NHÓM 1

Phạm Đặng Gia Thịnh

Đỗ Thị Nhã
Tống Thị Phương Linh
Trần Nguyễn Như Quỳnh
Tăng Ý Vân

1. Summarize the writing career of Mario Puzo.

Few novels have pushed themselves as hard into the popular imagination as Mario Puzo's
The Godfather. Arriving on the bestseller list at a time when political institutions and social
practices in the United States were being investigated and questioned like never before (or,
arguably, since), The Godfather increased the stakes. The novel explores the origins and
legitimacy of power by challenging the concept that, as Balzac's epigraph states, "Behind
every great fortune there is a crime."

The story claims to demonstrate how things "truly" function while simultaneously playing
mind tricks with the reader. The novel reinvented the gangster genre by making the bad men
appear good. Puzo's rhetorical inversion method, which challenges standard moral
presuppositions of good and evil, imposes a new view of language's manipulative and
dangerous possibilities. Puzo's captivating account of the Corleone's "family business" and
Italian-American immigrant culture, which twists boundaries between hero and villain, helps
to confirm America's "outlaw" character in general.

Although The Godfather has mostly been absorbed into popular culture through the film
trilogy and other adaptations, the novel remains the driving force behind the mafia culture
business. It is the novel that gave us famous phrases like "I'll make him a offer he can't
refuse" and "a lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Above
all, the work attests to the myth-making capacity of modern literature, despite and maybe
because of the simple, accessible style. Puzo's portrayals of Italian Americans have been seen
as both celebratory and derogatory: in any case, Puzo's The Godfather remains a wonderfully
important, engaging, and accessible work.

2. Discuss the role of women in the story. You should find evidence in the story to
support your points.

Women's roles have evolved dramatically throughout time. It is now common for women to
have a successful job and a family; however, this was not always the case. The role of
women, for example, is very different in The Godfather than it is today. Women's roles in
The Godfather are confined to becoming family caregivers. The women in this film were
likewise viewed as the least significant aspect of a man's existence; this attitude is reinforced
throughout The Godfather with the treatment of both Okay and Connie.

The primary duty of women in this film is to care for the family, which include keeping the
house running, caring for the children, and ensuring the men's well-being. When Don
Cicerone was in the hospital, this was exemplified in The Godfather. Don Cicerone was
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cared for at the hospital by a female nurse, implying that one of the roles of the women in
this film is to care for the males. Another scene in the film that depicts women as caregivers
is when the Cicerone family visits Don in the hospital. The women in this picture took the
youngsters in to view the Don, then carried them out.

This sequence demonstrates how the ladies in the film were expected to care for the children
and is ultimately another illustration of the women's position as caregivers in The Godfather.
The less visible role of women in The Godfather was the men's perception of women as the
least important thing in their life. This theme is shown throughout the film in the handling of
Okay and Connie. One example of how Michael's behavior of Okay portrays this position of
women is when he leaves to Italy and does not contact Okay for nearly a year before
returning to her and expecting her to marry him.

Because Michael ignored Okay for nearly a year, women were viewed as less essential in
The Godfather. If Okay was essential to Michael, he couldn't have been separated from her
for so long. Aside from Okay, Connie was also mistreated by the males. One example was
when Connie was pregnant and her husband beat her up because she was freaking out
because a woman had phoned their house asking for her husband. This incident demonstrates
how males did not value women since if Sconce's husband had cared for her, he would never
have been abusive with her, especially while she was pregnant.

As you can see, the role of women now is very different from what it was in The Godfather,
which most people would consider to be a good thing. That's because the women's function
in The Godfather was to care for the men and children. In addition, women were not
regarded as significant by the males. When both of these ideas are combined, the audience
can conclude that in The Godfather, women's roles were to care for the men and children
while not worrying about themselves.