could Michael hope to preserve his family, but by being strongnfor it, he destroyed it. That was his tragedy, as it is the tragedynof human society. Power is not only necessary to the functioningnof society, as Machiavelli taught; it also possesses anrelentless logic that eventually eats up itself as it irresistiblynconverts Gemeinschaft into Gesellschaft and turns the consensualnand deferential social bonds of the former into thencoercive commands and cash relationships of modernity.nIndeed, the seeds of Gesellschaft and its corruption are alreadynpresent in the book and Part I. For all of Vito Corleone’sninvocations of the sacred obligations of family andnfriendship, by the end of the novel virtually the whole familynhas been killed through treachery. Carlo Rizzi shamelesslyncheats on and beats his wife, Connie Corleone, and sets up thenmurder of his brother-in-law Santino. Santino also cheats onnhis wife, and Fredo in the book sides with Moe Greene againstnMichael. Santino is manipulated into being set up for assassinationnprecisely because he takes the family too seriously.nHe wants vengeance for the attack on his father and Carlo’snbeating of his sister, and he rushes blindly into the trap contrivednfor him. When Tessio is led off to execution for hisnown betrayal of the family, he tells Hagen to assure Michael hisntreason was nothing personal. “Tell Mike it was only business;nI always liked him.”nUltimately, as Michael knows, it is always “only business”;nthe temptations of Gesellschaft and modernization, power,nbusiness, money, and survival are always stronger than thenbonds of Gemeinschaft, honor, loyalty, and family. WhennTessio’s treachery is discovered, Hagen tells Michael he wasnsurprised; he always thought it would have been Clemenzanwho betrayed him, No, says Michael, “Tessio was alwaysnsmarter.” It is not smart to put your faith in Gemeinschaft becausenit does not last. “All our people are businessmen,”nMichael tells Hagen in Part II. “Their loyalties are based onnthat.”nUltimately, then, the apparent distinction between thenGemeinschaft symbolized by the family and the Gesellschaft ofnmodernity symbohzed by normal or legitimate American societynbreaks down, and perhaps it is Michael who is naive afternall, with the naivete of the tragic hero who trusts in somethingnthat is foreign to the nature of man. For all the contrastnbetween legitimate and criminal society, at last, when the finalnmask is torn off, there is no difference at all; the Corleonenfamily is based on fraud as well as force, and it does indeednmelt into and become indistinguishable from America.nThe Godfather offers a powerfully pessimistic (some mightneven say cynical) view of man and society that slaps in thenface the pleasanter views characteristic of modernist ideologiesndrawn from the doctrine of progress and especially the favoritenAmerican myth that through assimilation into the institutionalnenvironment offered by the democratic capitalismnof the American Gesellschaft, human beings can be perfectednand force and fraud as enduring and omnipresent elementsnof social existence can be escaped. When Michael is persuadingnKay to marry him and to put aside her repulsion at thenworld in which he lives and where he prevails, he tells her,n”Maybe I’m just one of those real old-fashioned conservativesnthey grow up in your hometown. I take care of myself, individual.nGovernments really don’t do much for their people,nthat’s what it comes down to, but that’s not it really. All Incan say, I have to help my father, I have to be on his side.” Fornall Michael’s own, early rebellion against his blood and hisnheritage, he cannot escape them, nor can he and his family escapenthe fate that the logic of power compels. NeithernGemeinschaft nor Gesellschaft offer any hope of a secular salvation,nany safe resolution of man’s fate, and the Machiavelliannportrayal of religion in both book and films seems to hold outnlittle hope of any other kind of salvation either.nBut not quite. When Kay marries Michael, she noticesnthat Mama Corleone, a very minor character in the book, goesnto church everyday. The Protestant Kay asks her why she doesnso.n”I go for my husband,” she pointed down toward thenfloor, “so he don’t go down there.” She paused. “I saynprayers for his soul every day so he go up there.”nIt is one of only two passages in either the book or the first twonfilms that suggests the utility of religion for something othernthan a mask as well as one of the few passages that hints at thenreality of the evil of Don Corleone, though it also suggestsnthe secular necessity of men like him and Michael. MamanCorleone knows full well what her husband is, and she alsonknows she can do nothing to change him or the dependence ofnher world on him, and at his death in Part I, the old Don isnplaying with his grandson by putting an orange peel in hisnmouth and pretending to be a monster, a game that reveals atnlast another and equally true dimension of his character. Evil,nas Machiavelli taught, is a necessary part of social and politicalnorganization, though it is to be recognized as such and notndisguised through the illusory cant of modernist ideology.nKay herself comes to perceive the evil of the reality her husbandnrepresents at the end of the book and of Part I of thenfilms and also to recognize and accept it in the same way as thenold Mrs. Corleone. Seeing Michael being saluted by his vassalsnas the new Don, what occurs to Kay is the metaphor of Rome,nand thereby she herself confirms the truth of the parallel betweennnormal and criminal society.nKay could see how Michael stood to receive their homage.nHe reminded her of statues in Rome, statues ofnthose Roman emperors of antiquity, who, by divinenright, held the power of life and death over their fellownmen. One hand was on his hip, the profile of his facenshowed a cold proud power, his body was carelessly, arrogantlynat ease, weight resting on one foot slightly behindnthe other.nAnd hence, the other, and final, scene of the book that suggestsnthat religion has a meaning other than as a mask. Thenbook concludes with Kay, having converted to Catholicismnafter she learns of her husband’s role in the murder of CarlonRizzi and of the true nature of his “business,” in church atnMass, “saying the necessary prayers for the soul of MichaelnCorleone.” If Michael is the new Don, Kay, representing thennormal or legitimate society of America, has become the newnMadonna Corleone, accepting the reality of what her husbandnrepresents and recognizing in her “necessary prayers”nthe dreadful duality of the evil that men do and the equallyndreadful necessity for even such innocent children of thenAmerican Gesellschaft as Kay Adams to see it, to accept theirndependence on it, to unite with it, and finally to pray for thosenwho act out the tragedy it demands. OnnnOCTOBER 1992/29n