Why was Michael so obsessed with having another son?
As Luca Brasi might have said, his foist child was a masculine child. It seemed as if he were grooming Anthony for succession, as in the bedroom scene after the Tahoe shooting ("Maybe I can help?" "Someday you will"). He had a nice daughter. But while dancing with Kay at Anthony's party, he makes a point of asking if the baby inside her felt like a boy. When he returned from Cuba and Hagen told him about Kay's "miscarriage," he yelled at Tom, "Was it a boy???" (rare burst of emotion from him). And when Kay revealed her abortion, she practically spat out at him, "It was a boy, Michael!" Then she said, "I wouldn't bring another one of your sons into this world...this Sicilian thing must end."
Was Michael, like his father before him, doubtful that his firstborn would be unable to lead the family enterprise? Did Kay know that? What do you think?

I don't think he was doubtful about his firstborn son, I think he just wanted as many sons as possible to help run the family.

I always heard it said that a young cpl first becomes a 'family' when they have a child. The first child is such a 'Holy' and singular experience that can never be recreated. The three of them are a nice little family and then when the second and third born come along it is more of old hat. Despite the fact that Sonny later tried to mimmick his father's life work I think it took time for Vito to be willing to expose one of his children to 'that world'. His little 'sonny boy' was he and his wife's first experience in God's work and I always figured that he had a hard time letting Sonny see the mob world when he was young. Perhaps Mike was afraid that he had pampered his first born too much as well, and that it would take time for he as well to allow him to bring a son into 'that world'. Michael was the third child and Kay's aborted baby would have been the third child. He had screwed up by loving his first little boy too much and couldn't bring himself to let him in the business, but this was 10 yrs later and a third child(which would come during Michael's coldest time in life)would be just about the right time in his life to appoint and train a heir.

'This Sicilian Thing' of birthing little boys and watching them turn into powerful men who could help the 'family' rise in social strata is a tradition from ancient times that is of course not singular to Sicily, but many cultures that date to antiquity and before.

Luca wishes this upon Connie and Carlo so its obviously a habit and a tradition in their culture.

Maybe in the back of his mind he was thinking how Sonny was killed, and even though he had a son, what if, heaven forbid, he was killed. Mary surely wouldn't take over the family. Perhaps it was just the more sons the better. There would always be male heritage to take over the family business.

I totally agree. That was his interest.

Exactly.

Anthony was 7 or 8 at this time and there's no reason whatsoever why Michael should be 'doubtful' of his abilities to one day run the 'Family'. As with many families in that time, while daughters were to be cherished and cared for and doted upon, they were little more than window dressing. It was SONs that counted, SONs that would inherit the Business and the Family... and Michael wanted SONs. As many as possible. Kay knew this, and she knew why. And that is why she couldn't bring herself to pop out any more for him.

Boys, boys, boys. Men want sons, and Michael was no exception. Let's face it, this was a dangerous business. Vito probably felt reassured when he had THREE, but look what happened - Sonny's dead, Fredo's, well Fredo, and Michael has to take over. Tattaglia lost a son, I'm sure many families did. Although Michael adored his children, on some level, he may simply have been stocking the shelves by wanting more sons.

I also think that the times had something to do with it. Back in the "old days," especially in an italian family, I believe that it was some kind of an ego thing for the men to have as many boys as possible. If memory serves me correctly I remember reading somewhere that the italian men from the old school considered themselves to be masculine if they "produced" boys.

"women and children can be careless, but not men."


Don Cardi

Remember, before Michael left for Miami, Anthony wanted to go with him to help him and Michael told him "Some day you will." Hey, a second son would help even more.

BINGO!!

Mike, despite his attempts to act American (like marrying Miss All-American Yankee Kay Adams) proved he was true Old-World Italian. He may have loved his children equally but he held out high hopes for his son.... not his daughter (Mike tries to talk Anthony into staying in school and becoming a lawyer. The only advice he gives to Mary is to stop making gnocchi with her cousin ).

Mike was a lot like his father. The only time we (nearly) see Vito blow his cool is when he was assuring the safe return home (from Sicily) of his son. The only time we see Mike "lose it" is when he learns a son of his was "killed" (not even Vito did THAT).

You always need an "heir and a spare" and Mary was never in the running to be the Don. Oddly enough in the novel Michael had two sons, and he lost a baby when Apollonia blew up. Mary is an invention of the movies.

My paternal grandmother was born of Irish descent in the late-19th century. My parents had three young boys, hoping that their fourth would be a girl, and she was.

When my dad told his mother that he finally got a daughter, she said, "Well, they're nice too." She still had that old world belief that the males were the ones capable of sustaining families and achieving even though her own daughters, whom she loved dearly, established significant careers of their own.

As for Michael in GII, I always saw him as ice cold around his kids and lacking any fatherly instinct. His reference to Anthony that someday he will help him seemed cold as Anthony could not envision the life of deception and murder that was being set out for him. When he returned from Cuba, he had to ask Tom what he had picked up for his son at Christmas (by the way, there was no mention of what poor Mary got). The funeral scene where he sat silently with his kids, his mind a thousand miles away. I think he saw his children as utilitarian objects and that a brother was necessary to help Anthony with the empire and troubles he'd be inheriting.

I always thought it was interesting that the "Was it a boy?" scene came right after the Cuba incident where Michael confronted Fredo about his betrayal. Were Anthony and his lost unborn brother destined to travel a similar path as Michael and Fredo?

The key was to add more strength to the family. As don, Michael was looking for people he could trust to extend the arms of the family. His brother Sonny was murdered and Fredo was an idiot. Thus, Michael might have held a more darwinian perspective - the more boys he had, the better chance the family had at success, and greater strength it might have if there were a greater pool of canditates from which to pull.

I always wondered what the point of :

MICHAEL

Al -- could you get me a wet towel?


[MICHAEL takes off his jacket.]


KAY know I'm back?


[TOM nods.]


What about my boy -- did you get him something for Christmas?


TOM

I took care of it.


MICHAEL

What was it so I'll know?


TOM

Well, it was a little car with an electric motor that he can ride in -- it's nice.



The point is made of Michael not asking about his daughter; Tom could have mentioned he bought her an Easy Bake Oven or something. I was never sure what the point of Michael's sexism was in GF II except to portray him in a negative (and stereotypical?) light.

As discussed, it was a sign of the times AND the Business. Sure, he loved his children but didn't ask what was purchased for Mary because he simply didn't think about her in the same way as Anthony. And yes, FFC/Puzo purposely wrote the line that way to put across a specific point. Girls were nice, but window dressing. Sons were to be raised and educated if not to run the Family Business, then to achieve even greater heights as 'Governor...Corleone' or 'Senator...Corleone'.

For men like Michael in the 1950's, the more sons, the greater the chances of that dream becoming reality (even though it didn't work quite that way for Vito's children)!

Apple

Senator Corleone, Governor Corleone, President Corleone,....etc.

It's so easy. There weren'y any problem with Kay ant his sons. The thing is that Michael, as other Italian men of the 50's, prefer boys instead of girls. A Girl worked at home,and never help "The Family".

I don't think that any preference for boys in the 50s was confined to Italian men.

Not only for Italian. Every men in Europe and USA would preffer a boy instead a girl, becouse they work out of home, and in this time, women were alwais at home, as housewifes.

Well based on what he saw with Sonny and Fredo... he knew he needed options.... look at Donald Trump.... he is having more kids just to get the smartest one to carry on his Legacy...

Yes the film emphasized on this on purpose. Did they want to imply that Micheal was so selfish as to involve all of his chilren in the illegal family business.

That's a very good question.
As we saw in GFIII, Michael desperately wanted Anthony to finish law school. When Kay said that Anthony had definitely dropped law school for opera, Michael said, "He throws away greatness."

What "greatness"? With all due respect to lawyers, I don't think Michael envisioned Anthony as another Clarence Darrow. And "greatness" does not inhere in being a member of a corporate law firm, or doing personal injuries, real estate or divorces. Michael probably had in mind that Anthony would fulfill his own father's wish that Michael be "Senator Corleone...Governor Corleone..." Most politicians start out as lawyers.

You can argue that Michael's wish to impose a career direction on his son against his son's will is "selfish," although Michael might argue that he was helping Anthony by preventing him from making a bad career choice by pursuing opera. (After listening to Anthony in "Cavalleria," I'd have to agree!) But I have little doubt that, had Anthony become a lawyer, Michael would have wanted him to work within the Corleone empire; or if he became a pezzanovante, to help the Corleone empire with political favors. That's selfish.

I vote for the pezzanovante scenario because it fits in nicely with Michael's delusional plan to become "legitimate." What I don't understand is how Anthony could go from being a law student
to a starring role in a production of Cavalleria Rusticana (not performed with Pagliacci oddly enough) in less than a year. In fact between the time Anthony quits law school and the time Michael has his brush with death from diabetes is a matter of months, yet when Kay comes to the hospital she tells Michael that Anthony is already gettting great reviews, and Anthony has apparently nailed the Palermo gig.

Well, we have to allow for authorial license to some degree.

Yeah, I had those same thoughts about how Anthony, all of a sudden, was a HUGE star. We see him telling his father he is not pursuing law, to being the Jay-Z of opera. I don't like to chastise the movies though. I really think I should go revisit GFIII because alota stuff is a little blurry to me.