Violence In The Iliad

The affinity relating The Godfather to The Iliad as far as violence is concerned resides in the former’s enclosure only to its own mafia world, and the latter’s sole concern about the Trojan War. In other words, Chris Messenger noted that determining the tensions in a text like The Godfather lays in its remaining epic material and its urge to expose in the novel form. The epic material in this case is Puzo’s notion of Cosa Nostra that Messenger defines as “Our thing, synonymous with Our World” (Ibid, 233); or rather gangsterism is the result of our background. For Messenger, Cosa Nostra in Puzo’s novel becomes an effective society for the Five Families, and it comprises all the family members within it, leaving outside its consideration all
what is external (Ibid). Accordingly, the voices we ascertain in this work stem from the gangster’s perspective, allowing no other reality, or criticism outside the violent universe of Cosa Nostra. Similarly, no other reality but that of the cruelty of the Trojan War is permitted in Homer’s violent atmosphere of The Iliad. Therefore, violence in both works is seen, or glorified according to its residence in the work as is crafted by the author. The violent reality that Puzo uncovers predominate his work. Almost every chapter reveals the cruelty of criminals on either their fellow offenders or on their opponents. It is, further, a work where bloodshed, savagery, and crimes of all kinds are celebrated for they are regarded from the gangsters’ perspective. To gain the stature of power in a Sicilian milieu, men must prove their proficiency in armed conflicts. Taking into consideration the case of Puzo’s main protagonists, Don Corleone’s victims are people who rely on government’s order and deny his own existence and turn as traitors: “His world was safer for those who had sworn loyalty to him; other men who believed in law and order were dying by the millions.”(The Godfather, 190) As for his son, Michael, a tense characterization of murder is made by Puzo in a scene during which an organized meeting at a restaurant is held. While a stressful conversation is going on between Sollozzo, Michael, and a corrupt police officer, Michael in a blink of an eye executes a double murder by shooting two bullets. One captures Sollozzo in the forehead and blood scatters all over the waiter’s jacket, as for the second bullet Puzo said:
It caught McCluskey in his throat and he started to choke as if he had swallowed too large a bite of the veal. Then the air seemed to fill with a fine mist of sprayed blood as he coughed it out of his shattered lungs. Very coolly, very deliberately, Michael fired the next shot through the top of his white-haired skull. (128) Puzo’s narration is filled with vivid violent depictions and despite the fact that his heroes commit subsequent crimes, they emerge victorious at the end of the story.
In simple terms, violence is glorified, especially, through the victory of the immoral over the moral, and the traditional Sicilian nature, or Cosa Nostra that is inherent in Puzo’s heroes over the modern American organized world. It demonstrates the Corleones unwillingness to adopt the new culture they find themselves faced with. This is mirrored in Puzo’s willingness to preserve the ancient practices of his heroes’ ancestors. Another important dimension lays as Gérard Genette’s argued in the reader’s response to the text or the catharsis it imparts in relation to the hypotext. The Godfather transmits to readers psychologically immoral feelings that have long been forgotten under the guise of humanity and logic (Fiedler; Messenger). Messenger relates Fiedler’s psychoanalyst view to the morality of The Godfather with its character’s violation of all forms of institutions, and its inability as a modern text to teach but instead to affect our conscious dreams, thus, he concluded that these narratives “draw on our atavistic reader’s affiliation.” (Ibid, 230) This ‘affiliation’ is the one we share while reading the Iliad which is a primitive text imparting in us human’s desire for murder and violence without any form of governmental restrictions; the pure nature of humanity driven by its animalistic
desires.