"Very rich" Tom?

After Vito returned from the hospital to comfort the dying Genco, Puzo writes, "...he informed Hagen that he was now officially the new consigliere to the Family. This meant that Hagen was sure to become a very rich man, to say nothing of power."

This raises a question:

Mafia's all about power and money. We see plenty of power being exercised by Vito, Michael and Tom (on occasion). But I don't recall reading (or seeing in the films) any evidence that Tom was "very rich." If anything, he seemed like a 24x7 family retainer. I inferred that he lived at the Mall, and certainly his and his family's needs were taken care of. But "very rich"? For that matter, while I don't doubt that Vito had great wealth, I don't think money motivated him. His primary motivation seemed to be about achieving security and independence for himself and his family by acquiring a strong base of power and influence.

Your thoughts?

I don't think Vito's motivating force was money either, but it sure was a (nice) by-product of whatever did motivate him.

I suspect Tom did fairly well and probably invested his money very conservatively.

I heard he put it all in Lehman shares.

Well, he died before Lehman went down the crapper.

Dreams sometimes do not come to reality. That line may have been put there by Puzo to explain the importance and stature of the consigliere position. But, Tom obviously wasn't your typical consigliere being German-Irish. I will say this, "money and power" seem the very anti-thesis of the Hagen character. He objects to being demoted from consigliere, however (on the surface) appears to take it like a man.

I don't think that money motivated Vito as much as the other things you mention. But he wasn't an ascetic either. For him money was a means to an end.

As far as Tom being rich or becoming rich upon his elevation, as consigliere he would know everything or almost everything that Vito knew about the Family. He would get a piece of just about all the rackets. Tom would be privy to some of the bigger business deals that the caporegimes didn't know about or weren't part of ( real estate, banking, brokerage houses, recording companies, various white collar crimes, the Nevada hospital, any shipping company that worked with Roth, etc)

But just as Vito was low key so was Tom. So any wealth he did have was probably not shown off. In training Tom for the position, Vito would have stressed over and over and over again the need to keep a low profile.

I think money, Vito knew the value of money for two reasons:
1. He grew up as a very poor man.
2. He quickly understood that money was a means to buy power, which is one of the motifs of "The Godfather", both film and book. Vito believes: If democracy is corrupt, I'd be a fool if I wouldn't play the game of the big shots.

In the novel he's German, but they refer to him as Irish.

Then someone explain how his last name is Hagen?

He described himself to Woltz (in the film) as "German/Irisn." Near the end of the novel, when Michael and Tom are speculating how Barzini will come at the Corleones, Michael says, "The won't go to Neri because Neri was a cop. And they won't go to you because you're Irish." Hagen says: "I'm German-American." Michael replies, "To them that's Irish." I thought that was a rare display of wit from Michael.

Until Part III when he turned into Henny Youngman. "I'm gonna go listen to some Tony Bennett records."

In the novel Tom tells Mike that he's German-American. Before that though in the novel he tells Woltz on the phone that he's German-Irish. In the movie he does the same, but in person.

In a deleted addition to that scene, he adds, "I love this crowd!"

Michael says to Fabrizio, "Take my wife ... PLEASE!"

And Solazzo says to Michael, "Take my life ... PLEASE!"

Thank you, you're a good crowd, remember to tip your waiters and waitresses, try the veal, there's a matinee on Saturday, it's all ages on Sunday, I'm in the Catskills in August, Chicago in September, Las Vegas in October ...

tony b.

The funny thing is that the name "Hagen" has two seperate origins - an Irish and a German.
http://www.yeahbaby.com/meaning-name-etymology.php?name=Hagen
I wonder if Puzo knew that.

As Puzo put it: "To them that's Irish."

He's also described as German-Irish in the book-when he and the Don are discussing the gift the Senator sent Connie and Carlo for the wedding.