great men like Presidents and Prime Ministers andrnSupreme Court Justices and Governors of the States. Hernrefuses to live by rules set up by others, rules which condemnrnhim to a defeated life. . ..rnMoreover, Don Corleone’s conversation as well as that ofrnMichael and the other mafiosi is full of such homespunrnamoralisms of power-playing as Machiavelli would have treasured:rn”Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”; “Revengernis a dish that tastes best when it is cold”; “a lawyer with hisrnbriefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns”; andrnso on. They are just the sort of adages that fill the pages ofrnMachiavelli’s own works, and they are based on his assumption,rnwhich he shares with the Corleone family, that human naturerndoes not change and therefore the natural laws by which humanrnbeings gain, use, and lose power remain permanent asrnwell. And not only permanent but universal, so that they applyrnto the dynamics of Mafia intrigues as much as to the relationshipsrnamong governments and between governors and governed.rn. ..rnThe role of religion in the novel and particularly in the filmsrnalso illustrates Machiavellian themes. Religion for Puzo andrnCoppola appears to have two applications: as a mask behindrnwhich criminality’ hides and as a sop for women, children, andrnunmanly men. The irony of the tide of “Codfather” itself pointsrnto the former use, as does the powerful climactic scene in Part Irnwhen Michael, literally becoming godfather to the child of hisrntreacherous brother-in-law through the sacrament of baptism,rnrenounces Satan and all his works while at the same momentrnhis assassins cut down his enemies, making him the new Codfatherrnon another level of meaning.rnI’he use of religion as a Machiavellian mask is continued andrnintensified in Part II, where the repulsive Don Fannucci of thernBlack Hand ostentatiously offers a large cash donation to thernCatholic Church and deplores the violence of a Punch andrnJudy show, even as the young Vito Corleone stalks him duringrna religious festival in the streets, using the celebration of thernMa.ss as a distraction to kill Fannucci and initiate his own rise tornpower. Indeed, throughout both films there is not one religiousrnceremony or its social celebration that does not serve as a maskrnfor crime: the wedding reception sec|uence that opens Part I,rnduring which Don Codeone plans crimes on behalf of his retainers;rnthe baptism scene at the end of the film as well as the funeralrnof Don Corleone, when the late Don’s capo regime Tessiornbetrays Michael; the confirmation of Michael’s own son inrnNevada at the beginning of Part II; and the funeral of Michael’srnmother toward the end of Part II, when Michael gives the orderrnfor die murder of his brother Frcdo.rnIndeed, the only grown man in either the book or the filmsrnwho takes religion at all seriously is Fredo himself, who, asrnMichael describes him, is “weak and stupid.” Just before hisrnown assassination in Part II, Fredo plans a fishing trip withrnMichael’s son, and Fredo assures the boy that the way to catchrna fish is to say a Hail Mary when he drops the line in the water.rnAs Fredo sits in the boat repeating his prayers. Michael’s gunmanrnblows his brains out from behind.rnThe Godfathers general use of religion is virtually identical tornthe advice offered by Machiavelli to the Prince that “it is well tornseem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also tornbe so; but you must have the mind so disposed that v’hen it isrnneedful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the oppositernqualities,” his belief, based on his reading of Roman religion,rnthat “everything that tends to favor religion (even thoughrnit were believed to be false) should be received and availed of tornstrengthen it,” and the saying of Cosimo de Medici, quoted byrnMachiavelli in his History of Florence, that “it required somethingrnmore to direct a government than to play with a string ofrn[rosarv] beads.” Rome itself occasionally is invoked in bothrnbook and films, as when Michael notes that Santino is scribblingrndown the names of men to be killed “as if he were somernnewly crowned Roman emperor.”rnYet while the book proceeds from the premise that legitimaternsociety and criminal gangs are analogous, it is at oncernevident that there is also a difference between them. In therncourse of his daughter’s wedding reception, Don Corleone hasrnthe duty of meeting with and granting favors to many friendsrnand relatives. The first of the men to approach him is an undertaker,rnAmerigo Bonasera, who tearfully complains that hisrndaughter has been attacked. Bonasera is an immigrant and hasrntried all his life to be a good American, as his first name implies.rnHe has obeyed the law and raised his daughter as a respectablernyoung woman. Recently, she dated a young man, the son of arnU.S. Senator, who tried to seduce her. When she rejected hisrnadvances, her date and a friend beat her sa’agely, sending her tornthe hospital and permanently disfiguring her features.rnBeing a good American, Bonasera went to the police andrnbrought charges against his daughter’s assailants. Thernscoundrels were convicted. But because of their fathers’ politicalrninfluence, the judge gave them only a suspended sentence,rnand fliey smirked at Bonasera as they left the courtroom. Nowrnhe comes to Don Corleone.rnThe Don’s response conveys the principal expression of tlicrnmoral code of the book and, even more, the films. Bonasera isrnnot a friend of the Don. In all the years they have known eachrnother, Bonasera avoided his company, never invited him to hisrnhouse, never did him a fiivor or asked a fa’or of him. That’s allrnright with the Don, but now, all of a sudden, Bonasera comes tornhim and asks him, in return for nioncv’, to commit murder.rnThe Don refuses, his dignity wounded by Bonasera’s tastelessrninsult.rnBonasera wanted to be an American, and he turned his backrnon his cultural heritage and his natural friends. “America,” hernmoans, “has been good to me. I wanted to be a good citizen. Irnwanted my child to be American.” And, of course, he wantedrnAmerican jusfice, which is exactiy what he got. “You neverrnarmed yourself with true friends,” the Don tells him. “After all,rnthe police guarded you, there were courts of law, you and yoursrncould come to no harm. Yon did not need Don Corleone.” Butrnnow, when the fake, purchased jusfice of America has failedrnhim, to whom does he turn? Don Corleone’s sarcasfic advice isrnthat Bonasera accept the judgment of the American court andrngive up his idea of revenge. “The judge has ruled. America hasrnruled,” he says. The notion of vengeance for a wrong sufferedrnby a family member is “not American.” Best for AmerigornBonasera to give it up.rnAmerica, as the Don describes it and as Bonasera has experiencedrnit, does not behave like the Corleone family after all, andrnthe differences between the two societies do not favor America.rnThe differences between the two are precisely those betweenrntwo kinds of social organization that sociologists describe asrnGemeinschaft and Gesellschaft respectively. Gemeinschaftrnrefers to a kind of culture characteristic of primitive, agrarian,rntribal societies, in which bonds of kinship, blood relationship,rnJULY 2001/17rnrnrn