Archetypes

    The Godfather follows Joseph Campbell's concept of the Hero's Journey. There are five stages of a Hero's Journey. So far, in the movie, only about two or three stages have been partially or completely developed. The first stage is departure, it is when the Hero is asked to do go on his journey but he does not want to. Marlon Brando who was casted as the godfather refused to accept because he did not want to glorify the mafia but he decided to go with it and be the Godfather. I do not think the godfather actually glorifies organized crime, he just does it for a living because he may not have any other skill.  In The Godfather, the godfather most likely did not want to do organized crime in the beginning but then he decided to because he wanted to live a life full of extravagance and after he started to do organized crime it probably became a part of him. He was probably to use to living the life of a leader of organized crime and could not help himself from withdrawing from that kind of a life.
      The second stage of a Hero's Journey is initiation, this is when the hero goes into a more dangerous world where he has to do more dangerous and important tasks. In The Godfather, this is when the wedding is over and is when Jack Woltz enters the scene and when the Godfather asks Tom Hagen to fly to Hollywood to ask Jack Woltz to let Jonny Fontane be in his movie. This is the climax of the story, before this the scenes are relatively calm and festive and not at all serious or dangerous. The Godfather is always calm, when Woltz's horse died, he did not show any emotion; he just stuck to what he was supposed to do.
       There are other archetypes that are shown in the movie. So far, the symbolic archetypes that have come up are light vs. darkness, inside vs. outside and festive and loud vs. inside, quiet and serious.Darkness, inside, quiet and serious all relate to the mafia (crime) life when the opposites of these symbolic archetypes listed above relate to normal life.All these symbolic archetypes are connected together to form the movie. In The Godfather, it is always darker inside than it is outside. When the characters are inside the mood is more serious, sad and dangerous than it is outside; where is it festive,  loud and full of happiness. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Bonasera's face is so serious when he is explaining what happened to his daughter to the Godfather and what he wants the Godfather to do to help him with his problems. As soon as the Godfather steps out of his office and attends his daughter's wedding; however, his mood changes to a happier and friendlier mood. Another place where this is happening is when Woltz's prized horse is killed. Woltz finds out that his horse is killed in the dark, when he is inside and the atmosphere is calm and quiet.
      These symbolic archetypes have been played with a lot in the parts of the movie that we have already watched in class and will most likely continue to do so throughout the movie.These archetypes may have something to do with the theme and central idea of the movie because there are many pieces of evidence that lead back to these archetypes.