Manny Week Three: Feedback

As I was scanning through other Godfather blog, I stumbled upon and I found interesting. It was on Aaron and Georgia’s bolg and it was about Apollonia and how she affected Michael. I wrote that they should label their blog posts properly and I do not know who wrote the blog. I also wrote that I liked their ideas but I had to disagree on one of their points. They wrote that it was because of Apollonia’s death that Michael came back to the states to save his family. This is wrong, cause Michael came back to New York so he can say with his father. He was asked to come back to the states just after Sonny’s death.

Manny Week Three: Feedback

As I was scanning through other Godfather blog, I stumbled upon and I found interesting. It was on Aaron and Georgia’s bolg and it was about Apollonia and how she affected Michael. I wrote that they should label their blog posts properly and I do not know who wrote the blog. I also wrote that I liked their ideas but I had to disagree on one of their points. They wrote that it was because of Apollonia’s death that Michael came back to the states to save his family. This is wrong, cause Michael came back to New York so he can say with his father. He was asked to come back to the states just after Sonny’s death.

Manny Week Three: Class Act

As we all sat inaudibly staring at the screen that projected the Godfather, we witnessed the transformation of Michael becoming the Don of the Corleone family. As we all know, the Don has the final say and his family must listen to it. Every soul in the room became bewildered when they heard that Tom Hagen was not going to be Consigliere anymore and to make matters even worse, Michael was making Carlo his right hand man. Now why would Michael make Carlo his right hand man when Carlo does not have any experience in the Mafia?

Maybe it is a part of a plan the Michael hopes to execute in the revenge of his brother Santino. We all know how the fate of Carlo ends up in the end of the movie.

I think that Michael wanted to make Carlo feel a part of the family business and that everyone trusted him. When Carlo got comfortable with the Corleone family, he thought that they were on his side. So when Michael told Carlo in the end of the movie to go home and wait, Carlo obeyed him not only because Michael is the Don but also that he feels that Michael is on his own side.

Francis Ford Coppola does a great job integrating a well-known cliché into the story o the Godfather. “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

Comment

Today, I commented on David's post about the Human Condition. He meantioned how important family is to the Don and compared that to Winston in 1984, who lacks family.

--Rushil

Comment

Today, I commented on David's post about the comment he made on Bhanesha's. In his post he mentioned that he agrees that the Don Vito Corleone is a supernatural force, having survived five shots and dying because of a heart attack (something not related to being shot five times). David also mentioned that there is something special about the camera angle at which Michael is portrayed. I asked him what that special thing is, and I hope he replys to my comment. :D



--Rushil

Manny Week Two: Archetypes

During the story, we now experience a new situational archetype, the journey. The character that goes on the journey is Michael. He is sent there for his own safety because nobody in the mafia kills a cop. This trip for Michael is actually benefitting him because he "gained" a wife and if you look at your Hero's Journey handout, it says the journey sends the hero in search of some truth that will help save his kingdom.

An example of Michael getting some truth is were one of his bodyguards tries to kill him by bombing his car. Through this experience, Michael gains the knowledge to trust no one and you see this knowledge in action during the end of the Godfather and during the Godfather Part II.

Manny Week Two: Class Act

While we were watching the Godfather in class, we were given some side questions to think about. Those questions were basically asking what do character's names mean. With some intensive research done, I have found the answers. The name Michael is a rhetorical question and it means "who is like God?" So Michael means no person is like God. The name Santino comes from the word sanctus, which basically means saintly, holy. Finally the name Apollonia means saints, martyr. 

Plenty can be said about the characters by just finding out what their name means.

Manny Week Two: Feedback

For this week, I commented on one of Arpreet's blog posts. I wrote that I totally agree with him how Michael is getting more involved in the family business. I also wrote that he may want to check his spelling because he spelt a word wrong.

The Color Orange

The significance of oranges was mentioned very early in the movie, when the Don was shot while he was buying oranges.

Most recently, I noticed that Carlo was wearing orange when he was recieving a beating from Sonny.

From these two events I can say that maybe oranges... or the color orange is a symbol of life threatening danger.

--Rushil

Literary feature?

I really enjoyed the scene where Michael goes to the hospital to visit Vito. I think this scene stood out to me because of all the tension involved, knowing that men were on their way to murder the Don. Anyways, I was wondering about the part where Michael gets arrested by the corrupt officer before some Corleones show up.

The Corleones showing up gives the viewers sudden relief. I know that this is like "comic relief," but different because there is no comedy in this scene. I was wondering if this relief is a feature that should be noted.

-- Rushil

Manny Week One: Feedback

For this week, I commented on one of Fion's blog posts. I wrote that I liked her idea about danger and found it really effective to highlight some words red. Also, her idea about Kay being a non-Italian and symbolizing Michael's desire to live a more Americanized life was really interesting.

Manny Week One: Class Act

During class, everyone was asked what the word "hero" means. During the discussion, we stumbled upon an idea that the word "hero" means someone who has "self-achieved submission." Now what does self-achieved submission mean? Well according the Apple dictionary, the word self means "A person's particular nature or personality," the word achieved means achieved "To reach or to obtain by effort, skill or courage" and the word submission means "The action of yielding to a superior force." I believe that if you combine all the definitions of these word, then you should get the meaning of self-achieved submission. I believe that the term "self-achieved submission" means to use your personality and skills to obtain something and then give up right in the end when you almost have it. This in a way does make sense because it is like saying that you always wanted to be a famous musician, so you work hard everyday putting in the effort and just when you get noticed and get a record deal you turn it down. It is not important where you end up, but more important how you get there and what paths you took.

Manny Week One: Archetypes

Today, we had the whole school track meet at Swangard Stadium. During the breaks in between the rotation of groups, I started to think about the Godfather. When I looked around myself, I saw people enjoying themselves [particularly looking at the grade 10s]. I realized that instead of being forced to work, most of the grade 10s took their stations seriously as if it were their own business. Once you start enjoying your business, it starts to change the way you act and/or the way you work, then it is not so much of a business but instead a way of lifestyle.

The Corleone family and any other family in the Godfather would say it, [the mafia], is just business but that is not true because they enjoy the perks of the mafia and it effects the way that they live. An example of the mafia taking effect and changing the way a person acts is in the beginning of the Godfather where Sonny see that the FBI are at his sisters wedding so he decides to spit at one of the FBI's badge and breaks the other's camera.

The archetype that I see in the Godfather is "The Initiation." The place where I see this situational archetype is when Don Corleone gets shot down and Sonny becomes the "temporary" Don of the Corleone family. Sonny takes matter into his own hands and it changes the way that he acts. Once he "becomes" the Don, he stars to act like that he is invincible. There is also another person in the Godfather that goes through the "initiation," but I do not want to say anything about it because I may spoil your surprise and you do not want that to happen. I can tell you about this in my next week's archetypes post.

So the next time you hear, "Its only business." Is it really?