Originally posted by JustMe:
At first, when he tried to estrange himself from his father and family, that might be the reason why he was interested in her.
But later, when he got into the family business, words about legitimacy seemed more a convenient excuse, weapon or surface to hide something else. Even at the end of GF1 he seemed much more into his Sicilian roots and values than any dreams of waspiness. And he would certainly rather bring up his kids in those values, if he wished to see them in family business after all.
You raise some strong points about Michael and his Sicilian roots, JustMe:
IMO, Michael reaches an apex of sorts during his Sicilian exile. His formalized, chaperoned courtship of Appolonia, and the old-fashioned Sicilian wedding, exemplify this. And you can make a good argument that his reconciliation with Vito, the Sicilian cunning he shows in seeming weak, the Great Massacre of 1955, all point to his "Sicilian nature" coming out in full bloom. That hand-kissing scene at the very end is the capper.
But: Near the very end of the novel, Kay prepares to go to daily Mass with Mama to pray for Michael's soul. The narrative notes that Kay had taken instruction in the Catholic Church. Michael was "disappointed...he had wanted his children to be raised as Protestants...it was more
American..." [emphasis added].
I don't doubt that Michael loved Kay, in his own way. But I also think he used her to prop up his own obsession with "legitimacy."
