The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
40
never done a dishonest thing in his life. But his drinking destroyed his family and finally 
killed him. Tom Hagen was left an orphan who wandered the streets and slept in 
hallways. His younger sister had been put in a foster home, but in the 1920’s the social 
agencies did not follow up cases of eleven-year-old boys who were so ungrateful as to 
run from their charity. Hagen, too, had an eye infection. Neighbors whispered that he 
had caught or inherited it from his mother and so therefore it could be caught from him. 
He was shunned. Sonny Corleone, a warmhearted and imperious eleven-year-old, had 
brought his friend home and demanded that he be taken in. Tom Hagen was given a hot 
dish of spaghetti with oily rich tomato sauce, the taste of which he had never forgotten, 
and then given a metal folding bed to sleep on. 
In the most natural way, without a word being spoken or the matter discussed in any 
fashion, Don Corleone had permitted the boy to stay in his household. Don Corleone 
himself took the boy to a special doctor and had his eye infection cured. He sent him to 
college and law school. In all this the Don acted not as a father but rather as a guardian. 
There was no show of affection but oddly enough the Don treated Hagen more 
courteously than his own sons, did not impose a parental will upon him. It was the boy’s 
decision to go to law school after college. He had heard Don Corleone say once, “A 
lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.” Meanwhile, 
much to the annoyance of their father, Sonny and Freddie insisted on going into the 
family business after graduation from high school. Only Michael had gone on to college, 
and he had enlisted in the Marines the day after Pearl Harbor. 
After he passed the bar exam, Hagen married to start his own family. The bride was a 
young Italian girl from New Jersey, rare at that time for being a college graduate. After 
the wedding, which was of course held in the home of Don Corleone, the Don offered to 
support Hagen in any undertaking he desired, to send him law clients, furnish his office, 
start him in real estate. 
Tom Hagen had bowed his head and said to the Don, “I would like to work for you.” 
The Don was surprised, yet pleased. “You know who I am?” he asked. 
Hagen nodded. He hadn’t really known the extent of the Don’s power, not then. He did 
not really know in the ten years that followed until he was made the acting Consigliere 
after Genco Abbandando became ill. But he nodded and met the Don’s eyes with his 
own. “I would work for you like your sons,” Hagen said, meaning with complete loyalty, 
with complete acceptance of the Don’s parental divinity. The Don, with that 

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