The Reflection of Successful American Dream Through the Character of Michael Corleone in Mark Winegardner’S the Godfather Returns

THE REFLECTION OF SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN DREAM THROUGH THE CHARACTER OF MICHAEL CORLEONE IN MARK WINEGARDNER’S THE GODFATHER RETURNS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By

DODI ROSYID SAPUTRA

Student Number: 034214064

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008 THE REFLECTION OF SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN DREAM THROUGH THE CHARACTER OF MICHAEL CORLEONE IN MARK WINEGARDNER’S THE GODFATHER RETURNS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By

DODI ROSYID SAPUTRA

Student Number: 034214064

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My first and greatest gratitude goes to Allah SWT who has given me life, power, guidance and everything so I can stand still till this second and by his blessing and guidance I can finish my study and my thesis.

This thesis is dedicated to my beloved mother and father who always pray for my success, encourage me and support me emotionally, spiritually, and financially. My gratitude also goes to my advisor Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. who has given me big help and support during the writing of my thesis. I would like to thank to J. Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., M.Hum. and Ni Luh Putu

Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. for the critical corrections and suggestions.

My warmest thanks go to my older sister Debie and my best friend Budi.

Thanks to Mbak Debie for accompanying and supporting me during my hard time in writing this thesis and to Budi for the support and our friendship. Thanks to my friends, Damai, Tiox, Jati, Yery, Yabes, Tyas, Monic, Ichen. Thanks to my friends in Sahadewa boarding house for the support during my thesis writing. Thanks to my special one Wiyan for the new color in my life. At last, I would like to give thanks to all my friends who always give colors and inspirations in my life. You are all best I have ever had.

Dodi Rosyid Saputra.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………... i APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………………………. ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……………………………………………………... iii LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS...... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………...... v TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………… vi ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………. vii ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………...... viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………….. 1 A. Background of the Study ………………………………………… 1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………. 4 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………….. 5 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………… 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………………… 7 A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………. 7 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………... 9 a. Theory of Character and Characterization ………………. 9 b. The American Dream ……………………………………. 12 C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………. 16

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………… 18 A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………… 18 B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………... 19 C. Method of the Study …………………………………………….. 20

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………….. 22 A. The Characteristics of Michael Corleone ………………………... 22 a. Strong Determination …………………………………….. 22 b. Hard Worker ……………………………………………… 26 c. Brilliant and Creative …………………………………….. 28 d. Careful ……………………………………………………. 31 B. The Reflection of American Dream based on Michael’s Characteristics and his struggles ……………………………….... 36

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………… 52

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………. 55

APPENDIX ………………………………………………………………… 57

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ABSTRACT

DODI ROSYID. The Reflection of Successful American Dream Through the Character of Michael Corleone in Mark Winegardner’s The Godfather Returns. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.

This thesis discusses on the successful American Dream reflected by the main character (Michael Corleone) in Mark Winegardner’s The Godfather Returns. As an American-born son and one of greatest mafia kingpins, Michael who lives in mafia world wants to achieve his dream that is to legalize his business and spread out his influence to gain more power and wealth. This thesis emphasizes on Michael’s characteristics and struggles as the reflection of American Dream. Two objectives are formulated dealing with this research. First is to show the depiction of Michael Corleone in the story. Second is to show how Michael’s characteristics and struggles can be the reflection of successful American Dream. The method used in this thesis is library research. The Socio-historical approach is used since the topic deals with the social issue that is American Dream and the setting of the story is America in 1950s. At the end, this thesis concludes that overall Michael Corleone successfully achieve his dream in gaining more power and wealth. Although his ambition to legalize his family business is not achieved because of his own choice and he also loses his wife in divorce but at the end Michael Corleone manages to reunite his family as his father did. Moreover, Michael reflects the American Dream of wealth by his success in expanding his business in several fields such as in legal casino, hotels, restaurants and investment in other countries and the American Dream of power by becoming the most powerful mafia kingpin at his time.

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ABSTRAK

DODI ROSYID. The Reflection of Successful American Dream Through the Character of Michael Corleone in Mark Winegardner’s The Godfather Returns. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007.

Thesis ini membahas tentang kesuksesan American Dream yang tercermin oleh tokoh utama (Michael Corleone) di novel The Godfather Returns karya Mark Winegardner. Sebagai seorang anak yang terlahir di Amerika dan salah satu gembong mafia terbesar, Michael yang hidup dalam dunia mafia ingin mencapai impiannya yaitu untuk melegalkan bisnis and menyebarkan pengaruhnya untuk mendapatkan kekuasaan dan kekayaan yang lebih besar. Thesis ini menekankan pada karakteristik dan perjuangan Michael sebagai cerminan dari American Dream. Dua tujuan telah diformulasikan terkait dengan penelitian ini. Pertama adalah untuk menunjukan penggambaran Michael Corleone di dalam cerita. Kedua adalah untuk menunjukkan bagaimana karakteristik dan perjuangan Michael dapat menjadi cerminan kesuksesan American Dream. Metode yang digunakan dalam thesis ini adalah penelitian pustaka. Pendekatan secara sosio-historis digunakan karena topiknya terkait dengan persoalan sosial yaitu American Dream dan seting ceritanya adalah Amerika tahun 1950an. Pada bagian akhir, thesis ini menyimpulkan bahwa secara keseluruhan Michael Corleone sukses meraih impianya dalam mendapatkan kekuasaan dan kekayaan yang lebih besar. Walupun ambisinya untuk melegalkan bisnis kelurganya tidak tercapai karena pilihanya sendiri dan dia juga kehilangan istrinya karena perceraian akan tetapi di bagian akhir Michael Corleone berhasil mengumpulkan lagi seluruh kelurganya seperti yang pernah ayahnya lakukan. Selain itu, Michael mencerminkan American Dream dalam hal kekayaan dengan kesuksesanya dalam memperluas bisnisnya pada beberapa bidang contohnya kasino yang legal, hotel, restoran, dan investasi di negara-negara lain dan American Dream dalam hal kekuasaan dengan menjadi gembong mafia paling kuat pada saat itu.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Dream for some people is considered as a thing that could highly motivate them to do and achieve something, sometimes even several things which seem impossible to be done could be done just because a belief that people have in their dreams. During their lifetime, people could have countless dreams such as to be famous, to be rich, having good health, to be clever and so on and so forth, however to achieve it they need to have strong determination and hard work. In

America, all the dreams made by the Americans to have better life conditions are called the American Dream.

According to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, American Dream is generally understood as a dream for better life conditions, conditions here including material, financial, and family happiness. However, people today tend to understand American Dream only as financial security and material comfort. In other words, we may say that for today’s Americans, their happiness is measured with the possession of material.

As quoted in www.hartford-hwp.com, James Truslow Adams in his book

The Epic of America states clearly “fortuitous circumstances of birth or position should not stop someone if he/she has innate capability to achieve the dream”, it means although a person may come from low class position, he/she has the same opportunity to achieve the dream as the higher ones have.

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The idea of American Dream has been for years used in many aspects of life such as in entertainment, politics, economy, etc. In literature, many authors pour the idea of American Dream in their novel as the main concern. The series novels of The Godfather (The Godfather part 1, 2, 3, The Godfather Returns, The

Godfather’s Revenge) are the examples showing the idea of American Dream. The

Godfather Returns written by Mark Winegardner, which is considered as one of

Winegardner’s masterpieces, shows how complicated and dangerous the ways a person should take to achieve the dream that the person himself believes he is capable to achieve his dream, which seems impossible to be achieved.

As a member of the strongest mafia family in America, the character has to make protection to his whole family and the family businesses. On other side he has a dream to make the illegal family businesses into legitimacy. Mafia in

America around 1950’s and 1960’s had an enormous influence in society, and with its operations which mainly illegal, it seems very impossible for any Mafioso to pass through the gate into legitimacy in businesses.

According to Wikipedia, mafia activities in United States include drug trafficking, illegal gambling, political corruption, extortion, kidnapping, frauds, counterfeiting, weapon trafficking, murders, bombings, and infiltration of legitimate businesses. Changing from totally illegal businesses into legal businesses in mafia world is considered impossible because it strongly may cause destruction to the family itself. In the novel, the main character that the writer focuses the analysis on is one of mafia members. However, with brilliant plans, an

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excellent plot, strong determination, and hard work, the character finally indeed achieved his dream.

The novel itself, The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner is the successor of the previous The Godfather series written by Mario Puzo. According to creative-writing section on the site of Florida State University, Mark

Winegardner is the Burroway Professor of English and the Director of the

Creative Writing Program at Florida State University. He is the winner of a

University Teaching Award (2004) and a University Mentoring Award (2006).

Today’s readers have considered Winegardner as one of well-known writers, proved by the sale of the copies through out the world. Still taken from the creative-writing section on the site of Florida State University,

“Winegardner’s books have been translated into more than twenty languages and sold almost two million copies worldwide. They have appeared on The New York

Times Bestseller List and in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book

Review, the New York Public Library, The American Library Association,

Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Los Angeles

Times and The Chicago Sun Times”.

Harry Levins in his essay The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner on www.stltoday.com points out that one of Winegardner’s achievements is when he was chosen by Random House to make the sequel of The Godfather saga.

That's where novelist Mark Winegardner comes in. Two years ago, Random House chose him to write what the publishing house bills as "a sequel" but is actually a gap-filler.

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Winegardner answered the challenge by producing two sequels that are The

Godfather Returns in 2004 and The Godfather’s Revenge in 2006, which for readers, these two sequels are considered as his masterpieces. Many critics addressed their criticisms toward the sequels particularly on The Godfather

Returns. A review on www.bookbrowse.com entitled The Missing Years from the

Greatest Crime Saga of All Time explicates Winegardner’s work-position to

Puzo’s that

Mark Winegardner brings an original voice and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters while creating several equally unforgettable characters of his own. The Godfather Returns stands on its own as a triumph–in a tale about what we love, yearn for, and sometimes have reason to fear . . . family.

There are many points that can be drawn out from this novel, however the writer would only focus the analysis on the idea of successful American Dream held by the main character. The writer is interested in Michael Corleone’s character development and his struggles to make his father’s and his dream come true that is making the family businesses into legitimacy. Although in the middle to the end of the story a great shift of ambition occurs but the idea of American

Dream is not decreasing but in fact getting stronger.

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the topic that the writer has formulated, there are two problems that will be answered in this thesis, that are:

1. How are Michael’s characteristics and struggles described in the story?

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2. How could the idea of successful American Dream be reflected through

the characteristics and struggles of Michael Corleone?

C. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are to answer the problems that the writer has stated above. There are two objectives that the writer tries to identify. First is to identify the characteristics of Michael Corleone and the struggles he makes. Since the topic concerns with the center character of the story, the first identification will be very useful and fundamental proof to answer the second objective. The second objective is to identify how Michael’s characteristics and struggles can be the reflection of successful American Dream.

D. Definition of Terms

1. American Dream

There are many definitions of American Dream people could find out today, however the writer will only choose two definitions, first is from James

Truslow Adams in his book entitled The Epic of America as quoted by Malcolm X in his essay entitled What is the American Dream? in www.hartford-hwp.com, and second is from Webster’s New World College Dictionary.

James Truslow Adams in his book states that American Dream is a dream of land in which life should be better, richer, and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement. He also adds that

American Dream is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a

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dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.

According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, American Dream is the U.S. ideal according to which equality of opportunity permits any American to aspire to high attainment and material success (2002: 45).

2. Mafia

Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) according to Wikipedia (13 July

2007), an online encyclopedia, is an Italian criminal secret society which was first developed in the mid of 19th century in Sicily to unify the Sicilian peasants against their enemies (Arabian forces). In the late of 19th century, there was a wave of emigration of mafia to United States. In the United States, mafia or often called

La Cosa Nostra by the FBI extended the wings wider and it refers to Italian

American organized crime rather than just traditional Sicilian American organized crime. Mafia activities in United States including drug trafficking, illegal gambling, political corruption, extortion, kidnapping, frauds, counterfeiting, weapon trafficking, murders, bombings, and infiltration of legitimate businesses.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

Criticism is one of the most important aspects to support a novel. Wellek and Warren stated, “The decision made to spare time and to give attention to certain author or his or her literary work in general has contained criticisms”

(Wellek, 1956: 336). The criticisms meant here could be in the forms of appreciation, analysis, comment, judgment, and suggestion either objectively or subjectively.

The Godfather Returns is categorized as a new novel therefore there are still limited numbers of review to this novel. The writer found out that most of the criticism deals with the comparison between Mark Winegardner with Mario Puzo, the original author of The Godfather saga. Jonathan Karp, Vice President and

Editorial Director of Random House, says in his essay The Story Behind The

Sequel that Mark Winegardner was chosen to write the sequel of The Godfather saga because he already made two acclaimed literary novels which had organized crime plot threads. Moreover, Karp says that it is Winegardner’s ambition in his two acclaimed novel and compassion to the characters in his stories show the same similarities with Mario Puzo when he first wrote The Godfather. Jonathan

Karp was also the editor to Puzo’s in The Godfather saga.

Different from Jonathan Karp who shows more on the similarities between

Winegardner and Puzo, Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times’ critic, in her

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criticism tries to reveal the difference between Winegardner’s with Puzo’s.

According to Kakutani, Winegardner unlike Puzo shows less metaphors toward something larger taking place in the country. Instead, he devotes to detailing the machinations of the Sheas, the C.I.A. and rival gangsters. Moreover, Kakutani adds that The Godfather Returns feels like just that superfluous embroidery work that neither moves nor jolts the readers the way the originals did so many years ago.

As has been stated above, this novel is categorized as a new novel therefore there are not yet deeper analyses on this novel. Based on the fact, the writer here is trying to analyze deeper about one aspect in the novel that is about the American Dream. The writer will only focus the analysis on the main character, since he is the controller of the story and the one who has the great dream in the story. Moreover the writer wants to make a contribution to this new novel about the idea of American Dream planted in the story. This thesis is also aimed to give more knowledge to readers about American Dream since this thesis shows a different typical way of achieving American Dream.

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B. Review of Related Theories

1. Character and Characterization

Since the topic deals with the main character, the writer considers that an understanding on character and characterization in relation with the work of literature is very significant to do the analysis.

According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are “the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say (the dialogue) and what they do (the action)” (1981: 20). From the statement, it can be seen that the reader can understand what kind of person they are from the dialogue and the action done by the characters.

In more details Abrams states that as people presented in the story, characters have the same characteristics as real human beings. They have temperament and moral nature. Their temperament and moral nature will become the basis of their speeches and actions. In the story, the characters may remain stable or may undergo a radical change through its development or as a result of an extreme crisis in the story itself (1981: 20).

In Literature for Composition (1988: 712), Barnet presents some points in understanding the characters. They are: a. What the character says

What the character says about himself or herself or through the dialogue

between the characters may show his/ her characteristic. b. What the character does

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The actions done by the character may also indicate his/ her character. c. What other characters say about the character

The other characters’ comment about the character is also important

information in understanding the character’s characteristics. d. What others do

The actions of others may also indicate what the character could do, but he or

she does not do. It is important to know the character’s characteristics whether

he or she is lazy, careless, wicked person or not.

According to Murphy (1972: 161-173), characterization can be seen through the ways, in which an author attempts to make the author’s characters understandable to, and come alive for the readers.

a. Personal description: the author can describe a person’s appearance and

clothes.

b. Character as seen by another: instead of describing character directly, the

author can describe him through the eyes and opinion of another. The

reader gets, as it were, a reflected image.

c. Speech: the author can give us insight into the character of one of the

persons in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person

speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts

forward an opinion, he is giving us some clue to his character.

d. Past life: by letting the reader learn something about a person’s life, the

author can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s

character. This can be done by direct comment by the author, through the

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person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of

another person.

e. Conversation of others: the author can also gives us clues to a person’s

character through the conversations of other people and the things they say

about him. People do talk about other people and the things they say often

give us a clue to the character of the person spoken about.

f. Reaction: the author can also give us a clue to a person’s character by

letting us know how that person reacts to various situation and events.

g. Direct comment: the author can describe or comment on a person’s

character directly.

h. Thought: the author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is

thinking about. In this respect, he is able to do what we can not do in real

life. He can tell us what different people are thinking. In the novel we

accept this. The reader then is in privileged position; he has, as it were, a

secret listening device plugged into the inmost thoughts of a person in a

novel.

i. Mannerism, the author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits or

idiosyncrasies, which may also tell us about his character.

These then are some of the ways in which an author makes his reader aware of the personalities and the characters of the people that he writes about in his books. An author does not make use exclusively of any one of these methods but generally blends them skillfully together so that the reader, carried along by the stream of the narrative, is often unaware of the skill with which the author is

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revealing characters and personalities piece by piece, so that the reader will tend to think of the author’s creations as real people.

2. The American Dream

According an essay on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, entitled

American Dream (2007), American Dream is generally understood as a dream for a better life condition, condition here including material, financial, and family happiness. However, people today tend to understand American Dream only as financial security and material comfort. In other words, we may say that for today’s Americans, their happiness is measured with the possession of material.

Many people from the entire world come to the United States because all of them have a belief that United States is land of prosperity, a place where they could live up their dreams. Prosperity here means that people who are trying to live up their dreams could achieve great success as far as they perform their hard work and strong will. Freedom also plays important role for Americans since with freedom they have the liberty to determine what dream they want to achieve and the realization relies entirely on the individual.

The term American Dream itself was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. As quoted in www.hartford-hwp.com, Adams states that the American Dream is the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves

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have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.

Another source on American Dream comes from Matthew Warshauer’s

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: changing conceptions of the American Dream,

Professor of history at Central Connecticut State University. He says that

American Dream is diverse however in most cases American Dream can be categorized into three categories that are dream of success, fame and wealth.

Traditionally, Americans centered their efforts on thrift and hard work in order to achieve the American Dream, this kind of way is well known as the rags to riches legend. However, today’s Americans tend to deny the traditional way and prefer to run what is called as instant success. The new wave of television game shows, lottery luck, and lucrative lawsuits are the ways to instant success for Americans this moment, and all of them make the Americans merely become a dreamer not a hard worker.

Related to the success of American Dream, Robert Perucci and Earl

Wysong in their book The New Class Society: goodbye American Dream?, mention that there are three factors giving great influence to the Americans in their success that are political power, economic power and social power. Perrucci and Wysong define political power as the result of collective actions to shape or determine decisions that limit or enhance people’s opportunities. It means that a

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person who has more connection in politic or having more political power will have more opportunities especially in jobs. Connections in politic also gives ease for a person to elevate his/her social class. In economic power, “people who have more economic power can buy more things and better things and thereby makes their lives more comfortable and enjoyable”(2003: 16) It has been a universal agreement that at the basic of everything, wealth/money can do everything, the more money you have there will be more things in everything you can achieve.

Perrucci and Wysong again stated that “social power involves access to public services and the interpersonal networks that can be used to solve many of the day- to-day problems that confront most families (2003: 20)” Doctors, polices and the like are included in the network of this category. Based on the explanation, it means that having more authority in one of those factors can secure someone’s position or even elevate it and bring more wealth.

Working on the same way with Perucci and Wysong, Gordon also tries to reveal the factors giving great influences to the success of the Americans. Gordon in his book American Studies: A Conceptual Approach states that inner power/ characteristics of a person also play important role. In his book he points out that

American and foreign observers have attempted throughout the history to identify typical American traits. American has been described as possessing the following traits: (1) Hard working, materialistic, and practical, (2) Adventuresome and optimistic, (3) Impatient and incline toward violence, (4) Patriotic and nationalistic, (5) Supporters of humanitarian and idealistic goal, (6) Believers in fair play, equality of opportunity, and individual responsibility (1984: 385).

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Further explanation of the traits supporting the analysis is described as follow.

Being hard worker relates to the difficult struggles to achieve a dream and being materialistic relates to the tendency to be more concerned with material than with spiritual or intellectual goals or values. In short, the only or highest goals or values are comfort, pleasure, and wealth. Second, being optimistic has the tendency to take the most hopeful and cheerful view of matters. In other words, it is the practice of looking on the bright side of things or of thinking positively.

Third, being impatient deals with the feeling or showing a lack of patience, annoyance, or of not willing to bear or tolerate. Next, having idealistic goals has something to do with following one’s own ideals to the point of impracticality.

The last trait supporting the analysis is having individual responsibility. Each individual has their own responsibility related to their life and dream.

Emphasizing on individual characteristics in achieving success as Gordon does, Richard Florida, the Heinz professor of economic development at Carnegie

Mellon University, states that creativity of human being is the key to the economic growth. In his essay The New American Dream (2003), it is written that

“Creativity--the ability to come up with and implement a new idea--has always been the prime source of economic growth and advantage. In prehistory, some people learned that cultivating plants and animals worked better than hunting and gathering.” According to Richard Florida, it has been a long standing truth that creativity plays the key to human development, in this case economic development. He also states “Recognizing and tapping creative talents, whatever those talents may be, is a pretty good starting point for a serious debate on how to

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keep our economy healthy.” It means that each individual has to be a creative individual in order to get better chance in achieving their dream since creative means flexible and able to cope with problems which is what people really needed. Many people meet failure in their way to success just because they can not solve the obstacles lay on their way.

In order to specify and connect the idea of American Dream with the topic of this thesis, the writer draws a conclusion that American Dream is any dream made by the Americans to have better life conditions. Better life conditions here cover many aspects in Americans life; it could be in politics, economy, equality struggles, etc. The writer indeed believes that the factors stated above are all counted/ important for the success of Americans in achieving their American

Dream.

C. Theoretical Framework

The writer applies the theory of character to identify the main character discussed in the story, and also to illustrate what sort of person the main character is. Then theory of characterization is used to provide some ways to fully comprehend the manner, behavior, and also attitude seen from the social life through the character itself.

Since this analysis is intended to explore the American Dream shown by the main character, therefore the writer applies the theory of American Dream.

First of all, the theory of American Dream is used to give the definition of

American Dream which is related to the topic. Second, the theory is used as the

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reflection of what the main character has done in the story. The writer uses the theory of American Dream to reveal the idea of American Dream from the main character in the story and shows whether the main character successfully achieves his dream or not.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The literary work analyzed in this thesis is Mark Winegardner’s The

Godfather Returns. This novel, based on the readers, is considered as one of the author’s masterpieces. It was originally published in 2004, and this Ballantine

Books International Edition was published in 2005 by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House,

Inc., New York. The novel is divided into 32 chapters and composed of 538 pages, in addition, based on the timeline the novel is divided into nine “books”.

After its first publication, the novel received many compliments from many critics and has become one of The New York Times Bestsellers.

The novel in general tells about the new Don of the Corleone crime family who is trying to achieve his American Dream that is bringing his family businesses into legitimacy. In the views of people around him, his goal is considered impossible to achieve. However, with the innate abilities (skillful and intuitive mathematician, brilliant assessor of probability, a man of vision) he had inherited from his late father, he sets up such a long, very complicated, and dangerous plan to reach his goal.

His grand and intricate plan is peace, coupled with massive expansion and relocation, then organization of the crime families throughout the country that is better than before, while at the same time strengthening and expanding business

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ties with Sicily, all on the way to legitimacy, complete with utter control of Cuba and access to the White House and even the Vatican.

As time goes on, one by one of the steps are started. However, it is in mafia world that Michael lives in, therefore a single wrong step that he makes could make bloodshed everywhere. One step leads to other dozen steps and there are always obstacles lay upon every step.

Approaching the end of the story he indeed changes The Corleone Family businesses into legitimacy. However, there is a sudden turning point to Mike.

Mike could not refuse the temptation to become Capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) in the underworld. Although it is a turning back to the shadows but Mike ambition to have more wealth and power is realized. He succeeds in expanding his businesses (having more hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and also

Cuba). Though at the beginning he has sworn not to have anymore relation with the underworld crime, at the end he becomes the new Godfather substituting his late father and he has the respect from all crime families throughout the country.

Helping the election of Jimmy Shea as the president of the States and the appointment of Tom Hagen as congressman give him the access to the White

House. However, all his success is attached with some bitter lost. He has a divorce with his wife, and he lost his older brother Fredo.

B. Approach of the Study

In analyzing a literary work, it is important to obtain a deep and good understanding about the literary work itself. Therefore, it needs an approach, 20

which can help to support the analysis of the novel as the material of the thesis.

Since the thesis deals with the social topic that is American Dream, therefore the writer decided to employ a sociocultural-historical approach.

The main idea of this approach is that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produces it. It is defined that civilization is the attitudes and actions of specific group of people and that literature takes these actions and attitudes as its subject matter. Therefore, it is necessary that the critics employing this approach investigate the social milieu in which a work was created and which it necessarily reflected. In conclusion, first, that literature is not created in a vacuum, and second, the literature embodies ideas significant of the culture that produce it (Rohrberger, 1971:9)

C. Method of the Study

In completing this thesis, the writer used library research to answer the problems that the writer has made. There were two kinds of data used in this study, primary and secondary data. The primary data was a novel by Mark

Winegardner entitled The Godfather Returns, and the secondary data were several criticisms on the novel taken from online articles. Books of theories were also used to complete and support the secondary data.

In order to answer the problems the writer conducted several steps. The first step was reading the novel closely and taking notes, so that the writer would able to encounter the basic material to answer all the questions about the novel.

The second step that the writer took, since the novel is a gap-filler for the sequel 21

of The Godfather part 1, 2, and 3, therefore the writer watched the movies particularly part 1 and 2 to get better understanding and built the timeline and correlation of events between the movies and the novel.

After building the correlation of events and the timeline, the writer conducted the third step that was identifying the main character’s characteristics and comparing with theory of American Dream. The forth step taken was identifying the success of the main character in achieving American Dream.

Finally, the writer went to the conclusion of the analysis by answering and explaining the problem formulation of this thesis.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

In this chapter the writer will discuss the answers to the problems that have been formulated in previous chapter. This chapter will be divided into two subchapters and each part representing each problem. The first part will give the discussion on the characteristics of the main character, while the second part will give the explanation on the reflection of successful American Dream through the characteristics and struggles of the main character.

A. The Characteristics of Michael Corleone

The writer, after observing the story, concludes that from the beginning until the end of the story, the characteristics of Michael Corleone are not changing. Although there are various tragic events occurring in the story, they can not change Michael’s characteristics.

Michael Corleone is described as a single minded person who has the blend of four characteristics that are strong determination for goals, hard worker, brilliant and creative in facing any conditions, and careful in every action.

a. Strong determination

Michael Corleone is the third child from a New York mafia kingpin, Vito

Corleone. He has two brothers and one younger sister. In his early boyhood, he was described as an obedient son who loved and respected his father and would

22 23

do anything just what his father told him to do. However, the more he grew up, the more he learned about the world his father lived in, and a fearful thought that one day he would become a man like his father kept bothering him. The fearful thought found its climax when his father was in hospital for treatment after being attacked by his rival. From that moment on Mike felt the need to rebel against his father, he determined his goal that he did not want to become a man like his father, a criminal whose life was always in danger and also endangered his family.

Even in times of peace and prosperity in the world his father ran, Vito was never safe from the countless men who thought they’d benefit from killing him. Michael loved his family with the depth and breadth of his soul, yet at the same time he wanted to get out of there: this apartment, this neighborhood, this city, this life. (Winegardner, 2005: 375)

This is the moment when Michael’s strong determination clearly emerges for the first time, when he starts his rebellion toward his father’s path. His preliminary rejection toward his father’s world was when he refused to visit his father during his treatment in hospital. He continued his rebel against his father by stating directly in front of his father that he did not want to be a criminal.

As Carmela nodded to Connie to help her clear the table for dessert, Michael clanged his wineglass with a spoon. He stood. He hadn’t made a toast all night. Michael looked at no one but his father, fork in midair. When their eyes met, his father gave a tiny smile. Seeing his father smiled like that in the face of such trauma made Michael’s anger boil over. “I would rather die,” Michael said, raising the glass, “than grow up to be a man like you.”(Winegardner, 2005: 375)

Among his brother and sister, Mike is the only child who dares to rebel against his father, the one who wants to make a new path of life out of his father’s hand.

He continued his rebellion by dropping his study in the university after learning that his father had given a sizable anonymous gift to the university’s 24

endowment fund. He kept doing his oath and felt certain that he could do something by his own hand out of his father’s hand, therefore he left his family and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps where he thought that his father’s hand could not reach him. During his time in the CCC, he and his friend tried to enter the Royal Canadian Air Force with forged licenses. Even in such place,

Mike found out that his father’s invisible hand could reach him.

Michael’s final decision is joining the Marines and went to war. He thought that by doing so he would prove that he could make his own path out of his father’s path.

Everything the government issued Michael Corleone was too big—his helmet, his uniform, even his boondockers. He barely noticed. He was proud to be a Marine, and he saw what he wanted to see. (Winegardner, 2005: 382)

He went home with the pride that he could show what he had said to his father that he did not want to become a man like his father, he fulfilled his oath to be different from his father.

Finally, the second moment to prove that Michael is a strong-determined person emerges when he occupies his father’s position as the Don of the Corleone

Family and dreaming to bring his family businesses which mainly illegal into legal ones. Again, as he has done in his boyhood, he does whatever it takes to meet his ambition though it means that any extreme steps should be taken and they should be done without any compromising. He made a very good plan in order to reach the status of legitimate businessman.

Michael’s grand, intricate plan was this: peace, coupled with massive expansion and relocation, then organization of the crime families throughout the country, better than before, while at the same time 25

strengthening and expanding business ties with Sicily, all on the way to legitimacy, complete with utter control of Cuba and access to the White House and even the Vatican. (Winegardner, 2005: 16)

Murder is a common matter in mafia world, and one of Mike’s acts showing his strong determination is killing any traitors to the family. The first traitor killed is Carlo Rizzi (Mike’s sister’s husband), he is killed because he had sold information to the Barzini family. The second traitor who Mike kills in the beginning of his plan is Salvatore Tessio, one of his capo regimes. Tessio is the smart and skillful one. Whatever reasons come from them, there is no excuse for what they have done and even though they had made fine jobs in the past, it does not change Mike’s decision.

Michael’s strong determination strongly occurs when without a doubt he orchestrating the killing for Nick Geraci and he also orders to murder his own blood brother Fredo. Although Nick Geraci is the best earner the Corleones ever had, his nature of being an aggressive and ambitious person have led Michael to kill him.

The most difficult decision Michael had made was to kill Geraci. Without question, Geraci had done a brilliant job with the drug business, but his aggressiveness was an issue. His ambition was boundless, larger than even he himself understood. Though he’d been unswervingly loyal, his connection to Forlenza would always be a concern. He’d always be sore about Tessio. And when Michael had made Fredo sotto capo, Geraci had asked him, in public, if he’d lost his mind. (Winegardner, 2005: 147)

The hardest decision of murder that Mike has to make which also shows his strong determination to be legitimate businessman is to kill Fredo. Fredo had been 26

trying to break the important business ties with his colleague Hyman Roth in

Cuba.

From his bedroom window, the boy watched Mr. Neri and Uncle Fredo ride away Minutes later, he heard a gunshot. Soon after that, Mr. Neri came back in the boat alone. The cold waters of Lake Tahoe often prevent the formation of the internal gases that make corpses float. (Winegardner, 2005: 360)

It is a very difficult situation that Mike has to kill his own blood brother but if

Fredo is not stopped, he would destroy the plan he had made. Moreover, Fredo’s proposal about illegal cemetery would make Mike farther from his goal.

b. Hard worker

Michael in the story is a hard worker regarding to his energy, efforts and time to achieve the dream. It can not be denied that achieving dreams always require a lot of efforts, time and energy, therefore the bigger the dream, the bigger a person should pour energy, efforts, and probably much of time to achieve it, a person needs to be a hard worker to success.

Michael has made such a very big dream that so many people in the underworld consider his dream as something impossible to achieve. Massive expansion and relocation, organizing the crime families throughout the country, strengthening and expanding businesses in Sicily, gaining control in Cuba and

White House, all of them have to be achieved for the realization of his dream.

Massive expansion and relocation and then expanding businesses in both

Cuba and Sicily have given him the charge to manage the businesses in various 27

places. He spends a great deal of time and his energy to keep all his businesses running well and make increasing profit.

He sat down at his desk, fully aware of how exhausted he was. Two days in New York, a day in Detroit, then the time difference and the concentration for the flight to Lake Mead and back. And he still had what promised to be a long night in front of him: meetings at the Castle in the Sand, the impending news from Rattlesnake Island, an appearance at the Fontane show, and the thing after that. (Winegardner, 2005: 120)

Day to day he becomes traveler, one day in New York and tomorrow in Las

Vegas or to other places had been a routine for Mike to do. He is aware that all of these are what he should do in achieving his dream, he never complained about his tiring routine. Although he has his men to help him with his businesses he keeps doing the important matters on his own because by doing so he is able to make immediate changes and adaptations if there are changes taken place.

Moreover, his dream has doubled his burden that makes him not only thinking about his present businesses, but also thinking many steps in the future because one mistake can unstable his businesses and his own position.

It takes around seven years of enduring hard time to completely accomplish his dream. He has given his energy, effort and times to it, and after around seven years of hard times, his debts are paid with success. He can control all his businesses and keep them running stable, he has more businesses to control, he has those strong ties of business to any connection involved in his businesses, and he has access to the White House and has strengthened it.

Completely accomplishing the dream does not mean to have a lot of spare time, instead he has to work harder and harder to maintain his new achievements. 28

c. Brilliant and creative

The time is changing and every second could make a tremendous difference on anything. Therefore, a person in pursuing a dream should be able to cope with every changing occurs, a person has to be creative so he/she would not get stuck on their way and facing failure. Creative is one of the key to gain success and it is also the nature of Michael, the nature he inherits from his father.

He combines his nature of being creative with his brilliant mind and the result is that he could arrange every action effectively and quietly and he could erase his tracks so there will be no one coming after him after the actions are done.

First obvious proof of his brilliant mind and creative idea is the complete plot arranged in order to achieve the goal. To be legitimate businessman, the successful one, he has to make expansion and relocation of the family base because he thought that the movement could make him easier to handle his businesses. Even he plans to organize the crime families throughout the State as if he is capo di tuti capi. More on his plot, he plans to expand the business ties with

Sicily and Cuba and he is also plotting to have access to the White House and the

Vatican. All of those steps he made, he runs them at once, even from the beginning he already has the details for every step that he will take.

He begins by retiring Tom Hagen, the trusted family consigliere and assigns him to be a temporal consigliere and the attorney for the family businesses. However, Mike’s intended meaning is that Tom Hagen will become

Michael’s “bridge” to the White House because Hagen has better relationship with the politicians than Mike. Besides, Hagen is not an Italian. 29

Hagen let everyone know about his discussions with the Ambassador and the family’s role in James Kavanaugh Shea’s plan for the White House in 1960. They already knew about Hagen’s own, not-unrelated plan: to run for the Senate next year and lose (that senator was in the Corleones’ pocket anyway), then use the legitimacy garnered by a respectable loss to make it easy for the governor to appoint him to a cabinet position. By 1960, Hagen could run for governor and win. Which brought Michael to the last order of business. (Winegardner, 2005: 131)

Mike sees a big opportunity on his political plot, with Hagen as his right hand man and his good relationship with the Ambassador, he is very certain that the plan to have access to the White House will at hand.

The biggest achievement in politics in his progress as the result of

Michael’s creative thought and brilliant idea is making the convention for the most nominated president of the United States in Atlantic City. Mike creates win- win plan, therefore, all who get involved will get benefit from it.

Hagen had done the negotiations, but the plan had been Michael Corleone’s, and this – holding the convention in Atlantic City – had been its master stroke. It brought everything together. (Winegardner, 2005: 265)

By planning and realizing the convention in Atlantic City, it means

Michael indirectly makes the next president of the States to owe his power and winning to a Mafioso. After giving help and support to the most nominated president until becoming president, later Michael is given an important position as president’s advisor in the president’s transition team. In other words, Mike has creatively made a brilliant plan that gives him a tremendous benefit in the future for the fulfillment of his ambition.

From the beginning when he is planning the convention in Atlantic City,

Michael also has planned that when all his plans work well, advisor’s position in the transition team will bring him to his last step to become a legitimate 30

businessman. He takes retirement from becoming Don of the Corleones, he appoints Nick Geraci to be his successor since Geraci is his best man in New

York.

I’ll be providing limited counsel to you but I won’t be serving as your consigliere. I have another sort of life I wish to lead. I don’t want my past to intrude on that life. (Winegardner, 2005: 401)

The sort of life that Mike wishes to lead is his legitimate businesses such as casinos, hotels and various real estates. Mike finally pays his oath that now he has become a legitimate businessman and his family businesses are all legal. Hence,

Mike does not want his past in underworld to disturb his new field of businesses in legal ones, he keeps his oath to do everything in legal.

Making a commission meeting is Mike’s another brilliant plot in saving his name and life. In commission meeting, he can explain what had happened related to the plane crash which killed Frank Falcone (Don of Los Angeles) and

Tony Molinary (Don of San Francisco) to all the twenty four families. Therefore, there will be no false rumors which will lead to the Corleone family. The government has announced that the plane crash is an act of God or accident, and

Mike assures the commission that this is what really happened. Butchie Molinary, brother to Tony Molinary also persuaded by Mike to accept the government’s decision that it was in fact an accident and he is also persuaded not to make revenge since if Butchie is doing so, it will disturb Mike’s plan. All those persuasions both to the commission and Butchie, aim to cover Mike’s track for what he had done. 31

The rising threats from other family, new kinds of business, competition in power and business, and his dream has made Michael to take different way from his father. The more decisions he makes, the clearer the differences between him and his father. He takes a part in narcotics business, takes over Moe Greene’s hotels and casinos, kills Don of the Tattaglias and the Barzinis, eliminates his hotshot Capo but then keeps him alive. All those facts are showing Michael’s creativity and those are very contradictory to his father’s which the writer considers that his father is very conservative boss.

Mike also takes the advantage of having Fredo in entertainment, Fredo is given the authority to run entertainment business in Las Vegas. Mike is aware that public image is very important for the future of the family legal businesses, hence he keeps Fredo to rise positive image of the Corleones in public.

“We need to change people’s perceptions. For our businesses to grow the way we want them to, it’s valuable to show the public the Corleones are”—he gestured toward the groom’s side of the ballroom---“no different, in the end, than people like the Van Arshdale.” (Winegardner, 2005: 299- 300)

It is for the future of the family legal businesses that Mike wants to get involve in entertainment. Different from the illegal ones, the image in public is very important for legal businesses.

d. Careful

Carefulness holds one of important points of today’s businesses. Every person having authority over something or other people has to consider many things in every step taken. In mafia world, carefulness is the key to stay alive, the 32

key to keep peace among other crime families, and the key to have better conditions for the future. In a mafia family, the one appointed as the head of the family should possess the highest carefulness since he has to protect the whole family members, the family businesses, and keep the relation with other families.

Michael Corleone, since appointed as the head of the Corleone family, had been taught by his father to be very careful and take precaution as consideration before doing any deals. Here in the story, the writer considers Michael as a Don who possesses carefulness in one side and luck in other side, however it is his carefulness which is dominant in his actions. The writer finds that Michael put carefulness as his priority in all of his actions and most of his carefulness is shown by murdering people (all of them are Mafioso).

Easy example is when he wants to involve Nick Geraci as the new member of the Corleones. Though on the street Geraci had been well known for his reputation, Mike still makes kind of initiation test just to be certain that he recruits the righteous person.

Geraci raised the gun, both sickened by and grateful for the sight of his own steady hand. He pressed the barrel gently against the old man’s soft forehead. Tessio did not move, did not blink, did not even shake anymore. Geraci shot. (Winegardner, 2005: 12)

The test is that Geraci has to kill Salvatore Tessio, a mentor for, close friend to and the one who had introduced Geraci to the Corleones. It is very dreadful test even for Geraci seeing his relation to Tessio. However, this is what Mike should do (carefulness) because in the future Geraci will get involved in the family businesses of the Corleones. 33

Another example shows how Mike tries to protect his outfit by having armory in the entire city. Bloodshed could happen whenever and wherever in his outfit therefore he and his men have to be ready.

They had arsenal of weapons all over the city: behind a rack of clothes at a dry cleaner’s on Belmont Avenue, underneath bags of sugar and flour in the back rooms of a bakery in Carroll Gardens, inside crates at coffin warehouse in Lindenhurst. (Winegardner, 2005: 15)

Besides all of those weapons, Mike had prepared cars and trucks to run the businesses, to mislead and block pursuers and to protect the family members.

Geraci knows the Corleones is having more law enforcement agents on payroll than the FBI and all of them is purposed to smooth all the Corleones’ businesses.

Mike prefers to give payroll to the law enforcement to make his businesses easier than to face problem and lose a lot.

In the progress to his goal, Michael is carefully orchestrating a plane crash to kill the persons who he considers will block his way. They are Frank Falcone,

Tony Molinary, and Nick Geraci. He carefully arranges it, so that neither blame nor suspicion will be addressed toward him and although lucky guessers appoint their suspicion, Michael has the alibi to throw away the suspicion.

It is a general truth that a plan does not always work well though it has been perfectly arranged and it is what happens to the plane-crash plan. In the crash, Geraci can escape and survive and again Mike’s carefulness to solve this unpredictable condition is tested. From the beginning, no one knows that it is actually Mike who had set the plane crash, hence Mike has to make an alibi not only for the other families but also to his own men. 34

He asked point-blank if any of them had any idea what had happened to Geraci. Each said no with equal vehemence. “It wasn’t you?” Rocco asked and Michael shook his head, and they all seemed surprised. (Winegardner, 2005: 184)

Michael’s position as the head of the family has given him the ease to assure his men only by saying that he is not the one in charged for the accident and his men will follow his words. While to solve the problem with the other families, since it is involving two Dons of other families, Mike decides to have a commission meeting, a meeting where all twenty four families are gathered to solve very important matters. Mike decides to arrange the commission meeting because he can argue that the crash was just an ordinary accident toward all the families at once, especially those who have direct relation to the incident. Therefore, there will be no tendencies nor suspicion which will lead to the Corleones and even it will harm the head of Chicago family (Louie Russo). By arranging the commission meeting, Mike can cover all his tracks about the plane crash.

There is an increasing wariness toward Mike’s plan of relocation occurs from the Chicago family, Louie Russo. Russo’s increasing wariness mainly because of the new location of the Corleones’ base is in Russo’s outfit. Michael had predicted that the increasing wariness from the Chicago family will strongly occur. Therefore, when the chance to discuss the matter of expansion, relocation and about the Corleones’ future goal to stand on legal businesses occurs, he takes it to cool down the situation.

“What do I get for the respect I gave you during your hour of need? You move the headquarters of your whole thing here. Here! Which is supposed to be open and if you want to be technical about it, is rightly ours.” 35

“Last I checked,” Russo said, “Tahoe’s west of Chicago, too.” (Winegardner, 2005: 124-125)

The increasing power of the Chicago family in the west, the effort to achieve the goals peacefully and quietly, and the only chance occurs have brought Mike to choose the peace talk rather than to kill Russo, as he had done with two other

Don. As has been stated above, a murder can only be done whenever there is the chance to set an orchestra of murder so that the Corleones will not take the blame.

However, in Russo’s case Michael does not have enough reasons and chance to do so.

Michael’s carefulness and luck factor also has saved him from the raid of law enforcement agents in the third annual meeting of the commission meeting.

Michael has been known for his lateness, very late for every appointment.

However, this time his bad habit plays its role and saves him from arrest. When he is approaching the right-turn to the farmhouse where the meeting is held, he glimpse from his rearview window two cops of some kind. Since it is unusual, with a police scanner equipped in his car, he is trying to find the frequency the

ATF agents are using. This moment, again his carefulness for dangers and precautions plays its role to save Michael’s life. He feels very worried the moment he knows that he is in the middle of raid preparation and he feels as if his life will end seconds later, but eventually he manages to escape.

36

B. The reflection of American Dream based on Michael’s characteristics and his struggles

In this subchapter, the writer will explicate the answer for the second problem that is the reflection of the American Dream through the main character.

First, the writer will explain why Mike’s dream could be called as the American

Dream. After that the writer will give several factors and conditions that push

Michael to implement his dream easier. In the end of this part, the writer will provide evidences related to the success achieved by Michael Corleone after all his struggles and the writer will explain about the typical way of achieving

American Dream.

As has been stated in chapter 2, American Dream according to Wikipedia the online encyclopedia is any idea held by many in the United States that through hard work, courage and determination one could achieve prosperity. Idea here, the writer translates into dreams and hopes. Therefore American Dream is any dreams and hopes by the Americans to achieve better life. In reality, American Dream is diverse since each has different dream about better life such as no discrimination, financial security, happy family, to be famous etc.

In the story, although Michael Corleone has Italian running in his blood, he is already an American citizen. Michael’s late father Vito Corleone once was

Italian but he was forced to immigrate to the United States when he was kid and started from that moment he was an American. As the successor of the Corleone

Family, Michael has a dream to expand and legalize the family business. It is to legalize the family businesses because the Corleones is one of great mafia families 37

in the United States and all of its business is illegal. He dreams that his family is having a good image and status in the American society; he dreams of having more wealth from his businesses expansion and having greater power over important people in the States. Based on those two facts, first is that Michael is an

American citizen and second that he has a dream for a better life condition, therefore, the writer considers Michael’s dream as one of the reflections of the idea of American Dream.

America gives great opportunities to all the Americans to live up their dream. America also gives freedom to its citizen to make whatever dream they want to achieve. According to the father of American Dream, James Truslow

Adams in his book The Epic of America, each man and each woman regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position is given great chances and opportunities by the States to achieve the higher condition of life. Moreover, both

Adams’ and Wikipedia explain that the opportunities given by the States is the same for each individual and what make the result different is each’ hard work, determination and abilities.

America’s condition after World War II (1940’s – 1960’s) was very inspiring. That was the time for great improvement for all the Americans after the

World war and great depression. During that time, America gave its greatest chance through out its history to its citizen to live up their dreams. It was the time for truly building the States, for mass production, for growing economic, for all

American to go to work and pursued more pleasures and better life condition. As

Robert Perucci and Earl Wysong state in The New Class Society: goodbye 38

American Dream?, early post World War II gave assurance to any level of families that their dreams are within reach. The government gave evidences to the middle income families in order to make them more optimistic in achieving their dream.

Based on the fact above about the inspiring condition of America in post

World War II, the writer sees great probabilities for Michael Corleone to implement his dream. The writer’s statement is of course not unreasonable but based on facts that are based on Michael’s present condition (his possession of power and wealth) and seeing the dream itself. Inherited a totally illegal business, he dreams to alter the illegal business of his family into legal one and it does not end that way, he plans to expand the family businesses.

Michael’s grand, intricate plan was this: peace, coupled with massive expansion and relocation, then organization of the crime families throughout the country, better than before, while at the same time strengthening and expanding business ties with Sicily, all on the way to legitimacy, complete with utter control of Cuba and access to the White House and even the Vatican. (Winegardner, 2005: 16).

Here, through out the novel although there are several changes, dominantly

Michael concentrates his efforts on his dream of wealth and success. The main points of Michael’s dream are building business empire and expanding business ties to certain places and to everything that makes him interested (mostly casinos and hotels). The writer finds out that business ties here not merely ties in business but more on protection to the business through political access. Michael plans to have more connection and influence to those who has greater power such as in

Commission (American mafia’s legislative) and in the White House and the CIA. 39

The greater the influence he has over important people in those institutions, the safer and better his businesses will be.

Prof. Matthew Warshauer in his essay states that dominantly the

Americans are achieving three kinds of American Dream that are fame, wealth, and success. Refers to Prof. Matthew’s statement and relates it to Michael’s dream, the writer translates the idea of American Dream of success as success in greater power and network connection in Michael’s business ties. While the idea of American Dream of wealth in the novel is reflected by planning to expand the

Corleones’ businesses in various fields and places.

In the story, although he is doubted by many about his ambition to be a legitimate businessman, the writer thinks that with his possession of power and wealth, it gives him more boosts to reach his dream. Nick Geraci, a partner and enemy to Michael, shows how powerful Mike is besides the business he runs.

Just as important, killing Michael Corleone might also mean killing the most powerful army of on-the-take politicians, judges, union officials, cops, fire marshals, building inspectors, coroners, newspaper and magazine editors, TV news producers, and strategically placed-typists the world has ever known. (Winegardner, 2005: 469).

Considering the power and wealth, the writer assumes that it is quite possible for

Michael’s dream to be achieved. However, achieving a dream is not that simple, there are a lot more factors which also play important roles in a person’s success.

To be a successful person means that the person should blend all the determiner factors in the effort. The blending of determiner factors is considered as requirement related to the idea of American Dream. 40

Related to the determiner factors which play important roles in American’s success, after analyzing deeply about the process of how Michael tries to achieve his dream, the writer found out that there are three dominant factors giving great influence in his efforts. First factor comes from Michael himself that is his characteristics. Second factor comes from his environment, here environment includes politic and economic condition in the States, the mafia organization and internal family condition. The last factor plays important role in Michael’s existence is luck, although sometimes people consider it as something irrational but indeed it does show its role in saving Michael’s life and dream.

A person’s characteristics play very important role to determine the person’s probability for success. Having more determiner characteristics means greater probability. According to Gordon in his book American Studies: A

Conceptual Approach, there are six general traits possessed by the American in pursuing their dreams. However, those traits are not absolute since America has millions of citizen, therefore, it is not always applicable to all Americans.

Based on six traits stated by Gordon, not all of them are relevant to

Michael’s characteristics. Therefore, the writer only includes several traits which support the analysis. As the writer has stated above, in the story Michael is described as a hard worker. By expanding his business and business ties in several places, it forces Michael to work day and night to keep all the businesses running well. Michael never complains to have enduring hard work to achieve his ambition. His will and seriousness to work hard reflect the basic requirement of

American Dream. As the result of a businessman who pursues more wealth, he is 41

described as a materialistic person. The result of turning the family business from illegal into legal one means the family will lose a great deal of income from the illegal businesses. Therefore, in his plan to be a legitimate businessman he has to make expansion of businesses in legal fields. Michael’s struggle in expanding businesses in legal fields to make more profit is considered as materialistic action.

Another condition to support the idea of Michael’s materialistic life is when he received the deal from the government about Cuba plan.

“Look, Tom, there’s nothing to puzzle out. I wanted you to hear it from him first because it’s his operation. Not mine. We’d be performing a service. Mickey Shea is your reassurance that the president is behind this, too. You saw how angry Mickey was. For us, it’s business. Money, opportunity, power. For them it’s revenge…” (Winegardner, 2005: 459)

On that deal, Michael considers the chance comes to him as business and money.

He does not think about the lost he had in Cuba in the past. The way Michael chooses the place to live for the family members also reflects his materialistic side. In the end of the story, he and Francesca choose a penthouse where the family member will live in. The penthouse itself is developed by the most famous developer and real estate speculator in New York.

The possession of power and wealth for Michael brings Michael to regard his dream as an idealistic goal. The writer thought that Michael aware of his power, influence and wealth, therefore, although many people doubt about his ambition, he keeps going on.

“In any case, I see no point in our amassing greater power and prosperity if we don’t use it to move out of the shadows and into the light. And that’s what I intend to do.” (Winegardner, 2005: 248).

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The Corleones among the other four crime families in New York is known for having more important people in payroll such us politicians and judges. This kind of condition is taken as an advantage by Michael to give him awareness that his ambition is still an idealistic ambition for a man in his position and his awareness makes him become more optimistic. Winegardner in the story shows how Michael is optimistic in targeting when he will completely achieve his dream, “Mark my words: five years from now, the Corleone Family should be every bit as legitimate as Standard Oil.” (Winegardner, 2005: 60). Although the realization of his plan goes a little bit longer than five years, the above quotation shows that Michael is very ambitious person. Although people can not control what will happen in the future, Michael in his tough mafia world dares to promise to his wife about the target of his plan. It shows how optimistic person he is.

Since six traits stated by Gordon can not represent all of Michael’s characteristics, the writer took other sources to support the analysis. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, states that strong determination is one of the traits possessed by the Americans on their way to achieve prosperity and better life condition. In the novel the writer finds out so many evidences showing Michael’s strong determination to live up his dream. Beginning in his boyhood life when he declared that he did not want to be a criminal like his father and joining the

Marines as the proof, he had already shown his strong determination in fulfilling his oath. After the incident in the hospital about his father which turns Michael’s direction from making a separate life from his family into involving and running the family businesses, he always keeps his nature to be a man with strong 43

determination. His strong determination in running the family businesses and effort to achieve his dream is shown from his will to kill people close to him. On his way to his dream he has to kill Salvatore Tessio (his smart caporegime), Carlo

Rizzi (his brother in law), Fredo (his blood brother), Tony Molinary (his ally in mafia), and Nick Geraci (his hotshot capo). Although Tessio, Carlo and Fredo were close to Michael, they have made a betrayal to the family. According to mafia ethic code known as Omerta, the punishment for betrayal no matter who commits it is death. Although Tony Molinary and Nick Geraci did not make any betrayal, their lack of attitude and wariness toward Michael has also brought death to them. Another lost Michael has to experience is losing his wife and children.

With his busy activities in businesses, he lacks time for his wife and children and it forces Kay (his wife) to divorce from Michael and take the children with her.

With all the lost he experienced, he keeps moving on to chase his dream without looking back.

Richard Florida in his essay The New American Dream, states that creativity, the ability to come up with and implement a new idea has always been the prime source of economic growth and advantage. Time changes everything so quickly and people who have creativity running in their blood have better chances face and fix even to the most radical changes and problems occur. Creativity means flexible and able to cope with problems. In the novel, Michael is described as the only Vito’s child among the other who inherited Vito’s great characteristics as written in the novel, “Both Nick Geraci and Michael Corleone were young, smart, creative, careful, and tough.” (Winegardner, 2005: 18). One evidence 44

shows Michael’s creativity and brilliant ideas is when he makes the decision to make a commission meeting. After his attempt to kill Geraci meets failure, he decides to make the meeting since in the meeting he can spread the fake story to all the members of mafia crime families about the plane crash at once. Therefore, there will be no more rumors leading to him and he would successfully cover his track. His decision to offer James K. Shea (candidate for president) to have his speech in Atlantic City also gives clear proof of Michael’s creativity and brilliant ideas. Related to the plan for James K. Shea, Michael set a plot wherein any person involved in his plot will get advantage.

Hagen had done the negotiations, but the plan had been Michael Corleone’s, and this---holding the convention in Atlantic City---had been its master stroke. It bought everything together. (Winegardner, 2005: 265)

James K. Shea gets the credit for bringing the convention and all its economic benefits to New Jersey. He also gets the advantage that he does not need to have big expense to broadcast his speech on all three networks and prime-time TV because Michael has taken care of it. The Corleone’s biggest asset is the connection to many important people and institutions; the media at that time was also in Michael’s control. For the New Jersey family, they will be very grateful to

Michael because they have the share to control the Atlantic City. While for

Michael and the Corleone Family, the killing made by the members of the family will not be prosecuted to the court since James’s brother, Danny is the attorney general of New York. Approaching the end of the novel, Michael’s creativity again proved by his involvement in government’s plan to Cuba. Only by creating a brilliant plot he could get money without a difficult effort. In his plot, he uses 45

Geraci to do the job by using Geraci’s feeling of gratitude to Michael since

Michael has appointed him as the new Don of the Corleone family.

Moving to the second factor of the success of Michael’s dream, it is his environment which has given him more probabilities and influence to his decision besides his characteristics. As has been stated above, environment here includes

America’s political and economical condition, the mafia organization condition, and the internal family condition.

Robert Perucci and Earl Wysong in The New Class Society: goodbye

American Dream?, write that political power, economic power and social power give great influence to Americans in their success. It is a general fact runs in the great nation of America that the higher a person’s position in the society means that he/she has more control in those three factors.

The political condition in the States according to Perrucci is described that the government holds the absolute power. Dominantly, the member of Congress is the determiner factor for some interest groups to have more success.

Some of these interest groups confront each other over their different ideas on rights, justice and freedom---or what we might call the “pursuit of happiness”. However, most of the interest groups try to use the powers of government to aid them by changing tax law, funding health care, or reducing air pollution. This means that to be successful, interest groups have to lobby members of Congress. (Perrucci, 2003: 5)

The political condition of the American government is also testified by Hagen. He clearly reveals the truth of what really occurs inside the government since his job

(as a lawyer and congressman) always in touch with politicians, judges and the like. 46

….a lie so cherished they can’t grasp the self-evident, that America is run entirely via backroom deals involving the rich. In almost every election, the richer candidate defeats the poorer candidate. When the poorer candidate wins, it’s usually because he’s agreed to be a stooge for people richer than the ones who backed his opponent. (Winegardner, 2005: 260) Hagen doubted that the world had ever seen a better racket than the American government. It’s hard to sue the government, for example, and even if you win, so what? Here’s a million bucks. Then they raise taxes two million. Plus, with businesses, someone somewhere has to buy their crummy product. What are people supposed to do about the government? It’s yours, it’s you, you’re stuck with it, end of story. (Winegardner, 2005: 260)

From Hagen’s witness and Perrucci’s explanation, it is clear that political power can shape government’s policies and being rich is a must requirement to have political power. Since the requirement is being rich, it means that economic power

(wealth/money) is on the ground of everything. In a materialistic base country like the United States, it is money that talk, more money means more influence and more influence means more power and at the end of that it goes back to getting richer and richer. Even the social power that is the power over cops, doctors and media and the like, relies its power on economic power. Seeing those facts, the writer draws a conclusion that to be a successful person first a person need to have economic power, if this power is possessed then political power and social power will follow afterward.

Seeing the reality about American political and economical conditions and correlating it with Michael’s ambition, Geraci’s witness (stated above) about the greatest asset of the Corleones shows that Michael already possessed all of the three powers. However, since Michael’s dream is to have legal business, it means that political power is absolutely needed. Therefore, to gain it Michael expands 47

his businesses (Las Vegas, Cuba, and Sicily) while at the same time he tries to gain political power primarily by using Tom Hagen as “the bridge” to the White

House. Positive image is very important for public, hence, Michael employs his brother Fredo who has good influence in entertainment to alter the negative image of the Corloenes that already spread out in surroundings into a positive image that the Corleones is working on legal fields. In the story, Fredo is given the authority on running the casinos; he also takes part in TV shows and gets married to an

Oscar-winning actress.

Another external factor taken advantage by Michael is his position in the

United States mafia organization. The Corleones in the story is portrayed as one of the powerful families in the States. Vito Corleone was a great Don and respected by the other mafia families; he was the boss of the bosses in New York outfit. Even the other Don owe their power to Vito Corleone therefore, many Don do not have the courage to strike him down. Michael aware of the great effect and advantage of the inherited power over the States mafia organization from the beginning of his days becoming Don Corleone. Michael catches the bound feeling from those people who owe their power to his father. He uses them to support him and ease his way to legitimacy. As his father used to do, Michael always offers win-win solutions, hence more people (Don, politician, etc) will be grateful to him and in return they will always be ready to help him.

The last but not the least factor in Michael’s success is the support from his family members. In this case, Michael is given a great aid from the Omerta

(mafia ethic codes). The codes explicitly give death punishment to any Mafioso 48

who commits betrayal therefore it forces any Mafioso to be loyal to his family.

However, though the ethic codes giving assurance to Michael about the loyalty of his subordinators, he prefers to trust his own intuition. Increasing wariness or slight offence is counted for Michael and that is enough reason for him to give death sentence to his members/ allies who do so.

Through many factors revealed above, there are many factors give boost to

Michael to achieve his dream. The realities in the government of the States, his position as one of the great bosses in the United States mafia organization, support from the members of the family (his subordinators), and also his characteristics, all of them is enough to give guarantee that the dream is at hand. The idea of

American Dream is started to arise when he determines his ambition about having greater business in legal field and greater power to keep the family businesses’ existence. From Michael’s dream, we see the idea of American Dream of power and wealth. Wealth can be seen from his obsession to expand the family businesses and power can be seen from the way he tries to spread out his influence over the commission and to the White House. Michael’s want to have a better life is also stated clearly when he has conversation with Don Russo: that with the power and prosperity he possessed there is no more reason to stay in the shadows.

Again, the ideas of American dream that is better life is shown from Michael’s desire to move from the shadows (the underworld/illegal field) into the light

(legitimacy).

Michael’s success begins to appear from the success of each of his steps.

First of all is the plane crash. Although it does not kill Geraci, but it does kill his 49

rival and possible rival, and it gives him ease for further actions. His creative and brilliant idea bring him into another success that is in covering his tracks and prove himself innocent related to the plane crash in the commission meeting. Still in the commission meeting, he successfully cools down the tension about the movement of the Corleones’ base to Las Vegas (Vegas should be an open outfit for all crime families). Michael’s choice, in employing Hagen as the “bridge” to the White House, shows its hit when Hagen is appointed as congressman.

Although at first Michael sets Hagen to attempt for the Senate, Michael’s flexibility to cope with changes is fully paid. The deal about the speech for the new candidate president in Atlantic City and his promise to fully support the candidate brings James K Shea to be the States president in 1960. Shea’s success as president brings Michael as one of the advisor in the president’s transitional team. His position as the advisor for the new president reflects his success dream in having greater power and control in the White House since the president owes his success on Michael. The president, to partially pay his debt on Michael, he gives back up and fully support for Michael to live up business in Cuba. In other words, it means that Michael’s political power success gives him the economic power success.

Once, his dream to become fully legitimate businessman is realized when he gives his position as the head of the Corleone Family to Geraci. However, in the end of the novel, he can not refuse the temptation to control over the States mafia organization once again. Although eventually he keeps his position in the 50

“shadows” but his dream of having greater business and power is successfully implemented.

Michael Corleone is one out of thousands who successfully implement his dream in life. He successfully passes many obstacles with all his abilities and boost from his environment. His primary and innate ability as a creative and brilliant person makes him able and flexible to cope with many problems and conditions coming to him. The writer suggests that being creative is the thing not found in many people who fail to achieve their dream. Many people who fail with their dream are not creative/flexible and strong enough to eliminate the obstacles.

Creative people never stop to find a way to solve their problem, even the least probable option would be counted and creative people dare to deal with great risk since they have self-awareness in their faith. However, in Michael’s case, the writer cannot absolutely compare the way taken by Michael Corleone to achieve his dream with the way other ordinary people take to achieve their dream,

Michael’s way is different; he is applying the mafia way. The main and only reason why his way is different is Michael’s position as Mafioso. Moreover, he is one of the greatest mafia kingpin at his time.

People usually associate Mafioso with murder and racketeering. People often ignore the realities that government indeed does the same with what the mafia does. Although it is true that murder and racketeering cannot be separated with mafia, the negative thought about mafia has brought people to ignore the other worse realities occur in their society. In the novel, the different path taken by Michael as a mafia is shown from the killing he made. He kills the people (all 51

of them are Mafioso) who try to block his way to gain success. He does that because of his confidence that the law cannot touch him, he has judges and lawyers in his payroll. Even judges and lawyers are afraid of Mafioso because

Mafioso’s threat is real. Being a Mafioso has given Michael great help to achieve his dream. It is very different to ordinary people, whenever there are people blocking their way, although they can do what the Mafioso does, their moral and fear for the consequences force them to find another way or get stuck and meet failure. Mafioso only obeys the code of Omerta (oath of mafia), out of that oath there are no rules that can confine them, everything is possible for them. While to ordinary people, they are confined with rules and norms that they have to follow as ordinary citizen. Even a congressman (a powerful position in American government) has to follow rules and norms when he/she wants to achieve dream.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

In this part the writer tries to infer from the analysis part and to provide brief answers to the problems in previous part related to the reflection of successful American Dream through the main character.

In the beginning of the story, Michael Corleone is described as a person who lives in mafia world and he is one of the strongest Dons at that time and he has a great dream to legitimize his family businesses. Increasing power over important people and institutions and also expanding businesses to gain more wealth are the ways to reach the legitimacy. From the beginning of the novel, the idea of American Dream is started to reveal when Michael wants to have a better life condition by trying to legalize and to expand his family businesses.

First of all, he is described as a person who has strong determination to achieve goals in life. Before the hospital incident, Michael had an oath to live in different path from his father and he did that by joining the marines and served the country for World War II. After the hospital incident which is considered as the turning point for Michael, he involves in the family businesses as the Don of the

Corleone Family substituting his father. As the head of the family, he begins to build his dream and achieve it though he aware that there will be countless obstacles lay on his way to his dream. His awareness of the obstacles waiting for him ahead and also the burden to achieve his dream has forced Michael to be a hard worker.

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The most important key for Michael in achieving his dream is his nature of being a brilliant and creative person. Michael’s creativity in the novel is described from the way Michael arranges his actions effectively and quietly. From employing Hagen as his bridge to the White House, arranging convention speech for most nominated president candidate, until orchestrating a plane crash and other murder. Michael’s creativity has given him a vision to see his future (his dream). In mafia world where Michael lives in, danger always haunts him whenever and wherever he is. In the novel, he is described as a careful person who puts security as most important matter. He prefers to wait for a longer period of time to make sure rather than make a silly mistake and destroy the whole things.

Michael’s characteristics are the typical traits possessed by the successful

Americans and it reflects the idea of American Dream from the point of view of his struggles. Many successful Americans do as he does to achieve their American

Dream.

Michael as the representation of successful American Dream in the novel is reflected from his success. Although at the end of the story he prefers to live in the shadows as a Mafioso, he once completely legalizes his family businesses by giving away his position of Don of the Corleones to Nick Geraci. In the progress of his dream realization, he has so many assurances that his dream to have greater power and wealth is at hand. The assurances here, the writer considered as the starting point of Michael’s success. Assurances here include his characteristics, his ability to take advantage of political and economical condition of the States.

Eventually, one by one of successes are realized in the end of the novel. He

54

succeeds in having political control in the White House by having Tom Hagen as a congressman and influence over the president of the States who owes his position to Michael. Even Michael has influence in the CIA; the other mafia families now prefer to stay in Michael’s side since it gives more profit and security to them. Therefore it means that Michael’s dream of power is completely realized.

In business, Michael’s success in relocating and expanding his businesses are the proofs showing that he deserves to be called as the reflection of American

Dream. He expands his businesses in hotels, casinos, real estates, not only in

America, but also in Cuba. However, though he deserves to be called as the reflection of American Dream because of his success, the writer also wants to point out that he does achieve his dream by applying a different type of way.

Unlike other ordinary people, Michael is applying the mafia way to achieve his dream. A very different type of way in which the doers permit themselves to do anything as long as their efforts do not break the mafia ethic code or called the

Omerta. Legal laws or any regulations and penalties do not limit Mafioso at all since they are the ones who have the control over important people in the country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M. H., A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.

American Dream. (2007) (6 July 2007).

Barnet, Sylvan. Literature for Composition. London: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988.

Creative Writing. (6 July 2007).

Florida, Richard. The New American Dream. Washington Monthly, 2003. (6 July 2007).

Gordon, Irving L. American Studies: A Conceptual Approach. New York: Amsco School Publications, Inc., 1984.

Italian Organized Crime. (2007) (13 July 2007).

Kakutani, Michiko. BOOKS OF THE TIMES; You Think You're Out, but They Try to Pull You Back In. The New York Times, 2004. (13 July 2007).

Karp, Jonathan. The Story Behind the Sequel. Random House, 2004. (6 July 2007).

Levins, Harry. The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner. St. Louis Post- Dispatch, 2004. (13 July 2007).

Murphy, M. J. Understanding Unseen. London: Ruskin House Museum Street George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1972.

Perucci, Robert and Earl Wysong. The New Class Society: goodbye American Dream?. Second Edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003.

Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods Jr. Reading and Writing about Literature. New York: Random House, 1971.

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The Missing Years from the Greatest Crime Saga of All Time. (13 July 2007).

Warshauer, Matthew. Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Changing Conceptions of the American Dream. 2003. (6 July 2007).

Webster’s New World College Dictionary. Fourth Edition. Cleveland: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2002.

Wellek & Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World., 1956.

Winegardner, Mark. The Godfather Returns. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005.

X, Malcolm. What is the American Dream? (2002) (13 July 2007).

APPENDIX

Appendix: Summary of the Mark Winegardner’s The Godfather Returns.

The Godfather Returns is a gap-filler novel since its role is as a bridge from the previous novel, The Godfather part 1, 2, and 3. The Godfather Returns covers the missing years between The Godfather part 1 and part 2, and the years between part 2 and part 3. Although it is a gap-filler, it helps so much in cement the story foundation that Puzo had made and makes a better plot in the Corleones saga. The novel, following the original version, deals with the main character who wants to be a legit businessman and makes his influence bigger both in the underworld and legal field.

The Godfather Returns begins at the day when The Godfather part 1 ends its story. Michael (the main character) gives a way for Nick Geraci (godson of the head of Cleveland family) to join the Corleone family business, but at first, he has to test Geraci’s loyalty by giving him the task to kill Sally Tessio (one of the

Corleones’ caporegimes who betrayed the family). With his background, Geraci indeed killed Tessio, who had become Geraci’s closest friend and mentor in recent years. In the Corleones business, Geraci is given the authority to handle the narcotics business.

Michael ever told Geraci his plan in achieving both his father and his dream that is to be legit in business. Michael’s plan is peace, coupled with massive expansion and relocation, then organization of the crime families throughout the country better than before, while at the same time strengthening

57 58

and expanding business ties with Sicily, all on the way to legitimacy complete with utter control of Cuba and access to the White House and even the Vatican.

The Corleones would put more and more layers between themselves and anything like street crime. Before long they could stop using fronts and operate in the open.

His plan started at the day when he became the new Don of the Corleone family.

In running his plan, he tries at best to run it peacefully and quietly. First of all, he quits Tom Hagen as family’s consigliere (Hagen was Vito’s trusted consigliere for years). Mike arranges Hagen to be “the bridge” to the White House since he has more relations with the politicians. In the beginning, Hagen should off from the family business then Mike would help him to become one of Senate member. Another step is moving the family headquarter to Las Vegas to get better control of business in Las Vegas (the Corleones has hotels and casinos there).

However, based on peace agreement between the crime families in the country,

Las Vegas is considered as an open area for any crime families that want to make a profit there. In avoiding bloodshed, Mike tries to cool down other families’ wary and prejudice on him by sending Geraci to give explanation to several head of other crime families about his plan and make a committee meeting. Committee meeting is a meeting rarely held by all 24 families in the state, usually they only meet to discuss very important matter.

Sending Geraci to meet several other Don has only one purpose (for

Michael) that is to kill Geraci and other Don in the plane. Mike has plotting a plan crash on the plan used to bring all of them. The plan works out, the other Don 59

died by the plane crash but Geraci (a matter of chance) can survive. Later in the story, Geraci plays important role in cutting off Mike’s plan to legitimacy.

In the committee meeting, Mike explains his plan to be a legitimate businessman and won’t get involved with the underworld. Head of Chicago outfit,

Louie Russo, assumes that Mike’s plan is Mike’s way to gain bigger control over other crime families and gain bigger profit. Russo, who at moment is trying to eliminate Mike, sets plan to keep Mike from his plan because in the future, Mike plans to move permanently headquarter of the Corleones to Lake Tahoe and it is in Russo’s territory.

At the mean time, Tom Hagen is appointed as Congressman, a little changing from the plan but still one step ahead to have an access to the White

House. With the appointment of Tom Hagen as Congressman, Mike promises to help son of James K. Shea (old friend of the Corleones) for presidential election in

1960 since James K. Shea and his son has been a big help in smoothing many problems of the Corleones.

Things go bad when Russo tries to ruin Mike by using Fredo (Mike’s older brother). Fredo has an idea about establishing a cemetery in New Jersey but Mike refuses it since it will only slowing down his plan to legitimacy. Russo uses

Fredo’s disappointment to Michael, he promises to help Fredo if Fredo can break the business relation between Mike and Hyman Roth.

Both Mike and Geraci know what each other have set toward each other.

Mike still has the same intention to kill Geraci for what Geraci has done in the past. However, instead of killing Geraci, Mike appoints Geraci to be the Don of 60

the Corleone family. By giving his position to Geraci, now Michael has become a legit businessman. However, although his position is changed into a legit businessman it does not stop him to avenge those who have tried to keep him from his ambition. First victim is Louie Russo, Tom Hagen volunteer himself to kill Russo. The second is Vincent Forlenza (Don of Cleveland). The last man on

Mike’s list is Geraci. However, in the final moment with his cleverness Geraci escapes and hides in Rattle snake Island. Mike could not find him but he let it that way since he has eyes and ears everywhere to give information whenever and wherever Geraci probably appears.

Approaching the end of the novel there is a sudden turning point to Mike.

Mike could not refuse the temptation to become Capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) in the underworld. This turning point happens when he and Hagen attend a dinner party held by four Don of the New York Families. Although it is turning back to the shadows but Mike considers it as a happy ending. There is another happy ending in the end of the story that is when Mike together with Francesca chooses a penthouse in one of buildings in Manhattan. The penthouse and the rooms below it are purposed to be the home where Mike can re-unite his family in one roof as his father did.