insult at a threat or become angry and refuse a profitable offer
because of it. He evaluated the threat, found it lacking in conviction, and lowered his opinion of his new partners because they had been so stupid to
use threats where none were needed. This was useful information to be pondered as its proper time Puzo 212.
It is a big step for Vito Corleone to be a man of respect. He is so wise that does not get pushed easily. This is one of his good sides that make him a trusted man.
He then makes his empire bigger than before. As time went by the Corleone empire became larger, more trucks were
added, the “sheet” grew longer. Also the men working directly for Tessio and Clemenza grew in number. The whole thing was becoming unwieldy.
Finally Vito Corleone worked out a system of organization. He gave Clemenza and Tessio each the title of Caporegime, or captain, and the men
who worked beneath them the rank of soldier. He named Genco Abbandando his counsellor, or Consigliori Puzo 212.
Vito Corleone now has his own empire, his Corleone Family. He has his caporegime
, consigliore and some men to trust. He has everything a family can have. In American Social Problems, Farley states that an organized crime is
similar to corporate crime in which it involves large-scale organizations rather
than individuals, but it is different in one very important way. Organized crime appears to be involved in virtually all types of illegal activities, but there clearly
are certain types that predominate. In general, organized crime provides illegal services for which someone is willing to pay Farley 141. Vito and his family can
be called an organization, an organized crime family, the Corleone Family. Since Vito Corleone becomes the head of Corleone Family, he is called the
Don by the members of the Family. It is because he is the one who controls the
Family. According to Grabianowski’s The Structure of La Cosa Nostra, the leader of each family is known as the boss, or don. All major decisions are made by the
boss, and money made by the family ultimately flows to him. The bosss authority is needed to resolve disputes and keep everyone in line. To show respect and
Vito’s Corleone highest position in the family, he is called as Don Vito Corleone since then.
As everybody always comes for help to Don Vito it makes him think that the government is so messed up because it cannot handle people like he does.
Grabianowski’s Mafia History states that the family, rather than the state became the focus of Sicilian life, and disputes were settled through a system in which
punishment was dealt beyond the limits of the law Grabianowski, par. 2. So Don Vito starts to think to rule his own empire.
It was at this time that the Don got the idea that he ran his world far better than his enemies ran the greater world which continually obstructed his
path. And this feeling was nurtured by the poor people of the neighbourhood who constantly came to him for help. To get on the home relief, to get a
young boy a job or out of jail, to borrow a small sum of money desperately needed, to intervene with landlords who against all reason demanded rent
from jobless tenants Puzo 214.
Everyone who comes to Don Vito will never feel regretful. They always get what they want, although sometimes they get it not for free but they always feel
satisfied and worth of it. Don Vito Corleone helped them all. Not only that, he helped them with
goodwill, with encouraging words to take the bitter sting out of the charity he gave them. It was only natural then that when these Italians were puzzled
and confused on who to vote for to represent them in the state legislature, in the city offices, in the Congress, they should ask the advice of their friend
Don Corleone, their Godfather. And so he became a political power to be consulted by practical party chiefs. He consolidated this power with a far-
seeing statesmanlike intelligence; by helping brilliant boys from poor Italian families through college, boys who would later became lawyers, assistant
district attorneys, and even judges. He planned for the future of his empire with all the foresight of a great national leader Puzo 214.
According to Hawes’ The Family in America, mafia and the many satellite elements that constitute organized crime are big and powerful enough to affect the
quality of American life. Mafia generates corruption on a frightening scale. It touches small firms as well as large, reaches into city halls and statehouse, taints
facets of show business and labor relations, and periodically sheds blood. It has a multiplier effect on crime; narcotics, a mob monopoly, drives the addicted to
burglaries and other felonies to finance the habit Hawes 211. The Don Vito’s world is so frightening. The good thing that everyone believes the Corleones fight
for justice although their ways are not accepted by the society. One day Don Vito Corleone gets shot and ends up in hospital. When
Michael Corleone is about to visit him at the hospital, he asks his girlfriend, Kay Adams, whether she is sure or not marrying him. He is unsure that Kay’s parents
will accept him. Michael tells her that it will be though to be his wife because he has an unordinary family, namely a Mafia family.
“Just say that you’ve met a brave, handsome guy of Italian decent. Top marks at Dartmouth. Distinguished Service Cross during the war plus the
Purple Heart. Honest. Hard-working. But his father is a Mafia chief who has to kill bad people, sometimes bribe high government officials and in his line
of work gets shot full of holes himself....” Puzo 120.
Kay Adams does not really believe Michael because she thinks Don Vito is a nice man when she meets him at Constanzia’s wedding day. She does not
believe that Don Vito Corleone is a Mafia chief. The truth has been said exactly by Michael Corleone that Don Vito Corleone is a Mafia chief.
Kay Adams once asks Michael what really Don Vito’s job is and the business he does. Kay has heard a lot about Don Vito being a Mafia chief in the
television and newspapers. Michael explains this with cold anger because he thinks that she has no right to ask a question like that.
“The trouble is all that damn trash in the movies and the newspapers,” Michael said. “You’ve got the wrong idea of my father and the Corleone
Family. I’ll make a final explanation and this one will be really final. My father is a businessman trying to provide for his wife and children and those
friends he might need someday in a time of trouble. He doesn’t accept the rules of the society we live in because those rules would have condemned
him to a life not suitable to a man like himself, a man of extraordinary force and character. What you have to understand is that he considers himself the
equal of all those great men like Presidents and Prime Ministers and Supreme Court Justices and Governors of the States. He refuses to accept
their will over his own. He refuses to live by rules set up by others, rules which condemn him to a defeated life. But his ultimate aim is to enter that
society with a certain power since society doesn’t really protect its members who do not have their own individual power. In the meantime he operates
on a code of ethics he considers far superior to the legal structures of society.” Puzo 364.
By that explanation, Michael Corleone wants Kay Adam to understand that his father’s job is venerability although the people in general do not accept it. Don
Vito just gives protection to people who trust him by his own rules. He has his own rules because he does not believe in society.
This is the real reason why Don Vito Corleone wants to have his own empire. He does not believe in society. His son Michael Corleone knows this for
sure. He does not blame his father because he knows what his father does is right. Don Vito Corleone is responsible in the society he has created. He is not a crazy
killer like people seem to think. He is just a responsible man in his own way. He is just the godfather of the Corleone Family.
3. Having Social and Political Power
Kategori