THE GODFATHER

• IDEOLOGY: pag 362, Michael to Kay.  (Hubris)
   

• Speech to BOSSES: 284/285 
  (rationalization of criminal behavior: if I don't do it, someone else will: we are better 287/288
   

• 290 WE REFUSED TO BE FOOLS, PUPPETS (delusional)
   

• Dialogue Hagen-Kay: 441 -442 
  This is extremely important. It shows that for all the power and money and influence they have, they are
  prisoners of their own world. EVIL CANNOT BRING YOU FREEDOM.

It reminds me of the image of Satan (Lucifer) in Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” For all his power, Lucifer is represented immersed in a frozen lake up to his waist, a gigantic monster that gnaws his teeth and devours the damned. He is in the prison created by his own evil because there is no freedom outside [for Dante] the grace of god.

I also make the comparison to a contemporary event: the planner of the 9/11 attack, Osama Bin Laden, after the destruction of the WTC, had to hide from everyone. He ended up living in a bunker-type house, with metal shutters, barricaded behind high concrete walls. He couldn’t even go outside in the garden in fear that satellites could take photos and identify him. He became a prisoner of his own evil.

CUES

• Choose the quote that in your opinion better reveals the mentality (the ideology, actually) of the Mafia. A lot is rationalization and it sounds like convenient excuses. Are there elements or arguments that go beyond those excuses and can represent real arguments based on principles? [Try to avoid the obvious, and skip both moralism and fan-like justifications.]
   

• This is easy: comparing the novel and the film, which elements were better handled in the novel and which ones were better in the film?

• Coppola in the film has a vision of Mafia almost as a Satanic cult, devoted to evil and wickedness (my opinion.) Do you agree? And if you agree, what aspects would you point to to make your case? And if you disagree, can you point to a different overall interpretive key? How does he see, and how does he represent Mafia? What is his overall message?

CHRIST IN CONCRETE

 I won’t ask you all these questions, but you may want to refresh your memory about relevant information.
Some questions are very specific – don’t waste time trying to remember, they won’t be on the exam.

What is Geremio’s job?

What are the factors about the present job that worry Geremio the most?

On which day of the Catholic year does Geremio suffer a deadly accident?

How does Geremio die? What does it have to do with Jesus?

On the day he died, what were Geremio and Annunziata going to buy?  

Mention one element from the book (tradition, expression, food) that is typically Italian

 Who is Murdin?

 Murdin refers to Italians with this slur.

 When Paul goes to the Police station he finds that his father’s body, a policeman says it is where?

 What is the outcome of the accident to Ci Luigi?

What kind of food does Paul receive from Father John?

 What is the CRIPPLE’S profession?

What is the purpose of Paul and Annuziata's FIRST visit to the CRIPPLE? (No generic answers: there is a specific thing they want to find out.)

How much money does Paul get for his first week on the job?

How much money does Annunziata get from the Compensation Board for Geremio’s death?

Who says, and in what occasion:  “The Eyetalians are good workers. They are careless like

children.”

What country is Louis’ family from originally?  

What is their religion?

 What is Louis’s belief regarding God?

 Who killed Louis’s brother? 

 Is Gloria pursuing Paul or viceversa? 

 Who is “Sondy Glause?”

Who gets married in “Fiesta?’

The woman chased away the seller of holy images was pregnant: What happened to her / her child?

What kind of award does Paul win? 

[Who gets crucified in a grotesque parade?]

[Who suffers from a sexually transmitted disease?]

Who and what cause Nazone’s death?

To signal that he rejects religion and faith, what does Paul do in front of his dying mother?

Who says: “There is no God?”

And finally: based on the text, does Annunziata die at the end? Is her death implicit and obvious?
Answer Yes or No but you must show how you read the text to reach your conclusion.