music. At the wedding, the poHce are kept out of the reception,nthough they observe the whole celebration from theirncars, and Don Corleone’s pet judges and politicians are invitednbut politely decline to attend. At the confirmation, thenmafiosi take state troopers plates of food, and the guest ofnhonor is Senator Geary, himself a crook and an almost comicnhypocrite. If the family is being corrupted, it is because it isnbeing assimilated into the existing corruption of AmericannGesellschaft.nyn- -r?–.*-“!!^’ ‘ ^iS^^T*”*^n. n-.n^n-tnThe whole confirmation sequence, in contrast with that ofnthe wedding sequence in Part I, shows a new twist of thendominant metaphor of the novel and films. The novel andnPart I established the metaphor that criminal society is analogousnto normal or legitimate society. The point of thenmetaphor was to offer a critique of normal society, not for itsnresemblance to criminal society but for its departures fromnthe more natural norms that govern the Gemeinschaft of thencriminal family. Now, in Part 11, the new development is thatnthe family is itself becoming part of the normal society andnthereby is being corrupted. A religious sub-metaphor is employednto show the corruption through the confirmation reception;njust as the baptism ceremony of Part I made Michaelna godfather in both the religious and criminal senses, so thenconfirmation sequence receives Michael’s son into the Churchnat the same time that the family is received as part of America,nas part of the corruptive Gesellschaft.nA large part of the conflict in Part II revolves around the antagonismnbetween Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft within andnwithout the family. There is a dual conflict, one between thenCorleone family and the Gesellschaft syndicate led by thengreedy and treacherous gangster Hyman Roth, and a secondnbetween the forces of corruption within the Corleone familynitself. The logic of Michael’s power dictates that he do businessnwith Roth and make tactical sacrifices of the interests ofnhis subordinates, mainly his aging lieutenant Frankie Pentangeli,nwho is the voice of pure Gemeinschaft. Pentangeli’s complaintnis that Michael is putting the interests of “that Jew innMiami” over those of “your own blood” and that Roth and hisnallies are avaricious and untrustworthy, recruiting “spies” andn”niggers” instead of good Sicilian boys to run the rackets innNew York. Moreover, the Roth gang is obsessed with drugpeddlingnand prostitution instead of the gambling that wasnthe backbone of the Sicilian gangs before and after Prohibition.nThe picture Pentangeli paints of the Roth gang and its activitiesnand procedures is one of Gesellschaft—an organizationndevoted purely to material acquisition and sensory gratificationnthrough rational, calculative enterprise, an organization contemptuousnof the traditional bonds of Gemeinschaft in then28/CHRONICLESn• . ‘ •nnnforms of the deference, manners, and ethnic and kinship loyaltiesnthat characterized the Corleone family in the past.nRoth’s gang is multiethnic, and his consigliore is a Sicilian,nJohnny Ola.nBut despite Pentangeli’s complaint, it is actually Michaelnhimself who is desperately trying to preserve the Corleonenfamily, and it is his tragedy that the process of modernizationnby which Gesellschaft invades and corrupts the Corleonesnis irresistible. His sister Connie has virtually deserted her ownnfamily and seeks only money from Michael. His brother Fredonis seduced by Roth and Johnny Ola into betraying Michaelnand jeopardizing his life. His wife Kay aborts their unbornnchild in what is an act of war against the family itself. Troublednby the crumbling of his family, Michael asks his mother,nthe widowed Mama Corleone, “by being strong for his family,ncould Pop lose it?” To the old woman, still immersed innGemeinschaft, the question is not even meaningful. “But youncan never lose your family,” she answers. “Times are changing,”nMichael replies.nMichael’s tragedy is precisely that he is strong for his familynand tries to arrest the rot, an effort that meets with onlynhatred and betrayal from family members who insist onnputting their own gratification above that of the family. “Hensaid there was something in it for me,” whines Fredo whennMichael demands to know why he collaborated with JohnnynOla. The contrast with the Gesellschaft of Hyman Roth isnpowerfully clear when Roth angrily explains why Michael’snquestions about Roth’s attempted killing of Frank Pentangelinare out of line. Roth reminds Michael of Moe Creene, a mannwhom, “as much as anyone,” Roth loved as a friend, and whenn”someone” (namely, Michael) ordered Greene killed, Rothnsays, “I never asked who gave the order—^because this is thenbusiness we’ve chosen.” To Roth, crime is merely business, anpurely acquisitive and calculative activity, that ought to benimmune to the sentiment and bonds of honor imported bynMichael. To Michael, however, attacks on him, his family,nand his dependents must be avenged, as was the case alsonwith his father, who returned to Sicily some forty years afternthe murder of his own family to take vengeance on the MafianDon who killed them.nAt the end of Part II, yet another bloodbath ensues that isnreminiscent of the massacre at the end of Part I and parallelsnthe flashback of Vito Corleone’s killing of Don Ciccio in Sicily.nMichael insists on having Roth killed, along with Fredonand Pentangeli, who has fallen into the hands of the FBI as anwitness. “Do you have to wipe out everybody?” Tom Hagennasks Michael. “No,” Michael replies, “Only my enemies.”nThe bloodbath is perfectly logical, not only as a fulfillmentnof the vendetta that a Gemeinschaft recognizes and demands,nbut also as an act of power. Only Roth’s death will confirmnMichael’s victory and remove a still dangerous enemy. Fredonis a living liability and is too stupid and weak to be trustednunder any circumstances. Pentangeli knows too much andnhas been prevented from incriminating Michael only by pressurenagainst his brother; he too is too dangerous to be allowednto live. In each case, Michael’s insistence on their executionsnis, from the point of view of the Corleone power interests andnfrom that of the moral code of the Gemeinschaft, logically essentialnand morally unobjectionable. The bloodbath andnMichael’s isolation at the end of Part II are confirmations not,nof the corruption and arrogance of power but of the inexorablenlogic of power—only by being strong for his familyn