Godfather And Last Don Essays - The Last Don, English-language Films

Godfather And Last Don A Mafia Family's Use of Violence Violence can either be used as mean of attaining power or as means of revenge. It is a highly known fact that the main focus of a stereotypical Mafia family should centre around the use of violence. "The Godfather" as well as "The Last Don" are two novels which hold true to this focus and are interestingly enough both written by the same author: the late Mario Puzo. Although being written more than twenty-five years apart, the two novels almost mirror each other throughout. For instance, near the beginning of each book the only daughter of each family gets married. Aside from that we also see one son die in each novel as well as the husband of the family's only daughter to be killed by the family. Throughout all these instances the only thing dissimilar regarding the two Mafia families is their reasons for violence. A family's use of violence is determined by how much power they hold. In "The Godfather", the main purpose behind all killing and violence can be directly related to attaining power. On the other hand, "The Last Don" is a novel in which all cases of violence are used for the sole purpose of revenge. The killing of one of the sons in both novels by Puzo appears to be the most prominent deaths. The unfortunate son in "The Last Don", Sylvio, is a very caring and nurturing individual who wishes to have his younger sister, Rose, marry the man of her choice. Her first choice is the son of a rival Mafia boss. He is a part of the Santadio clan. For obvious business reasons Don Clericuzio does not wish his daughter to become involved with the rival son let alone have him become a part of his family. Therefore Don Clericuzio strictly forbids Rose's marriage to him. As a means of reconciling this difference Petie meets Rose's lover to seek the solution to their marriage. On the way home after making arrangements to persuade his father to let his sister marry, Petie is sideswiped in his sportscar by a member of the Santadios and gunned to death. The fact that the Clericuzio clan is the most powerful family in the world means that the killing of any Santadio would not be by any stretch for personal gain of wealth. The Don of each family lays the seeds for generations to come which helps explain the future killings in this book. It is Don Clericuzio who as an act of revenge plans the total wipeout of the Santadio family. He lets the wedding between his daughter and the Santadio's son proceed sending only his nephew Pippi to go as "representation" of the Clericuzios. All goes well at the wedding as Pippi dances among his foes. Rose and her new husband go to the wedding bed that night and only that night. In the middle of the night a band of the Clericuzios storm the Santadio mansion and kill all of their men. They wear masks to disguise themselves from Rose but it is to no avail as she notices Pippi's wedding shoes. In the end it is Pippi who kills Rose's husband but not before the seeds of life had been planted for Rose's child who was to be named Dante. Don Clericuzio had avenged the death of his son Sylvio. Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the chain of revenge. The after effects of the Santadio-Clericuzio war was laid to rest by all of the Clericuzios except for Rose who was deeply in love with her husband. The hurt was evident throughout as she shunned upon the presence of anybody but her dear son Dante. Rose ended up going mad and became a senile old woman by the time she was fourty years old. The Clericuzio family kept the war against the Santadios quiet throughout Dante's life as well as Cross' lifetime. The exception to this was when Dante's mother would often whisper the truth about it to him. For this Dante,"..dreamed of vengeance on Pippi, and though these were fantasies, he thought them for his mother's sake". (P.429) Cross was Pippi's son and was baptized at the same time as Dante. Dante returned the love that was shown by his mother and was obviously closer to her than any Clericuzio. At this point Dante is in his mid twenties and has become a cold-hearted hitman on behalf of the Clericuzio family. It is of no

The Articles vs Consitution essays

The Articles vs Consitution essays The fundamental basis of our government was very weak compared to the government of today. Under the Articles of Confederation, the states were hardly unified, and had no strong central government. When the Federal Constitution was established, the states were finally united, and the delegates realized that the power must come from the central government. When the Articles of Confederation were written in 1777, weakness was prominent. There was only one vote in Congress for each state, which was unfair to the states with a larger population. There was a Two-Thirds vote required in Congress for all important decisions. There were no separation of powers; Congress carried out the laws. The central government had no control over commerce; each state had individual foreign affairs. There were no federal courts, and had no authority to act directly upon individuals and no power to compel states. Under the Articles, the states seemed to have more power than the central government. Realizing that America was under a weak central government, in 1788 thirteen delegates met in Philadelphia to draw up the new and improved Federal Constitution. This created unlike the Articles a more unified union. A compromise was made between the populous states and the smaller states. Two houses of government were established. In the Senate, there were two votes, disregarding the population of the state. This complied with the equal representation deal. The other half was called the House of Representatives, which the votes depended on the population of that state. In the matter of deciding important issues, a simple majority vote was needed in Congress. There were now three branches of government, the executive (presidential), legislative (Congress), and the judicial (Supreme Court). The executive branch now had the powers to execute laws, and the Supreme Court headed the Federal Courts. The power foreign and interstate commerce was now gi...

To what extent does organisational culture influence the degree of Essay

To what extent does organisational culture influence the degree of employee engagement in an organisation - Essay Example The significant aspect lies on the basis of these societal and industrial cultures bringing about an imperative basis for the organizational culture to exist in the most basic sense. One must understand that the organization cannot exist in seclusion and it has to remain in constant touch with the society in which it exists and the industry under which it finds competitors for its own selves and the strategic alliances, mergers and unities that form as a result of the same. (Deeks, 1993) Now the foundation lies merely on the manner under which the strategic and the tactical moves are adopted by this organization under study and how best it delivers towards the needs of the stakeholders, customers and employees working for the benefit of the organization itself, both from the short term perspective as well as an investment in the long run. Seeking to introduce something on the lines of the customer’s wants and needs is a difficult proposition for the organization since it has to change its values and cultural basis but then again is an interesting offering which more or less suggests the ‘changing’ regime of the organization and to the levels the organization can bend itself for the sake of the valued customer. (Hatch & Cunliff, 2005) The changing market structure might call for changing strategies and lines of action that would all target the people for whom the product is actually designed as well as the competitors with whom the clutter is being broken in the environs of the marketplace. (Massey, 2001) Thus competition brings in more and more quality at the end of the company with regards to its products as well as more sales in the form of its varied and changed stance on focusing towards the customers rather than the product itself. (Covin, 1999) Apart from that, emphasis on need must be the o rder of the day rather than bringing out more and more varied stock key units just for the