xxxviii 5 Gender. “Early studies on persuasion suggested that women are more
persuadable than men. However, the studies were biased, using messages that were of greater interest to men. Later studies controlling to this
interest variable show that there are no differences in persuadability between men and women” Eagly, 1978 in Lahey, 2003:620
Some people are better at persuasion than other people are. This partly because they have the characteristics of persuasive speakers, and partly because
they understand the characteristics of the message and the audience - they know how to pitch the most persuasive argument to their audience.
E. Mario Puzo’s Life and Work
Mario Puzo was born into an immigrant family in New York City in the area known as Hells Kitchen. His father was a railway trackman. Puzo lived with his six brothers and sisters
above the railway yards. Puzo was led in the direction of writing by the discovery of public libraries and the world of literature. Puzo served in the US Air Force stationed in East Asia and
Germany during World War II. After the war he stayed in Germany as a civilian public relations man for the Air Force. Puzo then studied at the New School for Social Research, New York, and at
Columbia University. In this period he took classes in literature and creative writing. In 1946 he married Erika Broske; they had five children. His first published story, The Last Christmans,
appeared in American Vanguard in 1950. For 20 years Puzo worked in New York and overseas as an administrative assistant in
government offices. Puzos first book, Dark arena, appeared in 1955, when he was 35. The novel dealt with the relationship between Walter Mosca, a tough and embittered ex-GI, and Hella, a
German native, his mistress. She dies of an infection, denied the drugs that would have saved her, and Mosca avenges her.
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Puzo worked as a free lance journalist and writer from 1963. He wrote for mens magazines, Stag and Male, and published book reviews, stories, and articles in such journals as
Redbook , Holiday, Book World, and the New York Times. In 1965 Fortunate Pilgrim, his second
book, appeared which followed one family of Italian immigrants from the late 1920s through World War II. Neither of Puzos first two books gained financial success, though both received
good reviews. Both were translated among others into Finnish. The Runaway Summer of David Shaw
1966, Puzos fourth work, was a childrens book. After an expensive medical emergency Puzo decided to write a book that would also be a commercial success. While working in pulp
journalism, he had heard Mafia anecdotes and he started to collect material on the East Coast branches of the Cosa Nostra. A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with
guns. Puzo, 1969:132 Puzos novel Godfather 1969, his international breakthrough story about the roots of
mafia, corruption, violence, and honour in which the themes of love, crime, family bondage, and Old World values were further developed. Don Corleone, the central character, is a sentimental
bandit, individualist and ruthless scourge inside a tightly structured crime syndicate.. Puzo describes Don Corleones struggle among the underworld bosses for power, and how family values
are transferred from one generation to the next and how they change under social pressure. Puzo also referred to real-life events and persons. With the book Puzo achieved his financial goals, but
he also confessed that he wrote below his gifts. Puzos international bestseller, The Godfather, was also adapted into a film. Director
Francis Ford Coppola did not like the book at first, but his films, Godfather and Godfather Part II, received several Oscars, including best picture and best script written by Puzo and Coppola. The
production was beset with difficulties. Before shooting began, the Italian-American Civil Rights League held a rally in Madison Square Garden and raised 600 000 towards attempts to stop the
film. Finally Coppola agreed to eliminate the words Mafia and Cosa Nostra from the screenplay.
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During the 1950s and 1960s, Fools Die, 1978, was set in Las Vegas, Hollywood, Tokyo, and New York. The Sicilian 1984 was based on the life of Salvatore Giuliano, the so-called
Robin Hood of Sicily.
Puzos later works from the 1990s include The Fourth K 1991, a global political thriller in the spirit of Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follet. In The Last Don
1996 Puzo returned to the world of Godfathers. The head of the most powerful Mafia family in the country, Don Clericuzio, decides to make his enterprises legal,
and the story follows how the dons plan for his family future succeeds. After completing his latest organized crime book, Omerta, which appeared in July 2000
Puzo died from heart failure on July 1999 at his home in Long Island. A family whose members represent the legitimate world and organized crime is depicted in
the story. Finally the right and the wrong side of the law come into conflict. In the last year Puzo spent collecting material and writing The Family, dealing with the
masters of intrigues and one of the most influential families in Renaissance Italy, Borgias. The book was completed by Carol Gino, his longtime companion. The
Family does not read like a Mario Puzo novel, even a lesser one. A work of such historical depth requires strong, interesting dialogue and even stronger characters
to deliver it -- the very qualities that always raised Puzos work to a higher plane. Neither exists here. William in Washington Post, January 6, 2002
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
