I watched the GF this morning and noticed something in the opening scene with Bonasera. Bonasera asks Vito to murder the boys who assaulted his daughter. Vito declines. Why? Well, Vito later explains that justice would not be served through murder since Bonasera's daughter is still alive. After Bonasera leaves, Vito tells Tom that we are not murderers. Curious.
Vito had his own morality and justice standards. There's no surprise there. But it seems that Vito needs to rationalize his behavior, so he sets up his own standard. As long as he adheres to it, he figures that he's not a murderer. Is Vito's approach a foreshadowing of Michael's rational about how he spent his life protecting his family even if it involved murder?
Yes, Vito had his own standards for "morality" and "justice." When he told Bonasera, "that is not justice, your daughter is still alive," he was really objecting to "doing murder for money," which would have made him no better than a hired killer, at Bonasera's beck and call. When he said to Tom, "we're not murderers," he meant, "murderers for hire." The novel tells us he had no objection to killing competitors of the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company, but that was not murder for hire, it was murder for the money his competitors were costing him.
Excellent point about Michael, Oli. Michael was the Great Rationalizer, starting when he told Kay, in New Hampshire, "my father is no different than other powerful men..." If "Governors and Senators have people killed, why not Vito and Michael? When he gave Kay that BS about "protecting my family from the horrors of this world," he should have appended, "horrors like the Tahoe shooting that I brought on you and the kids through my criminal life." Kay brought him up short when she replied, "but you became my horror."
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
