I have read the Godfather at least once every year since I bought it nearly ten years ago. After reading the novel several times, I continue to witness the brilliance of Mario Puzo's political knowledge. Puzo's brilliance is his subtleness towards politics. In the novel, Don Corelone knew that his entire empire was built on his political connections because without the protection and insulation that these connections provide the crime family could not existed or function. In Book III, Don Corelone remarked about Al Capone that "without political influence, without the camouflage of society, Capone's world, and others like it, could be easily destroyed." His son Michael understood this to, and he gave an explanation to Kay about who his father was, which was perhaps the best speech in the entire novel. He told her that his father "doesn't accept the rules of society we live because those rules would have condemned him a life not suitable to a man like himself, a man of extraordinary force and character." He went on to compare his father to Presidents and Governors. However, Kay basically asked him "How could society function if everyone acted that way...it would be a caveman mentality?" I suspected that Puzo's must had known the works of 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes because the Godfather is a Hobbesian's work. The reason why the Mafia, the Godfather, Corleone Family can existed is because the majority of society does not act like them. If the majority acted similar to this criminal minority, it would be as Hobbes once wrote "a war of all, against all." This is the paradox of crime and society. In a sense without law and order there could be no crime just war without end. This is why the novel can be read over and over again in my opinion even through Puzo never like writing the Godfather, but his brilliance as writer is convey politics and morality without being blunt something that the movie sequels and novel sequels miss entirely.

FFC using the Godfather specifically the Corleone Family as a metaphor of Post World War Two America showing the height of American power and prestige at time when America was in a state of decline during the Vietnam War. In the sequels, he continued to use this metaphor by making the movies more political overt in their message. Michael Corelone became a Nixon-like-figure, who destroyed his family just as Nixon almost destroyed America. Of course, this went against what Puzo wrote in the original novel. The original novel ended with Michael being the most powerful mafia chief in the nation, and he would not need the help of anyone like Roth and his brother Fredo would not betrayal him because the Michael of the novel would never allow that to happen to him. This was why Puzo was against killing Fredo because it did not fit with the novel. However, Puzo did not have control over his work anymore FFC did. The novel wasn't meant to have a sequel, so FFC made it into a didactic tragedy because of the politics of the 1970's.

As for the Mark Winegardner's novels, he take the same route as FFC did in the sequels making them more political overt and more blunt.

Any comments or opinions are welcome.

Next Post: Michael's Redemption

I don't know if Puzo read Hobbes. But he knew about organized crime history in America. And what he knew was: In American politics, money talks. Every organized crime family or outfit in America understood that political contacts and protection were crucial to survival and success. But, so did every major business, industry association, labor union, civil rights organization, foreign lobby, etc. The metaphor that Puzo was trying to convey to readers was that Vito Corleone was not much different than other powerful men in America--he wielded money as a lever to buy political influence. The films make this even more explicit. Michael flat-out says, in GF (when he's wooing Kay in New Hampshire): "My father is no different than any other powerful man who's responsible for others." The entire story of Michael's life is one in which he rationalizes all of his criminal actions as being no different than the actions of other powerful men--and that he deserves respect and "legitimacy," just as they do.
Another metaphor: "Rules" are for others. Since money talks, money can buy exemption from "rules." If an individual or organization is powerful enough, it can make the rules that apply to it. Vito bribing a Congressman to get citizenship for Enzo the baker is no different than a big corporation bribing a member of the House Ways and Means Committee to get a break on its taxes.

You make valid points on the structure of organized crime, American politics, and money. However, to clarify the points I was making is that this is how society operates. Don Corelone represented the criminal world and politicians represented the political world, and of course there a corporate world. They all represented vast powerful but minority interests and used at times what means necessary to get their agendas across. Yet, society can only functions if the majority do not act like these three minorities it would a never ending war where crime, politics, and business could operate. In Book VII, Michael told Kay that his father "refuses to live a life by rule set up by others, rules which condemn to a a defeated life...In the meantime he operates on a code of ethics he considers far superior to the legal structures of society." Don Corleone is above society, but him and others can only the majority allows them to be above it. This is what I referring to early as Hobbes once wrote "A war of all, against all." Kay response to what Michael told her is also in my view a Hobbesian response "What if everyone felt the same way...How could society ever function , we'd be back in the times of cavemen." Although, I will concede that Puzo may never have known Hobbes, a Hobbesian view of the Godfather can be made.

In "Leviathan," Hobbes famously wrote that life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Contrast that philosophy with Vito's last words, surrounded by nature in his garden: "Life is so beautiful..."