Mario Puzo’s masterful command of language in The Godfather serves to render a portrait of the struggles between the New York Italian mafia families in the 1950s. Puzo is able to draw the reader with his blunt yet flowing diction that he uses to chronicle the events of the Corleones. He also uses his diction to get his dangerous tone across. The whole novel is fraught with danger for all the major characters, and Puzo expresses this through his diction. His word choice serves to keep the reader hanging and expecting that something could turn deadly any moment, as is the case when “in the fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man” (283). By using Sonny’s fully name, Puzo creates the classic parental tone of danger. The formality of the full name makes the reader sit up and pay attention, because their brain knows something is about to happen, in this case it is Sonny’s assassination.
As well as forewarning of actual danger, Puzo also foreshadows potential danger in the form of veiled threats, conveyed through his characters’ diction. The Corleone practice is to never actually threaten their opponents, though their words make their intentions clear enough. “‘Do me this favor and I’ll take care of you in the times to come. You got that?’” (287). Here Tom Hagen, the Corleone Consigliere, hints to his victim the implications of disobeying his orders. By seeming to be concerned but still using short, punchy words, Hagen lets his man know what can happen if he fails to do what is asked of him. The reader can pick up on this tone and will then understand the implied message behind the character’s words.
If not for the word choice of Puzo’s characters and his actual narrations, the
Reader might not understand the dangerous implications of all the going ons in the book.
Your analysis of the diction used by Puzo to create a jumpy tone, in which anything could happen at any minute, was to me, very accurate. As you have implied through your analysis, I feel that much more so than with rhetorical strategies or syntax, the diction that Puzo uses is very much the defining factor of the entire novel. Without such diction, as you mention, the novel would not have such an intense feel to it. Well noted Steven.
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