Essay #3 Prompt

Derek Cedeno Mina

Professor Couch-Tellefsen

Composition 1 

07 November 2022

 

The Normal Family

The importance of family is viewed very differently in many people’s eyes. Society is known to normalize honoring your family and to genuinely love your family. Family is said to always have your back and be by your side and never betray you. A very well-known saying that is known internationally says “Blood is thicker than water”. According to Mariam Webster’s dictionary this idiom means “Used to say that a person’s family is more important than a person’s other relationships or needs”. In the movie, the Godfather part two the Corleone family is on a family vacation trip to Vegas where family member Fredo Corleone ended up betraying his family by giving up the location where the family was staying to rival mob members. Michael Corleone, the leader of the Corleone crime family, confronted Fredo about his actions at a New Years’ party. In the movie, Michael is shown to love and honor his family. Fredo on the other hand chose to betray the family to gain respect and protection from the rival mob family. The ideology that is supported in the Godfather part two, Fredo’s betrayal shows the different ways Fredo and Michael value family. The Godfather portrays a family in a way society values the ideology of the family.

 

In The Godfather part two, the Michael and the Corleone crime family were entering a profitable partnership with several other mob leaders and the Cuban president. One of the mob leaders joining this partnership, Hyman Roth is a very powerful mob leader. In the previous movie, Michael Corleone assassinated rival mob leader Moe Greene. Hyman Roth was very close with former Mob leader Moe Greene, which caused Hyman Roth to develop a secret hate for Michael Corleone. Hyman Roth started a plan to avenge his very close friend Moe Greene’s death that was in the hands of Michael Corleone. This caused Roth to manipulate Fredo Corleone, Michael’s brother into giving him the location of where the family was staying. This led up to people shooting at the family’s hotel in an attempt to kill Michael Corleone. Michael then realized that the attack was ordered by Roth, and this led to Michael trying to get closer to him to watch his every move. Later on, in the movie, drunk Fredo reveals to a group of people at a party that he and Hyman Roth have been seeing each other, in front of Michael. This causes Michael to realize it was Fredo who betrayed the family and later on leads to Michael confronting Fredo at the party. This later leads to Michael ordering one of his goons to kill his brother Fredo because of his betrayal.

 

The scene where Michael Corleone confronts Fredo Corleone about betraying the family introduces the ideology of betrayal within the family, which takes place in a ballroom on New Years’ Eve. Once it hit midnight and everyone was celebrating the new year Michael went up to Fredo and hugged him. According to the Godfather part two transcript by Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola, it states Michael hugged him close and told him in his ear “There is a plane waiting for us to take us to Miami in an hour, don’t make a big thing about it.” Michael then kisses Fredo and says “I know it was you, Fredo, You broke my heart.” Then he shakes Fredo’s head and repeats one more time “you broke my heart.” Fredo then runs away with a worried and scared look on his face. When analyzing this important scene in the Godfather part two Michael shows how upset and angry he is in his face and reveals all his emotions as he confronts Fredo. Michael is one to believe in the idea that family comes before everyone. This is why he was broken when he found out Fredo betrayed him and the family as a whole. Michael views his family as his prized possession and something he honors. Fredo on the other hand values his own life over his family. In the scene, Fredo seemed very scared as he ran away from Michael. After analyzing this scene it is realized that the movie portrays Fredo as the villain of the movie as The Godfather part two supports the idea that an ideal family should love one another and that you shouldn’t betray your family. This is proven when Michael has his goons kill off Fredo, someone who is portrayed as the villain of the movie to be killed off at the end of the movie as a consequence of not obeying the family and betraying them

 

The ideology of never betraying and loving your family is supported by society’s values and how people as a culture view family. Although the ideal family is known to love and honor each other, there are many instances where people don’t follow society’s overall view on family. This is shown in the Menendez brother’s case where they, similar to Fredo, betrayed their family to inherit something they wanted such as power. According to the article, “The disturbing story of the menendez brothers – and how they killed their own parents in a ‘gangland-style’ murder” by Kaleena Fraga it states “Lyle and Erik admitted to murdering both of their parents on August 20, 1989. They denied, however, that they’d killed their parents merely to inherit their millions.” The Menendez brothers are another example of people breaking society’s values because they were later on arrested for killing their family. The Menendez brothers don’t follow society’s values as they kill their parents to gain their fortune which leads to them getting arrested as a consequence for betraying their family and killing them. Society’s ideology supports that you should love and honor your family. A famous bible verse that supports this is “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land of the Lord your God is giving you” (Staff, BibleStudyTools). This bible verse explains that you should honor your mother and father, this relates to both Fredo and the Menendez brothers because they have betrayed their family and chose to not honor them. Them not honoring their family led to major consequences for their actions as society as a whole doesn’t support the idea of not honoring your family.

Society expresses the ideal family should love one another and not go against your own family. Fredo is the prime example of what society doesn’t look up to as the movie the Godfather part two portrays Fredo Corleone as the villain of the movie as he betrayed his family for rival mob members. Ideology is in everyday life, and the specific scene in the Godfather part two that was discussed shows that society’s ideology of family is to be loving and honor them. Overall society sees the ideal family to honor each other and to never betray one another.

 

 

Works Cited

Coppola, Francis. The Godfather Part II Transcript,
http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/gf2/transcript/gf2transcript.html. 

Fraga, Kaleena. “The Disturbing Story of the Menendez Brothers – and How They Killed Their
 Own Parents in a ‘Gangland-Style’ Murder.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting,
             24 Sept. 2022, https://allthatsinteresting.com/menendez-brothers. 

Staff, BibleStudyTools. “Exodus 20:12 – ‘Honor Your Father and Your Mother, so That You
Ma…” Biblestudytools.com, BibleStudyTools,
https://www.biblestudytools.com/exodus/20-12.html.