The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
187
saw you throw away the wallet and the gun.” 
The Don sighed. “Well, then I can’t talk to you about how you should behave. Don’t you 
want to finish school, don’t you want to be a lawyer? Lawyers can steal more money 
with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks.” 
Sonny grinned at him and said slyly, “I want to enter the family business.” When he saw 
that the Don’s face remained impassive, that he did not laugh at the joke, he added 
hastily, “I can learn how to sell olive oil.” 
Still the Don did not answer. Finally he shrugged. “Every man has one destiny,” he said. 
He did not add that the witnessing of Fanucci’s murder had decided that of his son. He 
merely turned away and added quietly, “Come in tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. 
Genco will show you what to do.” 
But Genco Abbandando, with that shrewd insight that a Consigliere must have, realized 
the true wish of the Don and used Sonny mostly as a bodyguard for his father, a position 
in which he could also learn the subtleties of being a Don. And it brought out a 
professorial instinct in the Don himself, who often gave lectures on how to succeed for 
the benefit of his eldest son. 
Besides his oft-repeated theory that a man has but one destiny, the Don constantly 
reproved Sonny for that young man’s outbursts of temper. The Don considered a use of 
threats the most foolish kind of exposure; the unleashing of anger without forethought as 
the most dangerous indulgence. No one had ever heard the Don utter a naked threat, 
no one had ever seen him in an uncontrollable rage. It was unthinkable. And so he tried 
to teach Sonny his own disciplines. He claimed that there was no greater natural 
advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a 
friend underestimate your virtues. 
The caporegime, Clemenza, took, Sonny in hand and taught him how to shoot and to 
wield a garrot. Sonny had no taste for the Italian rope, he was too Americanized. He 
preferred the simple, direct, impersonal Anglo-Saxon gun, which saddened Clemenza. 
But Sonny became a constant and welcome companion to his father, driving his car, 
helping him in little details. For the next two years he seemed like the usual son entering 
his father’s business, not too bright, not too eager, content to hold down a soft job. 
Meanwhile his boyhood chum and semiadopted brother Tom Hagen was going to 
college. Fredo was still in high school; Michael, the youngest brother, was in grammar 
school, and baby sister Connie was a toddling girl of four. The family had long since 

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