Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical Strategies

Metaphor

•  “You let women dictate your actions and they are not competent in this world, though certainly they will be saints in heaven while we men burn in hell.” (38)
•  “…her mother, who tried to stare Hagen down with cold arrogance that made him want to punch her in the face. The angel child and the dragon mother, Hagen thought, returning the mother’s cold stare.” (55)
• “You know those Arctic explorers who leave caches of food scattered on the route to the North Pole? Just in case they may need them someday? That’s my father’s favors. Someday he’ll be at each one of those peoples houses and they had better come across.” (43)
• “Specially baked by Nazorine, it was cleverly decorated with shells of cream so dizzyingly delicious that the bride greedily plucked them from the corpse of the cake before she whizzed away on her honeymoon with her groom.” (43)
• “Genco Abbando had run a long race with death, and now, vanquished, exhausted on the raised bed. He was wasted away to no more than a skeleton, and what had once been vigorous black hair had turned into obscene stringy wisps.” (46)
• (40) “I didn’t answer before the wedding because on an important day like that there should be no cloud, not even in the distance.”

Foreshadowing:

• “…nothing could be traced to the top. Unless the Consigliori turned traitor.” (50)

Paradox

• “From everything that Johnny said, Hagen knew he would never be able to persuade Woltz. But he also had no doubt whatsoever that the Don would keep his promise to Johnny.” (51)

Personification:

• “…ever since the cancer had imprisoned Genco Abbandando in his hospital bed.” (40)

Hyperbole

• “He’s a businessman,” the Don said blandly. “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” (39)

Simile

• “…wife and three daughters dressed in black, clustered like a flock of plump crows on the white tile floor of the hospital corridor. When they saw Don Corleone come out of the elevator, they seemed to flutter up off the white tiles in an instinctive surge toward him for protection.” (45)
• “I hear, Don Corleone, that you have as many judges in your pocket as a bootblack has pieces of silver.” (74); metaphoric for the Don’s power
• “You had to be careful with Paulie, the man was like a rat, he could smell danger.” (103)
• “He’d be as skittish as a donkey with ants up his ass.” (103)
• “You had to be careful with Paulie, the man was like a rat, he could smell danger.” And “He’d be as skittish as a donkey with ants up his ass.” (102); Puzo utilizes similes for characterization. His comparisons make characters more dynamic and give readers insight to their thoughts and feelings.

Irony:

• Corruption is equally rampant in public officials and mafia criminals, ie. Captain McCluskey is ugly and crass, a police official that doubles as a bodyguard for drug trafficker, Solozo

Euphemism:

• Repetition of the phrase “family business” in reference to the crime operations of the Corleone family implies that the characters aren’t comfortable with the truth of their actions; dismisses the sense of guilt by lying not only to police and government officials, but also to themselves
• “Sonny lit a cigar and took a shot of whiskey. Michael, bewildered, said. 'What the hell does that fish mean?' It was Tom Hagen the Irisher, the Consigliere, who answered him. 'The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping on the bottom of the ocean,’ he said. ‘It’s an old Sicilian message.’”; notion of “sleeping” signifies the death of Luca Brasi simply (almost lightly); symbolic also with the fish wrapped in his bulletproof vest

Puzo’s use of figurative language is woven throughout the novel, but one of its strongest points is in describing the six hundred thousand dollar racehorse, Khartonm. Puzo states that “the horse inside the stall was, even to Hagen’s inexperienced eyes, a beautiful animal. Khartonm’s skin was jet black except for a diamond-shaped white patch on his huge forehead. The great brown eyes glinted like golden apples, the black skin over the taut body was silk” (60).