Right after the conference, Michael Corleone shoots them until they are drop dead on the restaurant floor. Michael Corleone’s feeling is hurt by his Don
Vito’s misfortune and from deep inside of him he wants to kill everyone who is responsible for it. Michael becomes ready to serve his family at all cost because
he has the pride to be one of the Corleones. When Michael Corleone becomes the new Godfather, he still has respect to
his elder brother Frederico Corleone. It happens when Michael Corleone has a meeting with Moe Green, the owner of casino in Las Vegas. Michael Corleone
finds out that Moe Green slaps Frederico Corleone in front of many people. Although it is Frederico’s faults, Michael considers it as a humiliation to the
Corleone Family. We can see the statement in the paragraph below. “Nobody answered. Michael said formally, “Freddy, you’re my older brother, I have respect
for you. But don’t ever take sides with anybody against the Family again. I won’t even mention it to the Don.” Puzo 389.
What Michael tries to say is that Frederico should have respected himself and never lets anyone disrespect the Family. Respect will come naturally when
you respect yourself.
e. Omerta
Omerta means “the code of silence”. In The Rules of Conduct, Lucky states
that every member of the family has to keep their mouth closed about what they know in the family business. If they dare to tell someone outside the family some
important thing, their mouth will be closed forever and it means death penalty. It is said that Omerta is the root of Mafia tradition. They must never have any
dealings with authorities under any circumstances. They keep the identities and activities of their Family as secret at all costs. Mafioso who betrays their family
will be punished. It happens when The Corleones’ trusted man betrays the family; his name is Paulie Gatto. He sells some information to the enemy. Of course,
Gatto has to be killed. Clemenza went to his den’s safe and opened it. He took out a gun and gave
it to Lampone. “Use this one,” he said. “They can never trace it. Leave it in car with Paulie. When this job is finished I want you to take your wife and
children on vacation to Florida...” Puzo 103.
On that day, Gatto is shot in the head and left in the car in the middle of a field far from the town.
Don Vito himself ever tells Santino Corleone to be silent and not letting anyone outside of the family know what they think about. When Don Vito tries to
refuse the narcotics deal with Sollozo, his son Santino interrupts and speaks his interest on the business. Don Vito is not pleased with Santino’s ignorance. For
more precise, Don Vito is angry with Santino’s manner that is lack of respect to him.
The Don nodded his head thoughtfully. Then he turned to his son and said gently, “Santino, never let anyone outside the family know what you are
thinking. Never let them know what you have under your fingernails. I think your brain is going soft from all that comedy you play with that young girl.
Stop it and pay attention to business. Now get out of my sight.” Puzo 72. Every member of Corleone family knows this rule of silence “omerta”, but
sometimes some members just disobey it like Paulie Gatto or Don’s son, Santino. However, breaking the code of silence is unforgivable. The ones who break it will
be given death penalty then. Omerta
is also not only to keep the secrets of the family, but also to protect their selves from the unjust society. For example a member, whose daughter or
son has been murdered, should keep their mouth closed and never tells the society who is the murderer. They should come to the Don and tell the truth. The one who
deserves to know the murder is the mafia chief because everything will be arranged to take the revenge.
Faced with the savagery of this absolute power, the suffering people learned never to betray their anger and their hatred for fear of being crushed. They
learned never to make themselves vulnerable by uttering any sort of threat since giving such a warning insured a quick reprisal. They learned that
society was their enemy and so when they sought redress for their wrongs they went to the rebel underground, the Mafia. And the Mafia cemented its
power by originating the law of silence, the omerta. Omerta became the religion of the people Puzo 325.
Grabianowski’s Mafia History states that in Sicily the society’s authority was enforced through the threat of violence. Their criminal activities were never
reported, even by the victims, because of the fear of reprisal. This was the beginning of the Sicilian Mafia Grabianowski, par. 3. Thus, they are like a
corporate organization. Only they negotiate their deals with bullets and threats of violence and who are guilty will be punished.
After Santino Corleone is murdered, Michael becomes the only hope for maintaining the Corleone Family’s power because Don Vito has retired. As
Michael honors the family, he sticks the rule of omerta. He has a plan that is not to tell who he is to others, even to his girlfriend, mother, sister and brother. The
ones that know about the plan are just his right-hand men. Michael tells his girlfriend about this.
Now here’s something I’ll trust you with and I don’t want you to repeat it even to your father. If everything goes right, the Corleone Family will be
completely legitimate in about five years. Some very tricky things have to be done to make that possible. That’s when you may become a wealthy
widow. Now what do I want you for? Well, because I want you and I want a
family. I want kids; it’s time. And I don’t want those kids to be influenced by me the way I was influenced by my father. I don’t mean my father
deliberately influenced me. He never did. He never even wanted me in the family business. He wanted me to become a professor or a doctor,
something like that. But things went bad and I had to fight for my Family Puzo 362.
So, Michael does what he has to do. The code of silence makes him organize murder to all traitors who betray the Corleone family and all the enemies. One day
during his nephew’s baptism, Michael is his nephew’s godfather, all the traitors are eliminated. It is just like “baptism of blood” because when he is in the church
becoming his nephew’s godfather and states to believe in God and deny evils, his men are killing the traitors and the enemies. The traitors have sold their loyalty to
other family and it is time for them to pay with their lives. The victory of the Corleone Family was complete....With this one savage
attack, Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored the Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families. He was respected not
only for his tactical brilliance but because some of the most important caporegimes in both the Barzini and Tattaglia Families immediately went
over to his side Puzo 437.
No one knows the plan Michael has made. The men he trusts who know about this plan keep this code of silence. Everything goes smoothly. The Corleone Family
now is the most powerful Family among the other Families.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter contains two subchapters. They are conclusions and suggestions. The conclusions part consists of the answers of the two formulated
problems. The suggestions part consists of two sections. First is the suggestion for future researchers and the second section presents the suggestion for teaching
and learning activities.
A. Conclusions
Based on the analysis, there are two conclusions that can be drawn. The following are the conclusions. The first concern is the social and political
backgrounds of the Corleone Family. The head of the family is Don Vito Corleone. People usually call him the Don or the Godfather to show respect and
affection because Don Vito Corleone is a humble and wise man who helps people sincerely. The family is a wealthy Italian family. They are a Mafia family, an
organized crime family whose first business is just an oil olive importing company and then becomes larger. As everyone always comes to Don Vito
Corleone for help, he starts to not believe in society because it cannot protect its members, so he makes his own world and his own rules. Don Vito Corleone now
has his own empire, his Corleone Family and influences many political and social powers. He is the one who has the most judges and politicians than any other
Mafia Families in the United States. Although Don Vito is a Mafia chief, he is not a crazy killer like people seem to think. He is just a responsible man of his own
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