Posted By: DiehardJack83
Bonasera's Favor - 12/02/07 07:39 PM
In the novel, Bonasera comes to the house of the great don to ask a favor. This scene from the novel was later used in the famous beginning of the movie. Puzo used Bonasera as a symbol of the assimilate Italian-American, who has become apart of American society and trusted American law and order. Although Bonasera is Italian, he is in a larger sense symbolize the "average American" to the reader and later to the audience for the film. Bonasera is the vehicle to which the reader and audience is introduce to Don Corleone. Mario Puzo gave an interview to NPR in 1996 (here the link:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4212820) in which he told Terry Gross the interviewer about the popularity of the Godfather "Everybody's wish that they would have somebody to go to who correct all of their injustices without going to court, hiring a lawyer." One of my favorite lines in the entire film is when before the Godfather agree to give justice for Bonasera's daughter he said. "And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you." This line is spoken to not only to Bonasera but the reader and the audience. This is why having a "friend" like Don Corloene is so tempting because he can right all of your wrongs for a price of course. Many readers and many audiences understand where Bonasera wants and may in fact agree with Bonasera want of "justice" for his daughter, but it still illegal. The only way Bonasera could get justice for his daughter is go to the Godfather. The enduring popularity of the Godfather is perhaps establish with these classic scene in the novel and in the film because they showed that there is a person or at least the possibility of person who can fix their world if they only asked him but as Don Corleone famously said "Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me." People cannot asked a favor from him without expecting to give one back in the future, and they must pay their debt or suffering the wrath of the Godfather.