Literary Feature Hunt: Foreshadow? What is this?

I'm not sure if this is foreshadow.

When Kay went to the Corleone house to find out where Michael was, there was a car with shattered windows. Kay drew attention to it as she was talking to Tom Hagen.  He replied that "it [was] nothing".

Connie (one of the Corleone daughters), was having an extremely physical fight between her and her husband Carlo.  She not only was upset that he has a mistress (a lady called saying that she was "a friend and  [she]wouldn't be able until later tonight"), but she was pregnant as well.  Her husband did not show that he cared much for her, as he totally disrespected her when she said that dinner was ready, he replied spitefully "I'm not hungry", when before he asked (more like commanded) his wife to make dinner.  As the argument goes on, Connie throws everything she gets her hands on on the floor, while screaming and yelling how cruel her husband is.  Then, Carlo says something to scare her.  He then unbuckels his belt and then starts to chase her around the house until the bedroom-- he beats Connie.  Then the scene changes to her parent's house; when Sonny is talking to his sister, she says that Carlo really hit her this time (this was not the first time).  Sonny gets furious.  He rushes out of the house in a blind rage to her house.  Tom Hagen assigned a few men to follow where Sonny was going.

At the toll booth, Sonny was going to his sister's house (probably to beat up Carlo...again), when suddenly men jump out of their hiding places and start firing their guns at Sonny. Sonny dies, and his car gets bullet holes, where the bullets punctured his car.

Does this scene foreshadow the smashed up car that the audience saw at the Corleone house, when Kay noticed it?  Was it telling us that someone was going to die in their car?  Or is there a totally different meaning to the smashed up car?

As I said before I'm not sure if this is foreshadow, it is just an idea.

Class Act: Those Winter Sundays vs. The Godfather - What do Both Sons Have in Common?

In the poems that we had read in class (Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden), we found some connections to these poems and our analysis of The Godfather. Those Winter Sundays describes the relationship between a father and a son. Like the relationship between Michael and The Godfather. "Sundays too my father got up early/...with cracked hands that ached from labor..." (Hayden, 1, 3-4), explains how tired his father is from doing all of the chores around the house at an early hour. This resembles The Godfather, because it shows how much The Godfather cares for his children because he "spoils them". Both show how even though a father may seem cruel, or seem to do illegal things (in The Godfather's case), both fathers care for their sons, even though it may not seem like it.

To make this more relevant to The Godfather, the son in the Hayden poem, seemed to be coming to terms, with what his father does for the family (or more specifically to the son). It seems that Michael is starting to be coming to terms with his father -- being more conscience of his family values than he was before. Like when he was in the hospital where is father was. "I'm with you Pop, I'm with you now", he is now being more appreciative about his father:  Don Vito Corleone, will always be Michael's father. Just as the son in the poem, how he had just come to the realization of how much he meant to his father,
and what he had done.

Michael is maturing about the role that his father played in his life and in a lot of other people's lives (who come from Italy and want to start fresh, or who want to have "The American Dream"). With this realization, he will use the thoughts of his father's role to continue his way through Joesph Campbell's Hero's Journey Theory.

What do you think? Do you think that he will turn into his father to (eventually) fill in his father's shoes as the next "Don"?

Archetypes: Michael Corleone

During the beginning of The Godfather, Michael is portrayed as a weak character who did not want to have anything to do with his father's business. When he is talking to his girlfriend Kay Adams at his sister's wedding, he describes that "that's [his family], not [him]". He is an outsider to his family. He not only resents his family, but he goes out of his way (risks his life) to be made a 'hero' in the army, to fight for America. As the story moves on, the audience sees his character change. When he sees his father in an empty, suspicious hospital (being healed of the gun shot wounds), his character changes pretty quickly. From an outcast, to someone who wants to be involved and be the second "Don" of the Corleone family. Throughout the story, he is called a hero. He has been called a War Hero, then he has been called a hero because of his idea to kill Sollazzo and, the Chief of Police, McCluskey. There are major changes in Michael's character. He is becoming a hero. The type of Archetype Journey that Michael might be taking is either probably the quest for identity or the quest for vengeance. The quest for identity, because his character keeps changing; from a flat uninteresting character, to wanting to be the new leader of the Corleone family. It will be interesting to see which side his character will be at the end of the film. The quest for vengeance, because of what happened to his father (his father was shot by people who work for the Tattaglia family and Sollazzo), he wants revenge. It is safe to say that Michael is in the second stage of Joeseph Campbell's Stages of a Hero's Journey: The Initiation Stage. Michael is "gaining a more mature perspective" (The Godfather Part I: A Hero's Journey) about the role that he plays in his family.

Literary Feature Hunt: Foreshadow

Foreshadow is used in The Godfather, when Luca Brasi went to see Sollazo, the camera angle that was used did not make Luca Brasi the important subject in the shot. Instead, a glass wall with two golden fish. At the time when the audience first sees this camera trick, it is hard to understand why it has been made. Afterward, when Sonny is looking for Luca Brasi, a package or two dead fish is brought to Sonny. This was a Sicilian message signifying that "Luca Brasi swims with the fishes"- he is dead. The theme that this literary feature illuminates is that there is a sense of family in crime. This is also shown with the camera angles, and how the camera is put into the corner and kind of eye level with the other characters (like the audience is part of the scheme as well).