1. The Godfather:
A Family Portrait
By: Chris Dobbins

2. The Corleone Family
• The Corleones are a
prestigious crime family that
control many aspects of Long
Island, NY. This story begins
with the wedding ceremony of
The Don’s (Vito Corleone).
Throughout the film, family
members experienced
extraordinary circumstances
while dealing with the death
of loved ones, development
with new ones, new situations
or any change that affects the
family from the outside world.
Despite the fact that they’re a
rich and powerful family, the
way they communicate are
very similar especially to
Italian-Americans.

3. What kind of Family is The Corleone?
• In The Text, the authors suggest numerous types of family: two-parent
biological, single-parent, primary parent, blended family and extended
family. The Corleone are a very interesting family to categorized because
the Godfather treats many people like his “god children.” When someone
establishes a business partnership or comes to the Don for a favor, a
ceremonious kiss on the hand is performed, which allows access to the
family. In a way, The Don has adopted these outsiders and incorporate
many family values into these relationships. For example, Tom, a lawyer
for the family, grew up with the Corleones after his father abandoned him.
As an adopted son, he has learned about good manners with business
clientele and established a brotherhood with Sonny and Michael. Despite
his loyalty, Tom cannot move up in the “family business” because he’s not
a blood relative. In a sense, The Don has established two different
families: A blended family that includes friends and business partners and
his biological one. His biological family include: Carmella (his wife), Sonny
(his oldest son), Constanzia (his only daughter), Fredo (second oldest
son), and Michael (the youngest son).

4. A Close Family is a Good Family
• The Corleone’s seem to value a strong sense of
cohesion. According to the text, there are four levels of
cohesion: disengaged, Connected, cohesive and
enmeshed. The Corleone’s seem to have a desire of
loyalty and dependence on each other. Michael, who
would eventually become the head of the family,
seemed a little distance in the beginning because of
his involvement with the war and a woman. After
getting involved with the family business and
discovering the family roots in Sicily, he becomes a
very loyal to the family again. When watching the film,
viewers might notice that family makes almost no
contact with the outside world unless it’s for business
relations. The men constantly remind each other
about how important it is to do what’s best for the
whole. The grandmother, Carmella, is always talking
about taking care of the children and making sure that
family always comes first. It’s commonly known that
Italian-Sicilian families experience cohesive and
enmeshed styles.

5. Things Rarely Change
• The Corleone Family has a rigid
adaptability- meaning that
authoritarian leadership and roles
hardly change. The movie depicts
that the patriarch (The Godfather of
the family) only falls from that
position because of death or
retirement. This patriarch commands
many aspects of the family due their
economic status. This person conveys
a message of virility to the youngest
men, showing them that strength
and stability is essential to being a
great man. The women are always
depicted as homemakers; dedicating
their lives to raising the children and
providing what their husbands need.

6. Ethnicity
• After many years of immigration, The Don still practices the values that originated from his native
land. Ethnicity describes someone’s personal background; this usually includes common
ancestry, language, and cultural ancestry. Italian families are commonly known for large, high-key
celebrations, camaraderie, charm, and attention to family honor. Like many Italian families, the
Corleones function in multigenerational networks that include godparents, district relatives and even
friends outside the family. Usually the father is the head of the family while the mother is the heart.
Throughout the film, we see love and devotion for the family from all sides, even people from the
outside. Michael receives cooking advice on how to cook for twenty men (using wine, sugar, sausages
and other important Italian food); certain members only speak to each other in Italian; and family
members always greet each other with kisses.

7. Narratives
• Narratives are used to create meaning, to remember, to identify,
to convey expected behavior, to share deep values to current and
new members and to provide a connection between families.
Narratives fall into two categories: stories and accounting. Stories
provide a sense of history and telling dearest and favorite
memories. Accounting explains people’s behavior or situations. In
the opening scene, The Don talks to a begrudged man who asks
him to kill two boys that sexually assaulted his daughter. The man
begins his conversation with how much he believed in America,
but can’t trust the legal system. The story of his daughter’s assault
conveys that America has its flaws and sometimes you have to
alternative action to receive justice. After the Don decides to
provide help for the man, the ceremonious kiss is performed, and
now the man is a part of the Corleones. Another story is the Life
of Tom and his struggle as a orphan. He’s considered a son to the
family because The Don understood that everyone deserved a
family. Tom uses this stories to convey the message that just
because you’re not blood, doesn’t exactly mean you’re not family.

8. Rituals
• Rituals convey meanings of time spent
together within families. These rituals don’t
just consist actions but also worlds. Rituals
aren’t just used to provide pleasure for the
family but to maintain functions. Most
often, rituals consist of events and settling
conflicts. In The Godfather church is essential
to the Family’s faith. They believed that going
to church every Sunday qualified them as a
religious family. Another important ritual in
The Corleone Family is Weddings. The two
weddings in this film display very large
gatherings of Italian families. Smiling, father
and daughter bonding, rice throwing, gift
exchanging, etc.- seem to be practiced in
both weddings. Also, another ritual that the
Corleones practice is Sunday dinner. This is
essential to bonding and spending time with
each other. Sonny reprimands Carlo (his
sister’s husband) to never discuss business at
the table to respect the rules set up by his
father and to joy the company of each other.

9. “A man who doesn’t spend time with
his family isn’t a real man.”
• The Don strongly believes that spending time with loved ones is far more important than anything else in
his life. He practices what many experts call relational currencies. Relational Currency is something very
hard to specify but the important thing to remember is that it shows and allows people to make a
connection. When we send a loved one a message of affection, we’re showing relational currencies. For
example, After The Don is shot, Michael visits the hospital he’s staying at and moves him around to make
sure no that no enemy knows his whereabouts. After Michael comes to his rescue, The Don grabs his hand
and smiles. Another example of relational currency is listening and giving advice. After Michael has
become the head of the family, His father and him talk about how intelligent his son is. Here we see The
Don giving him advice about balancing family and the business. Another example is the beating that Sonny
gives to Carlo. After seeing his sister’s bruised face, Sonny finds her abusive husband and beats him to a
bloody pulp. After this violent incident, Sonny says, “If you touch my sister again, I’ll kill you.”

10. Aspects of Power
• According to a study done by Macdonald (1980), power inside families are
created by five different resources. Normative resources refer to family
values and their cultural definition of where authorities lie; it represents
what certain family members function based on their cultural. For
instance, The Don, Michael and Sonny are all competent males who take
over the family business. Based on Italian culture, the strongest male is
the patriarch. The women provide to the children’s activities and taking
care of what the lead male needs. The mother’s duty is to make sure that
the family functions.

11. Aspects of Power (continued)
• Economic resource is the power granted
by those who make the income and the
financial decisions. The family business
consists of a managing an olive oil
company, running casinos, union
racketeering, illegal gambling, drug
dealing and so much more. Since The
Don and Michael ran the business like
they ran their family, they called all the
shots. They felt that they were the
breadwinners. When they make all the
money, it is “their money.” Affective
resources reflect who in the family
nurtures who and how each family
members feels loved or belongs to the
system. For example, during a business
meeting, Sonny interrupts The Don’s
conversation with Virgil Sollozzo, a drug
kingpin. After the interruption, The don
belittles him by calling him “spoiled.”
After the meeting, he’s reprimanded for
his actions.

12. Aspects of Power (continued)
• Personal resources refer to an individual members such as
personality, appearance and ability. These include interpersonal
factors that cause members to appear more competent. Because
Sonny is such a charming man and a powerful aspect of the family,
he seems to get away with cheating on his wife. The fifth and final
aspect is known as Cognitive resource. This resource refers to a
personal’s logic and intelligence in regards to their power. When
Michael becomes the patriarch, he has relative ease with his
position because he watched the success of his father and the
failure of his brother Sonny.

13. Orchestration Power
• Hierarchies in the family system
have what is referred to as
orchestration power. This power
allows important members to
control family life and make critical
decisions. The Don delegates trivial
decisions to those who work
underneath him, especially Tom.
Since Tom carries out specific
duties, he contains
implementation power. Tom is told
to travel to Hollywood to talk to an
important figure about asking for
a friend actor to be in a film that
he was originally reject from. Due
to the fact that this task is time
consuming, The Don couldn’t go all
the way out to Hollywood to do
this.

14. Decision Making
• Family decisions can neither be Instrumental-
solving functional issues like getting a job- and
Affective decisions- decisions made based
upon emotions or feelings. It’s quite obvious
that this family business exist to benefit the
family,, but the film seems to blur the line
between instrumental and affective decision
making. After Michael’s jaw is broken by the
chief of police, Michael suggests that they seek
revenge for their father’s attempted murder
and his wounded face. Sonny says that he’s
taking this killing business “way to personally.”
Michael quickly fires back that a crooked cop
caught up in drug trafficking would be great for
story to expose to the Newspaper (they have
people from the newspaper company on their
payroll). Between Sonny, Michael, Tom and
others, they all come to a agreement that was
approved by everyone; this decision was made
by consensus. Usually, the head of the family
makes all the decisions without the approval of
others. This is referred to as a de-facto
decision.